My daughter turned 13 on Memorial Day.
On their birthdays, my wife and I let each of the kids choose their three meals for the day. My daughter, the most devout carnivore in our house, wanted steak and biscuits for breakfast.
Steak and biscuits has long been one of the favorite special-occasion breakfasts in our house. The way I prepare the dish started 40 years ago at our fish camp.
One would think that a fish camp would spawn longstanding recipes for grilled snapper and boiled shrimp, and it did. But the most lasting, oft-used fish camp recipe in our family repertoire is for steak and biscuits.
After spending a week eating fresh-caught seafood at a fish camp, steak night was always a welcome treat. After the meal, we would take all of the leftover steak, wrap it, refrigerate it, and heat it up the next morning with biscuits.
It’s a great breakfast served alongside scrambled eggs and a glass of orange juice. This is not the steak biscuit one orders at fast-food restaurant for breakfast. That is usually a breaded and deep-fried cutlet of cheap meat. This is real steak, usually a ribeye at our house.
My family loves a steak-and-biscuits breakfast so much that whenever we grill steaks for dinner, I always put an extra steak on the grill for breakfast the next day. My kids like steak and biscuits the next morning more than they like the steak dinner.
I take the extra steak off of the grill while medium rare and let it sit for a few minutes before putting it straight into the refrigerator. Once it has completely cooled (approximately two hours) I place it in a zip baggie overnight.
The next morning, the steak can be sliced into crosswise strips about 1/4-inch thick. Using a cold steak will allow you to separate the fat, which has coagulated. I place the strips of steak into an aluminum foil pouch, dot it with a few pats of butter, sprinkle steak seasoning over the top, close the pouch and place it in the oven while the biscuits cook.
The strange thing about this dish is the biscuits. In every other meal of my life, I always prefer homemade biscuits to the grocery store variety. But for some reason, this dish is better when made with those whop-on-the-counter-refrigerator biscuits. Maybe it’s just what I remember from my childhood. Nevertheless, either can be used.
When the biscuits are fully cooked, I slice them open, spread a tiny amount of butter on the biscuit, place a couple of strips of steak on the inside, and eat one of the best breakfasts around.
For the other two meals, my daughter opted to dine out— sushi for lunch, and steak, again, for dinner. On the way to lunch, my wife said, “This is your day, Sissy.”
My eight-year old son chimed in, “So what’s the difference between this and every other day?” I think the boy is onto something.
I am now officially the parent of a teenager. Keep me in your prayers.
