There’s a restaurant in Rochester called Good Luck. When I first heard of this place I thought it was the name of a cut-rate Chinese restaurant nestled next to some Dollar General in a dead mall.  It’s not.  The food here is amazing and the bar is arguably one of the liveliest and inviting in the city.  I love this place.

The dish that really got me excited was a hangar steak special served alongside a pile of garlicky greens and beans.  I get that this may seem underwhelming and that any neighborhood diner could make a respectable version…but this was a revelation.  It really shouldn’t have been.  Sauteed spinach and garlic is obviously a classic companion to a well-grilled steak.  Substituting escarole and adding  some meaty canellini beans makes perfect and delicious sense.

So now I can’t make a steak at home without making a side of greens and beans to serve as well.  The picture above is the beginning of the meal I made for my family this Sunday.  I used an inexpensive sirloin steak that I slice before serving.  I like to salt it pretty well and leave on the counter for 30-40 mins before grilling it.   The meat will cook more evenly at room temperature and the salt will draw out some moisture from the steak which will allow a better crust to form during cooking.  The fact that some bacon is frying shouldn’t come as surprise either.  I like to saute the greens and garlic in the bacon fat and then add the crispy bacon at the end for some crunch.

Here’s how I do it:

Fry a half pound of  chopped bacon until crispy.  Set the bacon aside and drain off (and save for Christ’s sake) half off the fat. Press three cloves garlic into the pan and stir it around for a minute until you can smell the garlic…don’t overdo this part or the whole thing will be bitter.   Drop two heads (I don’t know, maybe 6-8 cups) of chopped, rinsed escarole into the pan and cook until wilted.  Stir in a can and a half of rinsed canellini beans (or you can soak some dried beans overnight if you’re a do-gooder) and mix it up.  Add a couple of shakes of crushed red pepper, salt/pepper/ and as much Parmigiano-Reggiano as you can afford.  Stir in the bacon and sever next to your sliced, rare sirloin.