Cooking on Orange Street: Pounded Sirloin with Roasted Potatoes and a Vegetable Medley

This is another one of those meals that's a good one to keep in your back pocket when you don't have a lot in the fridge, yet you don't want to go out and spend a ton of money on new supplies, either. For this dish, we got a pretty ordinary-looking package of sirloin at Gristede's (or "Greedy's," as we usually call it -- a place we try to avoid patronizing), which with a little effort became quite delicious.

To prepare the beef, Chef K first trimmed and cut the sirloin so there were four pieces total. Then he seasoned them and sandwiched the pieces, two at a time side by side, between pieces of saran wrap and pounded them thin with the bottom of a small pan. The pieces were cooked in the pan until just brown on the outside, leaving the inside a tender medium rare.

For the sides, we sauteed cherry tomatoes, asparagus and assorted other vegetables, and roasted potato wedges in a marinade of leftover salad vinaigrette, which believe it or not, gave them the yummiest mustardy-vinegary taste (yay for recycling!).