Southern Surf and Turf

I’m back!

Not only am I back in the kitchen, but I’m back on a new blogging site after the previous home of Bites By Brandi announced that it would dissolve.

Joe must have been feeling fancy for this challenge, because the ingredients he brought me this week were gourmet! In this photo, we have lobster tail, filet mignon, bacon, and panko crumbs.

First, I wrapped one piece of bacon around each steak and secured it with toothpicks. I patted a spice called Oregon Trail Juniper Berry Spice (thanks, Nancy!) onto each side of the steak and let it sit until it reached room temperature.

While the steaks were getting to room temperature, I began frying the bacon.

I cut the shell off of the underside of each lobster tail.

I mashed one minced clove of garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of paprika into 2 tablespoons of butter. This mixture was placed on top of the lobster tails which were wrapped in foil and baked at about 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

I already had yellow tomatoes in my refrigerator. Because of writing this post, I actually learned that yellow tomatoes are different nutritionally from red or green tomatoes, and not just in color. I sliced them,

Dipped them in coconut flour, then egg, then panko crumbs,

and fried them in bacon grease until golden brown.

I used another part of the bacon grease to get a nice sear on the steaks. Once seared, I placed them in the oven to “finish them” as Chef Ramsey would say on Hell’s Kitchen. Apparently, this is a popular steak cooking method for restaurants.

Finally, I used the crumbled, cooked bacon for the salad. This is my southern version of surf and turf. Nearly everything on the plate used bacon in some way. Bacon makes it southern, right? Even if it doesn’t make it southern, it did make it tasty.