The room filled with smoke, alarms began to sound, and panic set in amongst the other members of the household. As my mother and grandfather sat in the living room, they yelled to alert me that my cooking was visibly making its way through the doorway of the kitchen and making it difficult to see the television. I remained the diligent chef, fanning my way through the cloud of smoke toward my attempt at bacon-wrapped bliss — bacon wrapped filet mignon.
The day started well. I made my first trip to a Wal-Mart Supercenter — you know, the mega department plus grocery stores that are like Disneyland for hardcore consumers. In the beef section were two phrases that always make this baconographer smile: “bacon wrapped” and “on sale”. For only $4.18 I was about to bring home two circular cuts of filet mignon, each wrapped in thick sliced bacon. How could I resist?
I soon realized, however, that there were some limitations to my temporary cooking environment. You see, I was visiting my grandparents who have an electric oven (I’m used to gas) and a very sparse selection of pots & pans. The only oil in the house was canola (I ususally use EVOO – thanks Rachael Ray) but I decided to soldier on…
Into the pan they go. When they start cooking, everyone knows. The combination of the poorly oiled pan, the electric burner being turned up too high, and my general incompetence caused the aforementioned smokey mess. Once the meat looked slightly overdone on the outside, I cut into the steaks. Completely raw. Doh!
So, into the oven the filets were placed. Of course, I couldn’t find any appropriate baking dishes. Since the rest of the family was busy being overcome with smoke, I was on my own. I improvised. I reached for a bread pan and set the oven to “broil”.
About five minutes later and with some creative plate arrangement, we ended up with the sexy dish you see above. The general reaction of the family was “wow!” — everyone loved the taste of the meal and devoured every last bite. Crisis averted!
Served with some buttered carrots and sauteed peppers, onions, and mushrooms, this meal gets a hard-earned Smaste™ rating of 39.581. Once we got the smoke out of the house of course…
–Corey James
I’ve seen these at my market, but never thought to actually buy them. Now, I will. THANKS!
@MyLastBite — be sure to take some photos and let us know how the meal turns out!
Actually, you should have gone with the canola oil – if Rachael Ray tells you to fry your steak in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, she’s obviously incompetent. Olive oil is generally not suitable for high-temperature cooking because of its low smoking point which will make it taste bitter and burnt – instead, use canola, sunflower, corn or peanut oil, which all have a much higher smoking point. Or, if you want to be really serious about it, use clarified butter.
heard of meat glue? cause you just ate some.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXXrB3rz-xU