Baked T-bone Steak with Pineapple Sauce - Royal Foodie Joust

A simple dish that gets a unique flavor with spices from different countries that blended so well together along with the pineapple sauce that is an incredible complement.

I use mirin, the Japanese cooking wine, to enhance the flavor of all kinds of meat and also tabil, a Tunisian spice mix to add some zest to the food.

I became a huge fan of Tunisian spices when a friend of mine who lives in Montreal and is married to a French-Tunisian, gave me some last year when we met for the first time here in Brazil.

A beautiful friendship that started with a comment on my blog. To make a long story short, we found out that our grandparents and also my father and her father were long-time friends, even though we had never met! Things that only internet can explain...

This month's joust at the Leftover Queen forum was an easy one for me with pork, citrus and pink or white peppercorns. The hard part was to choose the pictures for the post, as I ended up taking 149 photos of the same dish!

Baked T-Bone Steaks
6 T-Bone steaks
1 tablespoon salt (or to taste)
1/3 cup mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine)
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon tabil (Tunisian spice mix)
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons chopped scallion
Juice of 1 lime

2 potatoes, cut into wedges
5 shallots, cut in half
Dried rosemary leaves
Pink peppercorns

Directions:
1) Mix salt, mirin, evoo, tabil, garlic, scallion, oregano and lime together. Pour over steaks. Marinate overnight or at least one hour in refrigerator, turning occasionally.

2) Transfer the steaks and the marinade to a large baking dish. Add potatoes and shallots. Season the potatoes with rosemary leaves and pink peppercorns. Bake, uncovered at 400ºF/200ºC for 45 minutes/1hour or until cooked to your taste. Usually, when the potatoes are done too. Serve with rice and pineaple sauce.


Pineapple sauce - from the kitchen of my sister-in-law's mother
1 fresh pineapple, cored, cut into chunks
3/4 cup sugar
1 malagueta pepper, finely diced.

1) Put the pineapple and the sugar into a blender and puree until smooth.

2) Cook for 10 minutes, stirring often, until most of the liquid has evaporated and sauce is thick. Let cool and then add the malagueta pepper.

Cucumber Relish

This recipe reminds me of the cucumber relish served in a fast food chain that sells hamburgers all over the world.

Cucumber Relish
(Cortesy of Haidi)

2 pounds cucumber
1 cup onions
1 sweet green bell pepper
1 sweet green yellow pepper
1 sweet red bell pepper
2 tablespoons salt

1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1 teaspon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cloves

1. Grind cucumber, onions, and sweet peppers. In a large bowl add salt and cover with cold water and refrigerate overnight or for at least 3 hours.

2. Drain mixture well and press out all excess liquid.

3. Place the remaining ingredients in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Add vegetables; simmer for 5 minutes.

- If you are interested in packing relish into sterilized jars, you can find more information on home canning at Andrea's Recipes.

- The cucumber relish gives an added crunch to burgers and hot dogs.

- The relish can be mixed with mayonnaise to make tartar sauce.