You made it, now use it: Steak with rosemary oil

You will almost never find flavored oils in Annalena's kitchen.  Why?  one might very well ask.  Well, the reason is very simple:  flavored oils are not shelf stable.  They can, and will , get toxic on you, unless they contain the ugly "p" word:  preservatives.  Yes, ragazzi, all those oils flavored with truffle, or garlic, or anything else, either has a preservative in it, or the flavoring is artificial.  It is that simple.  If you like them, fine, but if you are avoiding things that are artificial, as a matter of principle,  you need to know this.  If it is an oil that has a "thing" in it, like a garlic clove, or other herbs, etc, it DEFINITELY has a preservative in it.

Anytime you put something, as we Italians say  "sottolio," or "under oil," you MUST refrigerate it, period.  Anything living:  fruit, vegetables, herbs, etc, has bacteria or yeast on them.  These critters love fat, and  what's oil...?  (Annalena doesn't have to explain that, does she?).  Even if you don't see it, those buggies are making their , well, how do we put it, their "waste products" or "bug poopies"  all the time.  And some of them are really not nice.  Think of botulism, ragazzi.   That's bug poopy.

Incidentally, generally this is NOT true for vinegar.  The very acidic nature of vinegar actually arrests, and sometimes kills the buggies. While Annalena is not going to recommend this, there are reports in the medical literature of sterilizing wounds, with vinegar.  Annalena hopes that it was diluted.

So if you want to have a flavored oil, you will have to make it yourself.   And store it in your refrigerator.  So, unless you have an enormous amount of space, and are planning to use lots of flavored oil,  you will be making very small quantities of it.  And it's easy to do.  We're going to make rosemary oil today, and then we're going to use it to flavor a steak. And Annalena will tell you how she varied the recipe that she found for this.

Let's make our oil.  Start with 3/4 cup of a good, but not horribly good, extra virgin olive oil.  Annalena has two oils that she uses regularly:  her California oil, which she buys in gallon jugs, and her fancy Italian oil, that Patrizia sends her from Umbria.  For this, she used her California oil.   Put this oil in a small pot, and add a SCANT half a cup of chopped rosemary.  You can use the whole sprig - no need, in fact it is not recommended -  to take the needles off the branches.  The branches are going to help retard the heat when you make this, and that in turn prevents the needles from burning.

Turn the pot to low heat, and bring the stuff to 140 degrees.  If you have a thermometer, this is easy.  If you don't, stop after 2-3 minutes.  Smell the stuff.  Are you getting a hint of that piney rosemary scent you know?  If you are, you're there.  If you're not, go for another minute, but no longer.  Then take it off the heat, and let it cool.  When it's cool, unless you're using it right away, refrigerate it.


Now, let's make a steak.  And here's what you'll need.  A flank steak, a hanger steak, a London broil,  some slices of braciole steak - any beef that is very thin.  Annalena had a grass fed flank steak, about a pound or so.  If at all possible, salt this the morning of dinner, or even the night before, and let it sit in the fridge.

The original recipe called upon us to make yet another oil - a garlic oil - and to slice the steak into four smaller ones.  Annalena did not see the point of combining garlic oil, AND rosemary oil, on a steak.  If, however, you disagree, you can make the garlic oil by slicing up six cloves of garlic,  and putting them in 6 tablespoons of olive oil at low heat, until the garlic browns.  Then take it out.

We will not do that here.  Nor will we cut the meat into four pieces.  Rather, we will get our grill pan very hot, and spread some plain olive oil on it.  When it's very hot, put the steak on the grill pan, for two -four minutes per side.  IF the steak curls upwards, and it may, press it down with a heavy pan, or a can of tomatoes, or something like that.

This gives you a rare steak. If you want it a bit more cooked, put it in a 350 oven for ten minutes.  Whatever you do, let the steak rest for five minutes, and during that rest time, crack some black pepper all over it.  Then slice it across the grain, and just as you plate it, pour about a tablespoon of the rosemary oil over the meat.

The rosemary oil is definitely "there," and to Annalena, rosemary and black pepper are a wonderful match.

If you haven't put the oil away already, do so now.  And save it for the next time you want something where you think rosemary will work well.  Annalena is thinking that it may be just the thing for a mushroom risotto, for example.

SPRING IS HERE  and Annalena is doing her happy dance.  Asparagus, ramps, and nettles are all in the market.  When we come back, perhaps we will be making ramp focaccia together.  Check in and see, because you never know what Annalena is going to be up to next.