Mother's Day Dinner

Today I planned a special meal to celebrate my special day. I decided on rib eye steaks with roasted potatoes.

But first things first. I needed a special barbecue sauce.

I've been wanting to make a pomegranate barbecue sauce for a while now, but have been unable to find a suitable recipe. But no matter. I'll just wing it as usual.

The ingredients are:

Hot sauce

Sweet chili sauce

Honey

Catsup

Pomegranate juice

Onion

Garlic

I later decided that more layers of flavor were needed for the barbecue sauce and pulled out some soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and fresh lemon juice.

The first order of business was to reduce the pomegranate juice to a thick syrup. I also grated the garlic clove and some onion into the juice at this point.



After perhaps 20 to 30 minutes, the juice had reduced to 1/4 the original volume.

I turned off the heat and began adding in the other ingredients, tasting as I mixed to assess the flavors. With a sauce like this, it is important to sample and to adjust to taste.

I was finally satisfied with the sauce and set it aside to cool.

And now for the rest of the meal. I placed the steaks on a rack in a baking dish and liberally seasoned with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. The steaks went back into the fridge for a couple of hours to allow the meat to dry just a bit before cooking.

An hour before cooking, I pulled the meat out of the fridge so that the steaks could come to room temperature before being placed on the grill. This step is important to assure even cooking.

Meanwhile I cleaned and cut some red skinned potatoes. The potatoes were put into a microwave-safe dish and covered with water and seasoned with salt. I cooked the potatoes in the microwave for about 5 minutes.

Then the potatoes were drained and placed in a disposable pan before being drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with kosher salt and black pepper.

The grill was pre-heated and the potatoes were placed on the middle shelf on the grill.

Chopped red onion and bacon lardons were added halfway through the cooking process. Next time I will add the bacon at the beginning, as the bacon cooks more slowly on the grill than it does in the oven.

I also added a couple of small sprigs of fresh rosemary to the potatoes.

Once the bacon had begun to cook, the steaks were placed on the grill. When the meat released easily from the grate, the steaks were turned 40 degrees to create nice hash marks on the meat.

Then the meat was flipped and sprigs of fresh rosemary were placed on top to add a bit of flavor. I also switched the pieces of meat on the grill as my grill has hot spots and cool spots.

The steaks came off the grill and were covered with a piece of aluminum foil and a towel so they could rest before carving. I aim for a doneness of medium-rare, but allow a bit of the meat to reach medium as that is what my husband prefers.

Finally the bacon was cooked through and the potatoes were ready.

The plating.

The steak was moist and succulent. The pomegranate barbecue sauce added just the right piquant flavor to the tender steak.

The potatoes were crisp, the onions tender and the bacon smoky.

Happy Mother's Day to all my maternally-inclined readers!