The Broiler: A Love Hate Relationship

This morning I made a quick marinade of one of those picnic-sized bottles of red wine, some chopped basil and a dash of salt and herbs de Provence. I threw in a slab of top round steak and called it a day--a day in the refrigerator that is. The plan was to come home, spend all my time making applesauce while the grill did the work on the steak.

But once again the grill failed to do it's part in the plan. It didn't heat up and seemed to run out of gas. I feel like we just bought said gas, but I suppose that could totally have been at the beginning of the summer...Anyway, because I was already making the applesauce and the meat was soaked in wine, I decided it was imperative to make the meat at home. So I called on the poor-man's grill, the broiler.

The broiler pretty much annoys me. I don't like how you are supposed to use a special pan. I don't like how hot it is and how close your oven mitt-clad hand has to get to the heat. I find the special pan a bit awkward to handle. Plus the texture of the food that comes from the broiler to me isn't perfect. On the other hand, it cooks really really fast.

10 minutes after discovering the faults of the grill, the meat was cooked and sliced. The applesauce was still cooking away on the stove. I thought the beef was not as firm as it would be when cooked on the grill but it is possibly the cut of meat.

You win again broiler.

P.S. The marinade needed some kind of acid like lemon or maybe a little oil. If you are a wine connoisseur you would love this marinade because it tastes like wine (surprise!)