In planning for our upcoming move, Jamie and I have taken stock of all of our kitchen appliances and have donated those items that have one use and take up a lot of room in our cupboards. Some examples of items that we no longer own are our electric frying pan, toaster, electric Panini press, indoor grill and flat-topped griddle.

We have discovered that a lot of the pans that we have in our kitchen collection will perform the same tasks as the above mentioned appliances and take up a lot less space. We have a stove top grill pan that we can use to make Panini’s by weighting down another pan on-top. Any large frying pan will work as an electric frying pan. And I honestly can’t remember the last time either of us had a piece of toast.

That brings me to the indoor grill and flat-topped griddle. These two items can be used to cook many different dishes; however they take up a lot of room in our cupboards. For the few times that we have used these appliances, I didn’t think that they were ‘earning their keep’ to justify the amount of space they were taking up in our kitchen cabinets.

Instead, we have started to use a cast iron grill/griddle pan! 🙂  It is only about an inch thick, and you place it over two burners on your stove top. One side is a grill and the other is a flat-topped griddle! This thing weighs a ton, but it takes up very little space in our cupboards and it performs multiple functions in the kitchen.

I wanted to have the inaugural dish cooked on this amazing pan to be blog worthy. I found this recipe in the Make it Paleo cookbook that I have kept out, while all the other cookbooks are sleeping in boxes, packed away for our move next month.

Grill pan + Steak, well, it just makes sense 🙂

I have never thought to marinade steak with lime before, but the flavours are amazing. The lime breaks down any tough fibers that may be in your steak, so it ends up being tender and delicious. The addition of freshly squeezed lime juice over your steak, just before you take that first bite, gives you an amazing burst of flavour.

Of course, you can’t just serve steak for dinner, so I grilled up a mountain of vegetables to serve along side. Red and yellow bell peppers are made to be grilled, along with mushrooms and red onions. I have never grilled large slices of onion before, but I have to tell you, these slices of red onion were delightful. Grilling them brought out all their natural sugars. This is now one of our favourite sides.

To make a complete meal, I whipped up a batch of Cauliflower Rice to serve along side. Steak, ‘rice’ and grilled vegetables was the perfect meal to welcome our new multi-purpose grill pan into our family 🙂

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Adapted from:
Make it Paleo – Bill Staley & Hayley Mason

Ingredients:

Marinade

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 2 limes
• Zest of  2 limes
• 1 tsp salt, pepper, chili powder and medium curry powder
• 4 cloves garlic, minced

Grilled Steak and Vegetables

• 1 lb steak
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
• 1 red onion, sliced thick
• 2 cups mixed mushrooms, quartered
• 1 jalapeño pepper, sliced and seeded

Directions:

1. Rinse steak under cool water and pat dry.
2. Place steak in Ziplock bag and set aside.
3. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together olive oil, lime juice, lime zest, salt, pepper, chili powder, curry powder and garlic.
4. Pour marinade over steak, seal bag, and toss to evenly coat the entire steak.
5. Place in refrigerator and marinate for 24 hours.
6. Preheat cast iron indoor grill to 500°F, 10 minutes prior to cooking.
7. Remove steak from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature.
8. Grill steak 1-2 minutes per side.  Allow cooked steak to rest for 5 minutes after cooking, then cut into thin strips.
9. Toss cut vegetables in olive oil.  Add to hot grill pan.
10. Sauté vegetables for 5-7 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside.
11. Serve grilled steak and vegetables with a fresh wedge of lime and a side of Cauliflower Rice.