How to Grill a Steak on a Fire Pit

Greg: Oh yes, dogs and burgers, burgers and dogs. But when it comes to
outdoor dining, they are the great American fallback, aren’t they,
or a fall in as it were. Hold on. Hello?

Tim: Greg, you open that burning burgers again?

Greg: You can smell it over there, can't you?

Tim: Yeah, I can smell it Greg, so you just sit tight because we have
something a little bit different for you. Yes, we have something a
little bit different, something special for your backyard not the
same old same old and we have Jessica Prentice here to tell us
about something different, new, that you can do in your backyard.
Hi Jessica!

Jessica: Hi, how are you Tim?

Tim: Good and this sure looks different. What is this?

Jessica: Well, this is a fire pit and this is a great alternative to a grill in a
backyard. It will accomplish everything that a grill will but it has a
little more romanticism about it. You get to kind of sit around the
fire and have some friends over, have a little romantic meal and
create that old fashioned feeling.

Tim: Okay. And so we’re going to use the fire pit, a portable fire pit
right here. What’s your menu?

Jessica: Well, we wanted to do something a little different, so we’re going
to do a piece of meat, we’re going to do a twice cooked piece of
meat on top of your chateaubriand.

Tim: Chateaubriand.

Jessica: Yes, but to expand people’s possibilities a little, were going to
make a soup.

Tim: Soup on the fire pit outside?

Jessica: Soup on the fire pit outside.

Tim: I told you it was different.

Jessica: Yes. Well, what’s soup without bread?

Tim: Okay, that sounds good.

Jessica: Yeah.

Tim: Bread on the fire pit again.

Jessica: Yeah, we’re going to do flatbread right on top of the fire pit and a
nice cast iron pan.

Tim: And then a milkshake on the fire, no I'm kidding. It sounds like
you can do a lot with the fire pit.

Jessica: Very flexible.

Tim: It sounds like a great menu and it sounds to me like we need to go
shopping for some pumpkins.

Jessica: Oh, this look likes perfect pumpkins.

Tim: Now, we need the meat.

Jessica: Yeah, were going to get a chateaubriand.

Tim: Sound good, right there?

Jessica: Perfect that last one.

Tim: Very nice. Okay, shopping trip done, time to cook now and you
have a couple of things out here, the steak, the dry rub and the
bread. What do we got here for this dry rub?

Jessica: Well, you want really strong flavor, so we’ve got rosemary, we’ve
got cumin, we’ve got oregano, we’ve got red pepper and we’ve got
black pepper.

Tim: All right, and I should just put a little bit of each of this.

Male: Just rub and press the stuff on both sides of the steak. Put it in the
zip lock for a few hours and that’s it. In the meantime, Jessica
started her sourdough flatbread recipe. She’s got starter, flour and
water and then a bit of corn meal. After its mix that sits awhile too.

Tim: Okay, we have our sourdough bread rising. We have the meat
marinating and we need to get the fire going. So you have a pile of
stuff in here Jessica.

Jessica: Yeah, just to show that you can use all different kind of things in a
fire pit. You can use charcoal the same way you would in a grill.

Tim: Brochettes.

Jessica: Brochettes. You can use real wood which gives you a little bit
more of that old fashioned feeling.

Tim: Which you like that cave man thing.

Jessica: Which I like. Exactly, I got the cave man thing going or you can
use a hard wood charcoal such as mesquite which is what this is or
combination.

Tim: All right, let me light this thing.

Jessica: Okay.

Tim: All right, so now that the flame is going. What we do have to do
with the pumpkin?

Jessica: Well, we just have to cut it up. We’re going to sleek in a little olive
oil; we’re going to put it on the fire.

Tim: Okay, Halloween time, I guess you need this or that.

Jessica: I'm going to try with this one.

Tim: Okay, I'm going to stand back.

Jessica: Yes, stand back.

Male: The pumpkin is actually a cooking pumpkin. It’s called a sugar
pumpkin.

Tim: That seems particularly orange, I don’t know maybe one for
carving, it’s just as orange but this seems oranger, more orange.
This is oranger.

Jessica: Oranger? Is that a word?

Tim: I think it is. This is oranger, yeah.

Male: Just cut your orange pumpkin into big chunks. Rub with olive oil,
sprinkle with salt and put them directly over the heat. Flame is
okay because charring is good here. Portable fire pit is perfect for a
variety of heat but you don’t have to go portable. Fire pits come
built in too, a place for good cooking, good feeling and outdoor
fun.

Tim: So, it is sort of like being camping and having a campfire out there
and also being able to cook over.

Jessica: Exactly.

Tim: It’s wonderful.

Male: The pumpkin is taken anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour.
You want them to get nice and tender. Nice and charred is good
too. Meanwhile, we put a skillet on for the steak. It has to get hot,
so when you put that chateaubriand in you’ll get that sound that
says all systems go.

Tim: So, now that that’s on there. How long does that have to stay on?

Jessica: Well, we’re just going to sear it about five minutes on each side
and let it go for five minutes on the side and then we’ll flip it five
minutes on the other side. And then we’re going to pull it off, let it
rest a little bit and then we’re going to put it back straight onto the
grill.

Male: And by the way, letting the steak rest sets the juices and makes for
more flavor and our bread is ready to go on now too with the lid
on. It bakes right in the pan, very easy bread, a very versatile fire
pit, all three dishes going at once.

For the soup, we just scoop the pumpkin flash out and pop it in a
stock pot. A little butter some chopped leeks, some bouquet of
gurney, that’s just fresh herbs, and then our chicken stock. We
check on the bread and decided to flip it to give a little crust on
both sides. Then after the soup was done cooking, we pureed all
the ingredients and Jessica added a little bit of half and half and
that was that. Soups on, steaks done and bread is baked.

Tim: Okay, this was fast. Its way different, you know that because we
did bread on a fire pit. We did soup on a fire pit and of course we
did the meat. Jessica, great job.

Jessica: Thank you.

Tim: This is beautiful.

Jessica: Totally, its ambiance, its fun, its food, its fire, its fun.

Tim: We’ve got the fun, we’ve got everything.

Jessica: Yeah.

Tim: All right, here’s to the cave person in all of us. Yes, in your
backyard.