A Grilling Confession


 
John Sp

John Sp

TVWBB All-Star
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have been over thinking steak. This week I am travelling on business. Ordinarily when I travel I either eat crappy fast food or I hit the grocery and get a crappy rotisserie chicken and eat it in my room. Depressing right? So this time I decided I would break down the mini and bring the Smoky Joe with me to grill on (I drive on these trips so I didn't have to check it to fly or anything - I would have brought the mini but I don't have time to smoke anything when I am traveling for work). Anyway I decided to add some challenge to the cook by only buying the meat, mushrooms and vegetables at the store (I booted grilling the veggies and got a JGG Steamer Bag). Anyway, I was at the WM looking in the meat case and saw this beautiful 2" thick NY strip steak. It was decently marbled and it was calling my name so I grabbed it up with a box of whole mushrooms. My challenge to myself was to do everything else with stuff I could scavenge from the hotel.

Fast forward to tonight when I cooked my meal. Ordinarily I marinate my steaks (even good steaks like NY Strip) in a mixture of Worcestershire Sauce, Wine, Garlic, Soy, and Montreal Steak seasoning. This time I scavenged some butter packs and some S&P packets from the hotel breakfast bar along with some plastic utensils and disposable bowls and plates. I melted the butter in the hotel room nuker and spread some on each side of the cow and sprinkled liberally with S&P. I used the remaining butter on the 'shrooms and also seasoned with S&P. I let these rest while my fire got hot (I did bring some charcoal from home which I lit with the complimentary USA Today). Pics below:


'Shrooms and Steak Getting Happy with Melted Butter and S&P


'Shrooms on the Grill Indirect


Steak on Direct


Flip Side


Plated with Cheesy Broccoli​

This one one of the best steaks I have ever made. It was simple but elegant. The flavor of the meat was the star. I have been masking that before now. Lesson learned (well maybe). The steak was every bit as good as any I have ordered at a quality steak joint and it was made out of a hotel room on a Smoky Joe. Hence the confession. Thanks for looking...

Regards,

John

PS: No I did not eat that entire steak for dinner. I will eat more of it tomorrow and maybe get a steak salad for lunch the day after...
 
I admire your creativity. Impressive meal! And obviously better than anything you could get at a hotel! Unfortunately I always fly... so bring my 18 WSM is out of the question.
 
Cool idea.....my issue is I would have eaten the whole steak then tried to munch on the rest.............

that looked goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.

chris
 
Salt and pepper is all I ever use on beef. You might try adding these to your travel grill kit. You won't believe how much more flavorful both are compared to S&P packets.

mccormick_saltpeppergrinders.jpg
 
Great Stuff John!!
Imagine a television show called GRILLIN' CONFESSIONS, hosted by John "Spain"
with stuff this good, i'd watch it AND Cheer!
 
That's awesome!!

If I may suggest if you are going to do this often is; if you go to walmart, pick up a plastic container(they come in all sizes) keep your tongs plates napkins spatula spices and anything you can keep clean and dry inside. I keep this in the car for tailgating and parks in the summer.

Enjoy!!
 
Effing awesome! Just goes to show, you don't need a fancy grill, utensils, or free range meat. I'll bet there were a lot of hotel guests looking for the 'restaurant' when they smelled that cooking.
 
Simplicity is key (in my book anyway) when it comes to a nice steak. I go with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper (occasionally I'll add garlic, it's the Italian side of me coming out) and sear over lump coal. That aside, you might have made the best hotel room meal ever... Two thumbs up!
 
I could take a pointer from this! ....have a job 5.5 hours away next week..... might have to think about a meal or two grilled. A q series grill would be good (much better than a George Foreman grill anyway) for this too.
 
Very nice looking steak!
And while I haven't had good luck with Wally World steaks (they've all been tough) , if you have a good steak,simple seasoning is all you need. Just let the beef speak for itself!
 
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