Steak with Kabob Taste

Kabob-flavoured steak served with grilled onions, quinoa and carrots

The barbecue grill gets busy this time of year. When my husband brought home a package of sirloin tip beef steaks, I remembered a marinade I wanted to try from the Canadian Living/Barbecue Collection cookbook. (Yes, the same source used for the delicious balsamic honey pork tenderloin.)

I hope you will try this marinade. The spice blend is wonderfully aromatic in a Moroccan, middle eastern way, and steaks and onions that marinate in it were oh so good. Canadian Living recommends serving this with grilled tomatoes, which would be wonderful. We had ours with the grilled onions, carrots cooked in foil packets, and quinoa, and that was wonderful, too.

MA's Kabob-flavoured Steaks

Steaks with marinade ingredients

4 beef steaks for grilling, about 8 oz each

2 onions, sliced about 1/2 inch thick

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

In a large dish, cover steaks with onion slices.

In another bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients. Pour marinade over onions and steaks, turning to coat. 

Steaks and onions on the grill

Marinate refrigerated for at least 4 hours or up to 1 day. (Ours marinated for 4 hours and the flavours developed quite well.)

Remove onions and steaks from marinade and bring to room temperature.

Grill steaks until desired doneness, turning once during grilling. Meanwhile, grill onions, turning once, until tender and lightly charred.

Printable Recipe for MA's Kabob-flavoured Steaks

Onion Soup from Darcy in the Kitchen

Darcy's Onion Soup

My husband did the shopping the day we made Darcy’s Manitoba Cheesesteak Sandwiches. If you know him, you’ll know that once in a while, he tends to overdo things and so it was we ended up with a lot of leftover deli roast beef, submarine buns and provolone cheese. Making some regular roast beef sandwiches would have been easy enough, but Darcy had an idea to serve the sandwiches with homemade onion soup. She made great use of the extra submarine buns turning them into giant croutons and used the leftover provolone.

It’s been a long time since onion soup has been made in my kitchen (and a long time since those onion soup bowls came off the top shelf). The aroma as the onions cooked was fantastic and Darcy’s combination of ingredients was right on the money. So good! Oh yes, and here’s a tip from Darcy to remember as you get ready to enjoy your first spoonful: The bowl and the soup are very HOT, and the cheese is rubbery so use the edge of your bowl to cut the cheese strings. 

Darcy’s Onion Soup

Preheat oven to 375º F.

The main ingredient

5 or 6 medium onions, halved and sliced thin

¼ cup butter

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

splash of water

1 tsp thyme

½ cup port

8 cups beef broth

4 submarine buns or 4 slices bread

½ lb provolone cheese, sliced thin

Making the croutons from submarine buns

In a large soup pot over low heat, melt butter. Add olive oil to melted butter. Add onions and a splash of water. Cover and let cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove cover from pot continue cooking for about 45 minutes. Stir with love at regular intervals to prevent onions from sticking.

Add thyme, port and beef broth to onion mixture. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer the soup for about 20 minutes.

Float the crouton on top of the soup

While the soup simmers, use a biscuit cutter to make large round croutons out of buns or breads. The rounds should be able to fit into the soup bowl. (Darcy used the largest Pampered Chef biscuit cutter.) Place the rounds onto a baking sheet and toast them in the oven. This happens quickly so keep an eye on them.

To assemble: 

Place the soup bowls on a baking sheet. 

Fill each bowl with soup, float a toasted round on top of the soup, and place a slice of cheese on top of the round.

Top with provolone

Broil until browned and bubbly

Set oven to broil. Place the tray of soup bowls under the broiler and cook until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

The bowls and the soup will be very hot, so allow a little cooling time before digging in.


Printable Recipe for Darcy's Onion Soup

Pasta with an Oniony Sauce from the Slow Cooker

Pasta with Caramelized Onion, Feta and Italian Sausage

I think I buy more onions than I do any other single vegetable. Every time I make dinner it seems I am chopping onions for something. I am sure I am part of the reason that onions are the second most important horticultural crop after tomatoes. But I don't worry about how much onion I consume. It's said to be effective against many bacteria and even the World Health Organization supports the use of onions for the treatment of poor appetite and to prevent atherosclerosis.

Last spring I cut a recipe out of the newspaper for a slow cooker caramelized onion pasta. It was stuck to the fridge, forgotten until a few days ago when I was looking for something to do with the two bags of yellow onions I bought on sale. I won't share that recipe with you because I didn't have a spare container of creme fraiche or arugula in the kitchen to make it with. But I liked the idea of the recipe, so I tried making it with what I had on hand: spaghetti, some sweet Italian turkey sausages, goat's milk feta, and a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil. I think you could safely substitute any pasta or sausage and try another type of meltable salty cheese and get a good result. You can drain some of the olive oil from the tomatoes if you like. I didn't drain all of it when I added my tomatoes and I rather liked the creaminess of the dish.

This turned out to be very tasty. In fact, my husband said it was one of the best things I've ever made and was still raving about it the day after I made it. He's such a fan. I love him.

Here's my recipe.

Use processor to make quick work of onions

MA's Pasta with Caramelized Onion, Feta and Italian Sausage

3 lbs yellow onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb (or 6) Italian sausages, cut into 1” chunks
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced
500 grams pasta
1 ½ cups feta cheese, drained, divided into 1 cup and ½ cup
fresh ground pepper

In a large slow cooker, place onions, olive oil, sausages and tomatoes. Cook on high for 5 ½ hours.

When onion mixture is cooked, prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain well.

Add pasta to onion mixture. Mix in 1 cup of the feta and season with pepper. 

Crumble remaining feta on top of each serving. 

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Printable Recipe for MA's Pasta with Caramelized Onions, Feta and Sausage