Stake ’em With Steak!
Hot summers sometimes bother me. Feelings of boredom mingled with laziness and the desire to eat something splendidly scrumptious yet seemingly simple overtake my clan. These feelings are so intense and so demanding that they are set to – Otomahuk my utopian disposition of calm composure. The result is the invariable march to the kitchen – apron on, freezer drawn and cooking begun! Don’t mind the tenses. There’s more at stake than grammar! There’s a hungry family!
Since I have possibly invoked in you as sense of ‘huh?,’ let me go to back to that ‘huh?’ word: Otomahuk. The Algonquian word otomahuk possibly, literally means “to knock down.” The weapon, ‘Tomahawk’ is apparently derived from that word! Originally made of chipped stone, the Tomahawks underwent considerable evolution, until the use of iron for their heads. The heads were sharpened only at one end, while the other one was blunt making these spine-chilling weapons, a symbol of ‘war and peace.’ The phrase, “to bury the hatchet’ seemingly has its origin from the events where a Tomahawk is buried to symbolize an end of hostilities! ( Info Source: Theodora.com)
Such was the interesting history behind the word Tomahawk. Although, my calm disposition has been chased away by boredom and hunger, and the weapon Tomahawk seems like a fitting interjection, the focus of this post, however, is the steak – Tomahawk. While I am no steak connoisseur, I deduce that the tomahawk steak, which is essentially a ‘rib eye’ cut, derived its name from it resembling a Tomahawk! (Or maybe the name comes from its ability ‘to knock down’ hunger and conquer ‘hanger?’)
And that Tomahawk steak is the subject of our star dinner this week! While Costco has been tempting us with its humongous Tomahawk offerings, we decided to give our go-to store for Bison meat – Northstar Bison’s Tomahawk a well deserved try!
Bison Tomahawk Steak
Owing to its inherent richness, I assumed the obvious – lesser the spice, greater the steak flavor. The idea was also to prevent the masking of flavor so as to taste the meat – in its medium-rareness!’
Steak with spices – waiting to be roasted!
Sometimes, it’s those small things that brighten me up. I said ‘sometimes’ and I hope that is noted. Handling and manipulating this ‘not-so-small’ steak with its bone-handle and thus, having one less utensil to wash was one of those ‘sometimes!’ Pieces of steak were hurriedly placed in a sizzling hot, ashamedly ancient cast iron pan. The pan later made its way to a 400F oven in order to to let the steaks render themselves juicy and delicious – a fitting finale to a ferocious cooking evening.
This meat, I later learned, is nicknamed ‘flintstones meat’ since you may have to selectively forget all the etiquette lessons you learned in elementary school and assume the ‘cave man’ posture of eating. I am proud to say that my clan has done the same – caveman grabbing, teeth-tearing and big eating even without any clue about the nickname! The irresistible, ‘melt-in-the-mouth’ flavor of the steak was given as the reason for the aggressive eating. I will henceforth direct the blame towards The Northstar people! Someone needs to apologize here! Manners matter!
Country grits, cooked with butter and heavy cream, garnished with a slob of butter, owing to the attitude of YOLO, and the customary salad, made better by a rich peanut butter dressing joined the steak plate. Dinner done. Feelings of boredom mingled with laziness were knocked down and the desire to eat something scrumptious was well catered.
Over two thousand years ago, the three wisemen followed the leading of a North Star to find the place where the Eternal King and Priest, who satiates our spiritual hunger was born. While we are no wise men and our hunger was just carnal, I cannot but think about the sliver of relation – that North Star led the way to find the answer to our Spiritual hunger, while this North Star Steak helped us to fulfill our corporeal hunger. Delicious dinner garners gratitude and shifts our focus to giving God the glory and that we ought to do. Always!
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31“