Steak frites with a twist

Tonight's Menu

• stovetop grilled boneless strip steaks
  
• oven sweet potato fries
• steamed broccoli
  

Purists might claim that this meal bears no resemblance to authentic steak frites whatsoever, given that I used fairly thick-cut strip steaks and did not actually fry my, er, fries. But I would say to those purists: I DON'T CARE. It was steak and fries, okay? I'm serving them to my family, not charging $25 a plate for them at some brasserie downtown. Close enough for government work, as they say (and I can say that, having worked for the government, however briefly).

Okay, moving right along! Two of the three steaks I made were done thusly: rubbed on both sides with EVOO, sprinkled with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, grilled a couple of minutes per side on the IKEA grill pan, then finished in the oven (on a cookie sheet at 425 degrees for just a few minutes).

The other one was made like this: a medium-sized garlic clove was forced through a press, then mashed up with a tablespoon or so of EVOO in the mortar and pestle and left to steep for about 20 minutes. Rub garlicky goodness on steak, proceed as above except skip the oven step. Because the person eating the third steak (guess who?) likes hers garlicky and RARE.

Sweet potato fries were made the same way as last time. These are SO GOOD.

Broccoli was steamed in the microwave.

Pretty easy dinner, except for peeling the sweet potatoes, a chore I hate with a white-hot passion. It does not help that my local sucky supermarket doesn't seem to carry any sweet potatoes under like 10 pounds each. Seriously, those mofos are the size of footballs! It only took ONE to make four servings of fries! Gah!