Day 2 of Plated is: Steak and Zucchini Gyros with Pesto. After the Chinese Chicken Salad fiasco, Plated needed a win. Let's jump right in....
The Contents:
Ingredients: Garlic, fresh basil and oregano, grape tomatoes, zucchini, lemon, feta cheese, pesto, naan, round steak, red wine vinegar, and balsamic vinegar.
First of all, I have to admit there's something wonderfully satisfying about going to your fridge and pulling out one bag that contains almost all of your ingredients. I should've taken a picture, but everything except the meat, naan, and herbs came bundled in a bag.
Second, I think this was the first time I've ever seen fresh oregano... haha
Preparation:
As always, the first step was to rinse the meat and produce. The herbs needed chopped, tomatoes halved, zucchini cut, and lemon halved. The instructions read, "Quarter zucchini lengthwise," and I had to pause for a second to understand what that meant. So yeah, I'm a cooking newb for sure. If I can do this, ANYONE can...
The next step was to marinade the steak. I had some mixed feelings during this step. The recipe recommends letting it marinate for 10-15 minutes at room temperature. That seems so short to me. If I had had the time, I would've let this marinate overnight in the refrigerator. I wondered to myself if 10-15 minutes really does anything to the steak. I couldn't taste any difference.
Also, it was really sad to see all those freshly chopped herbs and garlic technically go to waste. Boo!
I realize I should've let the steak marinate in a large bag, but I was fresh out. I put it in a large bowl for the pictures and then transferred it to a smaller bowl. Since I didn't have the recommended plastic bag, I flipped the steak once and used a baster every so often to coat it with the juices. The marinade consisted of the herbs, garlic, lemon juice, oil, and vinegars.
Cooking:
Cook zucchini for six minutes. The recommended cook time was perfect.
Cook steak for 3 minutes a side. For me, this wasn't nearly enough time. It looks beautiful though!
Yum, right?
Take a look at my steak chunk and take a look at the steak in the recipe. In the picture, it's a much flatter piece of meat. They sent me a fist-shaped ball of meat. The recipe calls for "round steak". I think whoever packaged this meal took it quite literally...
So, since my cut of meat didn't look anything like the recipe, the cook times were off. I'm no expert, but my first cut looked completely rare.
I decided to go ahead and slice up my half of the steak and recook the slices. Steak connoisseurs can go ahead and cringe that I let out all those wonderful juices.
Much better!
The last step was to warm the naan in the steak pan.
Finally, I layered the naan with pesto, tomatoes, zucchini, steak, and feta.
The Verdict:
Husband: Yum!
Me: Yum! This was another hugely-portioned meal. It was so big that I had to use a knife and fork instead of rolling it up. I wish they had given us more pesto, but I can't really complain. It was delicious! The recipe is already saved in my cookbook and I can't wait to make this again. I'm not the type of person who goes out of my way to incorporate vegetables into my diet (even though I should, I know...). I felt so good eating tomatoes and zucchini -- and enjoying it! Chicken is my go-to protein, because I don't really know how to cook anything else. Steak is delicious, but there's so many cuts and we don't own a grill. It was nice to get a little more experience with steak, following a recipe with step-by-step pictures.
I have two recipes left, a quinoa salad and a cheesecake dessert. Stay tuned!
