Some good sides for Ribeye Steak Night [Moved from General Topics board]

[lynng32]

I am so excited to have my picky father over for dinner because I still wow him with my meals. This Friday I will be tackling making Ribeye for the first time. Why ribeye? Because I've been told I can't screw it up too bad being a virgin cook to steak. I normally make latin influence dishes because I am puerto rican. Friday I would love to make some awesome sides with my lovely Ribeyes. Any suggestions? So far all I have come up with on my own is a nice Spinach salad with a good Balsalmic vinegarette sauce and some Garlic bread. I love to make rice but am not sure what a good rice to go with that is. I think the baked potato idea is a little over played. Sooo.... any great suggestions? What would you like?

[kingofchow]

Also, some cauliflower, just baked, smothered in bread crumbs. Problem is it gives people lots of gas... I know, its disgusting

[kingofchow]

I love some mashed potatoes, with carmelized onion (dont mash it in). Another one is the traditional fries, but an interesting twist to that is making them with sweet potatoes!!! They dont mush, so dont worry

[lynng32]

Thank you soooo much for the wonderful suggestions. Dinner was awesome!!! The Ribeyes were fantastic and I can't wait to have them again. :) I ended up making an asparagus medley with broccoli, califlower, yellow squash, some red peppers. Yummy!!! I also made a terrific fresh spinach salad with tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and red onions finished everything off with garlic bread and everyone was smiling.... Including my Dad! I tried to keep it simple and stress free. Dinner was ready in less than 30 minutes. Thanks a bunch for the inspiration! Now it's time for a nap!!! LOL :) Next time i will try making sweet potato fries because it's a great time of year for that!

[scuzzo]

Sounds like a great meal!

[lynng32]

Wow!!!!

Thank you so much for all the awesome ideas. I am a little more open to the potato than I thought. I have asparagus that I think I will try grilling. Sounds sooo good. Never thought to use eggplant either... that also sounds to die for!!!! So now all I have to do is think of what my father will like. My immediate family will appreciate all the great things we will have on the table. But you all pretty much have very simple ideas that should please even the pickiest of eaters and that is EXACTLY what I needed. Thank you guys a bunch and I will let you know what I decide to make. Of course, making it all would be the coolest!!! LOL

[Shayna Madel]

A good thing about baked potatoes or some sort of potato casserole is that you can do the prep in advance and clean away the mess. I love homemade garlic mashed potatoes, but I end up making them sort of last minute, so they are hot, or having to reheat in the microwave and sometimes turning them gluey. Do keep us posted on what you decide to make. Time to go home and make dinner!

[Val55]

Hi, Amy Finley, the winner of the NFNS, on her first show, the gourmet next door, made flank steak with red wine shallot sauce with cracked potatoes. The potatoes looked pretty good, a little different and very easy, the recipe is here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recip...

[chef chicklet]

A great green fresh crunchy salad full of tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, beets, peppers, and red onion, dressing can be as old school as blue cheese, or thousand. I love red wine vinegar, olive oil and crumbles of a Danish Blue. I also like Green Goddess - homemade, but save this for my old school surf and turf.
Spinach sautee with lemon garlic and salt and pepper and then hit with hot sauce
An artichoke with homemade aioli then omit the salad.
I would make a potaoes anna with a creamy fonduta like sauce. Sort of a scallop potatoes version. I made a really good fonduta the othe night and ended up using it for mac and cheese. It was terrific with a bread crumb topping. So either something like that or a cheesey, onioney garlicky potato dish, slicing the potatoes ultra thin/ OMG!
Another addition with rib eyes (my favorite cut!) is to make a blue cheese bread. Take french bread, and mixing cream cheese with a good blue. Bake on low, then run the broiler over the top, load the cheesey mixture up though!\
Sauteed leeks, or leeks braised in butter and white wine are also great with steak. Yes and do pull the steak early let them rest and then look at the center, for me I must have a true medium rare,maybe headed towards rare when its pulled then the residual heat makes it perfect for my tastes. I use sea salt and cracked pepper, press it into the steaks, and let them come to room temp before cooking. And if you can get at at least a couple of really good steak knives for your dinner, and serve a good beer.
This is truly a perfect dinner for your Dad, mine would just absolutely love this meal if he were alive today!

Yummy!

[lynng32]

I have got to try blue cheese bread. Can't wait to make it... :) Thanks a bunch. You had awesome ideas! I will have to come back and refer to some of them for my next Ribeye night! :)

[chef chicklet]

i forgot you need to add a little butter to the cream cheese and blue, it will broil and bubble up. I love to add a few little chunky blues to the top just before pulling it out. They used to serve this at a family style restaurant except they did not add the cream cheese. I wish I could take credit for it! Oh well...thank you anyway!

[Morganna]

Just speaking in general here. If you want to wow someone, and it is important to you that they be wowed, don't cook something for the first time. That being said, it is true that ribeyes are pretty forgiving as far as cooking goes. Just don't over cook them.

There's a reason why baked potatoes are done so much with steak, it's really good. A good baked potato is a lovely lovely thing. Is your FiL a sort of "meat and potatoes all american midwest fill me up with gravy" kinda guy? If so, don't get all fancy. Good fresh ingredients carefully prepared will go a very long way.

Not sure where you are or how fresh your produce is, so I'm just going to recommend a few things off the top of my head:

Fresh peas, steamed with some butter
Fresh peas creamed with pearl onions
Creamed fresh baby potatoes with pearl onions
Lovely fresh sliced tomatoes with buffalo mozarella slices on top, then sprinkled with olive oil and fresh ground black pepper, and a basil leaf
Home made mashed potatoes made with a couple different types of potatoes, cream, butter, and maybe some chives snipped into it
Mashed squash with lots of butter, cream, maybe some sweet spices (like nutmeg and cinnamon) and possibly a touch of brown sugar
A really fresh vegetable salad with veg you've bought locally and the day of the meal (I usually use cucumbers, bell peppers, and tomatoes) tossed with a light dressing
Asparagus grilled alongside the ribeyes and tossed with just a bit of butter, salt, and pepper

Let us know how it goes and what you decide to have! :)

[scuzzo]

Also I like grilled asparagus with olive oil, kosher salt and cracked pepper. Just a couple minutes on the grill.

[MMRuth]

And if you don't have a grill, you can roast them in the oven. I like to par boil them first. Sometimes I shave some parmesan on top, or squeeze some lemon juice and sprinkle some lemon zest on top.

Another quick recipe would be potato gratin of some sort.

[scuzzo]

You could try my new invention... Slice raw eggplant about 1/3 inch thick. Dip in beaten egg, roll in parmesean and then cook in your wafflebaker! Tender inside, crisp outside. I think they'd be great with steak!

[littlegreenpea]

You could try a twice-baked potato, if you're looking for smth with a twist.

Sweet potato fries

Dauphinoise potatoes are nice. I love these.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1096/potatoes-dauphinoise.jsp
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...
FYI, I haven't used these recipes.