…That is the challenge that Brad and I made for ourselves. We’ve been on a little kick lately of getting a meat and a fresh veg once a week, without any preconceived ideas on what we want to do with it, and whipping it into something tasty through only a little forethought.
When I was in 4th grade, my dad was in one of his rare uncoupled phases. He was a cop with two kids who worked the night shift, so my older brother took care of both of us; he did the laundry, made sure I did my homework, and made dinner. And because it was simple to make, my dad often bought those packages of frozen hamburger patties for us to make for dinner. We started to get sick of hamburgers almost every night, until one of us spotted the big twirling spice rack on the counter and decided that it wasn’t just decoration. Since we were kids, the combinations of spices that we doused our patties with were peculiar …but invariably quite good, as long as we restricted ourselves to less than five spices. It really opened my eyes to the possibilities of spices.
In a way, that’s what Brad and I are doing. Except that we actually know what the spices taste like before throwing them together. And we didn’t actually use very many spices in this recipe. But it’s still the same sort of idea!
So this week, I went with a big ol’ sirloin steak from our local meat store plus, on a whim, purple potatoes. The woman who checked me out at the grocery store assured me that purple potatoes are just like regular potatoes, and she was right. What she didn’t tell me, though, is that they are a deep, deep purple all the way through and even the juice is purple! It’s a little freakish, after nearly 30 years of potatoes with pale innards, to be cutting up this little eggplant-purple alien.
(Doesn’t that just look like it might grow a little razor-lined mouth any minute and decide to eat YOU?!)
Brad suggested we make a sort of hash of the potatoes and fry them in a pan. Since I was craving cooked onions, we threw those in too. Then, because no fried potato hash is complete without bell peppers of some kind but Brad doesn’t like green peppers, we decided to include a red one. It wasn’t until we were on our way home with the onions and bell pepper that I even realized how colorful this meal would be.
Sirloin and Purple Potatoes
- 1/4 tspn of oil
- 3 purple potatoes, chopped
- half of a red bell pepper, chopped
- a little less than a quarter of a white onion, sliced thin
- salt
- pepper
- garlic
- 1/2 tspn of butter
- 1 sirloin steak
- salt
- pepper
- 1/4 tspn of oil
- 1 frying pan and 1 grill pan -or- 2 frying pans
We started the potatoes with salt and pepper in the oiled frying pan on medium high, since we knew they would take longer to cook. We were pleasantly surprised to find that, just like regular potatoes, they change color slightly as they cook; these ones seemed to get more blue-ish (though still purple) as they cooked. Once they had changed color completely on the outside – about 15 minutes or so with my 1/2 inch-sized chunks – we turned the heat down to medium and added the bell pepper and onion, then let it sit more, just stirring occasionally. You should keep in mind that smaller pieces of potato will cook faster!
Brad prepared the sirloin with a very simple sprinkle of salt and pepper on both sides. Then he laid in in the grill pan – you can use a frying pan if you don’t have one – and turned the heat to medium high. After it had browned well on one side, he flipped it over and let the other side cook. Since Brad was the one who determined when the meat was done, and neither of us was really sure how to know, I will now refer you to an article from someone who does.
Getting the timing of the two parts of the meal right so that they will both be ready to eat at the same time is tricky, and I can’t tell you what it is exactly because we didn’t get it right. It also depends on how much you want to cook your sirloin; Brad left ours a bit pink in the middle, but I wouldn’t have minded more of a sear on the outside and a little less pink on the inside.
Once it is done, it is ready to eat!
