UnRecipe: Rolling With the Meaty Punches

A few years ago, I remember seeing a preview for a John Woo movie called Paycheck, where Ben AFLAC-Affleck is this super-geeeenius who can reverse engineer technology from other companies and he sells this information to the highest-bidding competitor for gobs of moolah. How many zeroes in gobs? A lot. There was also a lot of stuff blowing up, high-tech looking computer animation to visually represent the interworkings of  The Affleck's mind under the suspension of belief that he can do this all in his noggin' without pausing to count using his fingers, and a whole bunch of fast cuts to try and hide the fact that the movie probably wasn't very good, its adaptation from a Phillip K. Dick short story notwithstanding. Honestly, has Hollywood done anything right with Philly-D's work? But I digress. The movie was silly, yet the even sillier reverse engineering aspect came into play when Mr. Wasabi described a meal he had and I decided to try and recreate it from description alone. The result? Proscuitto-Wrapped Cheesy Steak Rolls.

Reverse engineer this, Ben! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Fine, so it's nowhere near as exciting as high-tech futuristic espionage directed with a Hong Kong-style action flair. Was it more satisfying than watching a half-baked sci-fi adaptation with The Affleck? Yes. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Good Will Hunting, Chasing Amy, or even a silly romp with a giant meteor hurtling towards the planet with Michael Bay-melodrama, but Ben-jammin trying to get all reverse engineer on me? Hell-to-the-no. But I put memories of bad movie previews to good work when Brock described a meal he had with friends that was, as he described it, "steak pinwheels," involving spinach, cheese and bacon-wrapping. I don't care if the bacon trend is "so yesterday," bring on a log of hog any day.

From his meal description, I used some thinly-sliced steak, laid a thin layer of cooked spinach over the top, rolled them up, wrapped with proscuitto, and baked before pulling them out when they were still rare. Letting them cool slightly, I cut the beef logs into thinner slabs, laid them flat with a sprinkling of cheese and placed them under the broiler to finish off. Placed artfully over some roasted asparagus, anything can look all artsy-like. But steak pinwheels, I have conquered thee. And found you to be delicious without the help of Ben Affleck's reverse engineering movie brain.