Succulent Beef Skewers

Archery season opens Saturday and I have been scouting the Crazies for two weekends. Drove up Saturday before dawn and was hiking by six-thirty into a drainage where I have killed three elk in seven years. The wind was right — south-southwest, steady, not too strong. I sat at the edge of a small park in the timber where the elk like to feed at first light and I watched the morning open and I did not see an elk but I saw fresh sign — tracks, droppings, a wallow that had been worked the day before — and that was enough. They are in there. The bull I think is in that drainage is a six-point that I have heard bugling on the east side three times in the last two weeks. Saturday is the opener. I will be there before sunrise.

The book got a profile in a Missoula magazine this week — three pages, a photographer came down last month and spent half a day on the ranch shooting pictures of me and Patrick and the kitchen. The photos came out beautifully. There is one of Patrick on the porch holding a coffee cup with both hands and the light catching his face and the lines in his hands and his eyes looking out at something far away. The photographer caught my father in a single frame the way I have not been able to in fifteen years of trying with my own camera. I had two prints made from the negatives — one for Mom, one for me. I gave Mom hers Wednesday at dinner. She looked at it for a long time and then she went into the bedroom and came back without it, no comment, no tears in her eyes that I could see, but she had moved it somewhere private. I understood. Some things you do not share immediately. Some things you carry into your private rooms first.

Tara called Wednesday with the ultrasound results. A girl. Patrick was right. Mom got on the phone after Tara told us and Patrick took the phone and he said, A girl. Just that. A girl. He laughed, low, in his chest. I had not heard that laugh in months. The grandbaby is going to be a girl. Tara and Cole have a name they are not telling anyone, but Tara said it is, and I quote, ridiculously old-fashioned, which is to say it is going to be perfect.

The hay in the barn is settled and dry. The corn in the garden is past. The frost has come every night since Tuesday. The cattle are starting to grow their winter coats. Everything is moving toward the season change. I am going to butcher one of the cull cows in October — a six-year-old who has lost a calf and was not bred back this year — and I am going to start clearing freezer space for elk and beef. Beef boxes are still on the back burner but every conversation I have with Cole moves them an inch closer to real. Cole has been thinking about it as a thing he could help with. He is good with logistics. He is good with online things. The thought is forming. We will see.

Cooked roasted chicken thighs Sunday with apples from the tree by the chicken coop. The tree is a small unremarkable Macintosh that produces twenty pounds of apples a year and the apples are not for eating fresh — too tart, too small — but they cook into the most beautiful applesauce and they crisp up beautifully alongside chicken thighs in a hot oven. Threw them in a cast iron with a halved onion and a sprig of sage and roasted at four-fifty for forty minutes. The chicken skin caramelized. The apple chunks softened and browned at the edges. Mom said, Why have we never done it like this before, and I said, I do not know, Mom, but I am going to do it like this every September from now on. Patrick had a thigh and asked for another. Two of anything is a metric.

Saturday night I went to bed at eight and was up at three to drive to the Crazies. I did not sleep great. I rarely sleep great before opening day. The mountains are still dark when I am hiking in but the sky is the kind of dark that promises light, and the light always comes, and the elk are in there or they are not, and the work is the work and the fire on the way home will be lit and the chili will be in the Dutch oven by the time we are done. The week was good. The light is changing. The girl is a girl. Patrick laughed. The week was good.

The week gave us a lot — the girl is a girl, Patrick laughed that low chest laugh, and the Crazies are holding elk. After Sunday’s chicken thighs cleaned out the cast iron, I had beef on my mind all week, thinking about the cull cow in October and Cole’s logistics brain and what it all might become. These skewers are what I go to when I want the satisfaction of a good sear without making a production of it — marinated overnight, threaded fast, done in fifteen minutes over high heat. The kind of meal that earns its place at the table the same way a good week does: quietly, without a lot of fuss.

Prep Time: 20 min + 2 hr marinating | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 35 min active | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs beef sirloin or top round, cut into 1 1/4-inch cubes
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 medium red onion, cut into 1-inch wedges
8 oz cremini mushrooms, whole or halved if large
8 metal or soaked wooden skewers

Instructions

Marinate the beef. Whisk together olive oil, soy sauce, Worcestershire, garlic, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper in a bowl or zip-lock bag. Add beef cubes and toss to coat. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight for best flavor.
Prep the vegetables. When ready to cook, cut bell pepper, onion, and mushrooms into roughly equal-sized pieces so they cook evenly alongside the beef.
Thread the skewers. Alternate beef cubes with bell pepper, onion, and mushroom pieces on each skewer, leaving a small gap between items so heat can circulate.
Heat the grill or grill pan. Preheat an outdoor grill or cast iron grill pan over medium-high heat. Brush grates lightly with oil.
Grill the skewers. Cook skewers 3 to 4 minutes per side, turning once or twice, until beef is charred at the edges and cooked to your preference — about 12 to 15 minutes total for medium. Do not crowd the grill.
Rest and serve. Transfer skewers to a plate and let rest 5 minutes before serving. Good alongside rice, roasted potatoes, or a simple green salad.

Nutrition (per serving)

Succulent Beef Skewers — When the Freezer Needs Clearing and the Season Is Turning