2nd Place in First Annual Food Blogger Challenge!!

Yep! I'm "in the money" as they say -- I won $250 and a nice trophy from sponsor Saucy Mamatm for my preparation of fabulous Kansas City Steak Co. Filet Mignons.    Thanks "Mom"!  Thanks KC Steak Co!!

We had 90 minutes to make the best steak we could.  Well over half of the bloggers weren't cooks/chefs, but they love food and write about it in many ways.  A few of us had done at least one competition cooking.    We were given lessons in grilling a steak, and some did do that; but most, I believe, used some combination of stove top and oven.

Filet Floribeño con Escabeche

That's what I called my recipe. 

I wanted to create something with a Florida/tropical flair that would celebrate Florida's beef heritage and Spanish/Cuban cooking influences. I decided to make a sort of Cuban-style Mojo marinade and surround my entry with Escabeche.

The Saucy Mama sauce that I wanted to use -- Lime Chipotle Marinade -- wasn't part of our selection. So I had to "adapt and improvise" as they say. 

 I was allowed to use their Poblano Ranch Dressing, so I snatched a bottle right away. 

Combining about half the bottle of dressing with the juice of two limes and half a tangerine, I had a good amount of spicy/citrus/garlicky marinade for the three filets we were given. That's one filet for the presentation plate, one to cut up for the judges tastings, and one "just in case".  I put all three steaks and the marinade in a quart size zip-top bag, and squeezed out all the air as I ran the zipper closed.  Elapsed time abut 5 minutes.  I planned to marinate the steaks for at least 45 minutes, which would still give me lots of time to finish things.

I wanted to dress those beautiful 6 oz filets with Escabeche -- a sort of Cuban style Pico de Gallo. So I sliced several multicolored 'mini bell peppers' into rings, diced up half a red onion, added a dozen or so pimento-stuffed green olives, half a tangerine peeled and sectioned, and chopped some cilantro. Putting all that in a bowl, I added a couple tablespoons of leftover marinade to dress the 'salad'.  Then I put the escabeche in the fridge to chill while I got ready to cook the steaks.

I used a technique called Reverse Sear. Lots of steak-aholics sear thick steaks first, and then finish them in a relatively hot oven, say 400F, to reach the desired doneness -- usually rare or medium rare. 

Instead, I cooked the steaks at a measly 275F for about 20-25 minutes on rack over a pan, until the internal temperature of the meat reached 95F. Then I removed the steaks from the oven and wiped the tops and bottoms dry -- you want a dry surface to get a good sear -- but I left the marinade on the sides to help the overall flavor. 

While I wiped the steaks, a large skillet was pre-heating to HI on the stove top, and when drops of water danced a second or so before evaporating, I seared each side of the steaks for 2-3 minutes until I got just the color I wanted. This brought the internal temperature up to about 135F, which is perfect for a 1-1/2" thick steak to be cooked medium-rare.

My presentation steak and my judges' steak were both the same 1-1/2" thick, but my #3 was only about an inch thick. That one turned out more medium than medium-rare, but there was still a nice layer of red-pink meat in the middle. It didn't go to waste, and made a pretty tasty 'first lunch' for me, and samples to my neighboring cooks.

Once the steaks were cooked, I plated the presentation piece and surrounded it about half way with the escabeche. 

 Mouth-watering, isn't it!

Whatever "garnish" we used was not eaten as part of the judging, but did have to be edible, and certainly counted as points towards the overall score. On each judges' portion plate I placed the elements of the escabeche. Here's my "turn-in"platter, just before I walked it up to the judges' table.  You can see I got perfect medium-rare color in the middle and beautiful graduation of color from seared brown to red.

Well it's Thursday night and we're off tomorrow mid-day to go to Gainesville and take in the UF Homecoming on Saturday. We're staying at "the river house" which belongs to friends-of-friends. The stilt house is on the banks of the Santa Fe River, just a couple hundred yards where the Itchetucknee River joins it on their way to the Gulf. We're planning a kayak float through Itchetucknee State Park on Sunday morning, and then Monday we're going up to Savannah for a couple days before returning home next Thursday. Hopefully I'll be able to post something for you from Savannah on Monday evening, but don't hold your breath!