Strip Party!

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

Now that I have your attention. . . get your minds out of the gutter, dirty readers! Allow me to clarify, this article is all about having a Strip Steak Party. Yes, the sexy strip steak is worthy of throwing a party, simply for gracing us with its presence on this earth.

The strip steak is God's gift to time-challenged entertainers. Full of flavor, tender, quick to cook, and endlessly adaptable to your culinary whims, the strip steak has formed the centerpiece or starring accompaniment to many of my last-minute get-togethers. From the strip loin of the cow, the strip is a thin sheet of muscle that is relatively low in fat (unless your butcher is ripping you off by not cleaning it thoroughly) and bursting with the flavor you rarely find in the quicker cooking cuts of meat.

The strip is endlessly adaptable to a variety of cuisines. It takes well to marinades in a short period of time, or can be grilled or seared plain and served with a highly pungent sauce or vinaigrette. The only real danger in flavoring the strip is the tendency to over-marinate the meat, a pit-fall you will never encounter if you are cooking start to finish in 30 minutes.

I have prepared the strip steak for company in many a worldly way. A simple marinade with soy and hoison sauce reminds of South East Asia while a mash of cilantro, garlic and jalapeno can take a party on a turn toward the Latin Quarter. For a Brazilian twist, a simple grilled strip served with an intensely herbaceous chimichurri sauce is enough to bring Carnivale to your dining room table.

For all the thematic possibilities that can be built around a strip party, one of my favorite memories of a strip steak party had hardly a theme at all! The events of a late Sunday afternoon last July led eight virtual strangers to my living room for what amounted to an impromptu dinner party. As I often do in such situations, I took stock of what I had and what I needed. I knew that of the eight people present, seven were ravenous carnivores and one was a moral vegetarian. I knew I needed meat and meat-free with protein to satisfy all.

Both the vegetarian and the meat-eaters I satisfied with a side from my pantry: quinoa (a high protein grain) cooked with chickpeas in vegetable stock tossed with parsley. For my meat centerpiece, I put some strip steak on the grill with a cilantro, garlic and black pepper marinade and we had enough steak to feed the masses. Finally, a side of watermelon, mint and feta salad and the whole mélange was complete.

My guests were satisfied inexpensively and quickly in a collision of cultures and explosion of flavors. When I apologized to them for not having a more theme-based menu, one replied, "Oh there's a theme all right. The theme is: Deliciousness!"

Serves/Makes: 8

• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups quinoa
• 1 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup finely minced red onion
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
• salt and pepper, to taste

Serves/Makes: 8

• 1 bunch cilantro, stems and leaves, washed thoroughly, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 tablespoons whole peppercorns
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 pound strip steak
• kosher salt