Lean and boneless, flank steak is one of only two steaks cut from the underside of the animal, the other being skirt steak. It’s a thin, oblong cut cursed with tough meat fibers and blessed with great flavor. A thin steak, it responds well to marinades and to brief high-heat cooking—as long as it is not cooked past medium. (To be sure, take the steak off the heat when it is still medium-rare. Better yet, learn to like it medium-rare so you can take it off while still rare.) It is essential for chewability to cut a flank steak into thin slices across the grain.
The Best Ever way to prepare flank steak is to grill it as in Grilled Flank Steak with Eggplant and Red Pepper. But this versatile steak often appears in Mexican-inspired recipes, like Three-Pepper Fajitas, and Asian recipes, such as Thai Red Beef Curry.
Why are cooks and those they feed so enamored of Mediterranean fare? Because of the wonderful colors and flavors of vegetables such as eggplant and bell pepper and seasonings such as lemon, anchovy, olive oil, and garlic. Combine them all in this recipe, then pretend you are in Provence. Serve a cold soup to start, a Côtes du Rhône red such as La Vieille Ferme with the steak, and a berry dessert. A simple meal? Yes. A feast? Yes again.
1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 anchovy fillets, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 flank steak (1 to 1¼ pounds)
1 medium eggplant, ends trimmed
1 medium red bell pepper, cored and seeded
Olive oil, garlic flavored if available
1. Combine the lemon juice, anchovies, parsley, and garlic in a small dish and stir to mix. Stir in the virgin olive oil. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.
2. Score both sides of the flank steak in a crisscross pattern, cutting about ⅛ inch deep. Place the meat in a shallow dish that it just fits in. Rub the steak all over with 2 tablespoons of the sauce. Cover and marinate at room temperature for 1 to 1½ hours.
3. Prepare coals for grilling or heat a ridged grill pan.
4. Cut the eggplant crosswise into ¼-inch slices. Cut the red pepper into 1-inch slices. Brush the vegetables with oil and grill until softened on both sides, 5 to 7 minutes. Cut the eggplant slices in half or quarters and the pepper slices in half, if desired. Place the warm vegetables into a dish and toss with the remaining sauce. Set aside at room temperature.
5. Cook the steak until seared and nicely browned on one side, about 4 minutes. Turn and cook 4 minutes more for medium-rare. Remove to a cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes.
6. Carve the steak on the bias across the grain into thin slices. Serve with the eggplant and peppers.
Instead of a sauce, try your steak topped with shallots, the most flavorful member of the onion family. (Anything as difficult to peel as a shallot better taste good!) Serve with a hearty red wine such as Shiraz from Australia.
12 medium shallots
2½ tablespoons olive oil
1½ teaspoons mixed dried herbs, such as oregano, rosemary, and thyme
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ cup dry vermouth or dry white wine
Salt
1 flank steak (about 1½ pounds)
1. Peel the shallots (see box, page 147, Peeling Garlic and Shallots) and cut into thin slices. Heat 1½ tablespoons of the oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add the shallots, and cook until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the herbs, pepper, and vermouth. Cover the pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Uncover the pan, turn up the heat, and boil the liquid until reduced by half, about 7 minutes. Remove from the heat, season with salt and additional pepper; set aside.
2. Prepare coals for grilling or preheat the broiler.
3. Pat the steak dry, then lightly coat it with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Grill or broil the steak until seared and nicely browned on one side, about 4 minutes. Turn and cook 4 minutes more for rare or 5 minutes more for medium-rare. Transfer the steak to a carving board and let rest for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, reheat the shallots.
4. Carve the steak on the bias across the grain into very thin slices. Season lightly with salt, if desired, and divide among warm plates. Spoon the shallots and their liquid over the meat and serve at once.
SERVES 4 TO 6
Raise the red flag when you serve this steak—or lower the spice intensity by removing most or all of the seeds from the jalapeño peppers. The meat is very tasty served hot from the grill or broiler and just as tasty served cold the next day in a sandwich or in a main course salad. Although beer is the most frequently suggested companion to spicy steak, a red wine such as Merlot or Syrah will taste fine, too. Don’t pour a top-of-the-line wine, though. Its finesse and nuance will be lost.
1 flank steak (1 to 1½ pounds)
⅓ cup fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, preferably peanut
1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeño, with seeds to taste
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
Salt, to taste
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1. Pat the steak dry, and place in a shallow nonreactive pan or dish just large enough to hold it.
2. Combine the lime juice, oil, jalapeño, garlic, chili powder, coriander, ½ teaspoon salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Whisk the mixture together, then pour over the meat. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight, turning the meat once.
3. About 30 minutes before cooking, prepare coals for grilling or preheat the broiler.
4. Remove the meat from the marinade and pat dry. Grill or broil until seared and nicely browned on one side, about 4 minutes. Turn and cook 3 minutes more for rare or 4 more minutes for medium-rare. Transfer the steak to a cutting board. Let rest for 5 minutes.
5. Carve the steak on the bias across the grain into thin slices. Arrange onto warm plates or a platter. If desired, sprinkle the slices lightly with salt before serving.
SERVES 6
Preparing this recipe may require a visit to an Asian market to buy several key ingredients. While the dish will taste delicious when you cook it, long-term satisfaction will come from discovering the market and beginning to use it to expand your culinary repertoire. Serve this assertively spiced curry with rice and have plenty of beer on hand.
2 cans (13 ounces each) unsweetened coconut milk (see Note)
1 cup heavy (or whipping) cream
2 to 3 tablespoons red curry paste (krung gaeng ped daeng; see Note)
1 flank steak (1½ pounds), cut into 2 × ½-inch strips
2 fresh kaffir lime leaves, shredded, (see Note) or ½ teaspoon finely grated lime zest
1 tablespoon shredded fresh basil leaves or 1 teaspoon dried basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 fresh red chilies, seeded and sliced into strips
2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce (nam pla; see Note)
Salt, to taste
1. Simmer the coconut milk and cream in a wok or large skillet over low heat, stirring often, until the mixture thickens. Add the curry paste, increase the heat to medium and cook until the color and odor change noticeably, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the beef, lime leaves, basil, 1 tablespoon of the cilantro, chili strips, fish sauce, and salt. Bring the sauce to a boil, lower the heat to medium-low, and simmer, uncovered, until the meat is tender, about 10 minutes.
3. Pour the meat and sauce into a bowl, sprinkle with the remaining cilantro, and serve.
SERVES 6
Note: Canned coconut milk, red curry paste, and Thai fish sauce are available in Asian markets, specialty food shops, and some supermarkets; kaffir lime leaves are available in Asian markets.
Restaurant chains have populated their menus with pseudo-fajitas, made with chicken, shellfish, and even vegetables. The original was made with beef, and steak fajitas still are the best. Confronted with inclement weather, I’ve cooked the beef in my oven broiler. Good but not great. The flavor that comes from charcoal grilling is the secret that makes fajitas so irresistible.
1 flank steak (1¼ to 1½ pounds)
1 scallion, white and 2 inches of green, coarsely chopped
2 large jalapeño or serrano chilies, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Salt, to taste
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into ¼-inch strips
1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into ¼-inch strips
1 small onion, cut into thin strips
1 large avocado, pitted, peeled, and cut into thin slices
1 cup salsa, preferably homemade (see Note)
8 flour tortillas
1. Pat the steak dry and place it in a tight-fitting glass baking dish. Combine the scallion, jalapeños, cilantro, ¼ cup of the oil, the lime juice, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper in a blender. Purée until well blended. Pour the mixture over the steak. Marinate at room temperature for 1½ to 2 hours, turning the steak at least once.
2. Prepare coals for grilling.
3. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet or wok. When nearly smoking, add the bell peppers and onion. Stir-fry over high heat for 2 minutes, lower the heat to medium, and cook, covered, until the vegetables are soft, 3 to 4 minutes more.
4. Arrange the avocado slices and salsa in serving bowls and place them on a buffet or dining table.
5. Remove the steak from the marinade and pat it dry. Grill until seared and nicely browned on one side, about 4 minutes. Turn and cook 4 minutes more for medium-rare or 5 minutes more for medium. Transfer the steak to a cutting board. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Warm the tortillas on the grill.
6. Carve the meat across the grain into ¼-inch-thick slices. Cut these slices lengthwise in thirds, salt the meat, and arrange the pieces next to the vegetables on a platter. Wrap the tortillas in a napkin and place on a plate. Place the platter and plate on the table and invite each diner to fill a tortilla with meat, vegetables, avocado, and salsa.
SERVES 6 TO 8
Note: Try my Tomato-Corn Salsa (page 216) with or without the corn.
A NOTE ON TEMPERATURE
Taking a steak directly from the freezer to the grill or broiler is satisfactory so long as you like meat rare or medium-rare in the center. In one experiment, it took three times as long to cook a 1-inch-thick frozen steak to rare than a room temperature steak (25 versus 8 minutes). A refrigerator-temperature steak took 13 minutes. Measure internal temperature in the thickest part of the meat (it cooks last) and avoid meat next to the bone (it cooks faster) or fat (it cooks slower).
These sandwiches are a nice centerpiece—and conversation piece—at a casual lunch. Arrange them on a platter and offer a selection of chips in bowls. The sandwiches are spread with homemade bell pepper ketchup, mild, pleasant, and much less sweet than commercial tomato ketchup. There will be some ketchup left over. Use it as a condiment or turn it into a sauce for pasta by stirring in pasta cooking water, a tablespoon at a time, until it is thinned to the proper consistency.
1 flank steak (about 1¼ pounds)
2 red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, and seeded (see page 88)
½ cup minced scallions, white only
1 teaspoon paprika, hot or sweet, preferably Hungarian
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon white pepper
¼ teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or red wine vinegar
½ cup olive oil
⅓ cup chopped fresh dill
Salt, to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 slices of crusty white bread or 4 French or kaiser rolls
1. Pat the steak dry and set aside to come to room temperature. Preheat the broiler.
2. Cut the bell peppers into chunks and place them in a food processor or blender. Add the scallions, paprika, black pepper, white pepper, sugar, and lemon juice. Process until the mixture forms a smooth purée. With the machine running, add the olive oil in a thin stream. Pour the ketchup into a small bowl and stir in the dill. Add the salt. Adjust the flavor with additional pepper or sugar, if desired. (The ketchup may be made ahead. Cover tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.)
3. Coat the steak lightly with vegetable oil. Place it under the broiler and cook until seared and nicely browned on one side, about 4 minutes. Turn and cook 3 minutes more for medium-rare or 4 minutes more for medium. Let the steak cool on a cutting board. (The steak may be cooked ahead and refrigerated.)
4. Coat each slice of bread with 1 tablespoon of the ketchup, or coat the inside of each roll with 2 tablespoons. Carve the steak on the bias across the grain into thin slices. Lightly salt the meat, then stack it on the bread or in the rolls. Close the sandwiches or rolls, cut in half, and serve.
SERVES 4
Steak is back, in a big way. Sales have increased steadily through the 1990s and Americans have been choosing steak house restaurants for special meals in record numbers.
The diet police frown. They have lavished vast amounts of time and energy on pointing up the nutritional downside of consuming red meat. In so doing they have made steak a forbidden fruit. The vision of a thick, prime, crust-on-the-out-side, rosy-red-on-the-inside steak-house cut slathered with butter and garnished with garlands of fried onion rings dances in many heads, including mine.
But scientists are not distracted by the sizzles when cutting into a steak in the laboratory. They focus on protein and fat, vitamins and minerals, calories and cholesterol, and sodium too. What they find is an impressive amount of most of these. Well past the middle of this century the industry needed to do no more than boost red meat as the prime source of protein, which Americans translated into energy and vigor. In the current era, with athletes using “carbohydrate loading” for energy, protein is less honored than it was. So beef’s cheerleaders now let us know that in addition to protein, steak is a “significant source” of B vitamins, iron, zinc, niacin, and even phosphorus. Antagonists, meanwhile continue to target beef’s fat, cholesterol, and calorie content.
Genetic engineering and closer trimming have given us steak with less fat than a decade ago. But the public, tired of inconclusive and contradictory studies, seems to be sympathetic when the president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says, “The Catch 22 in all of this is that we can produce very lean meat but you wouldn’t want to eat it.” Americans are reassured, too, when an overwhelming majority of nutritionists testify that steak, eaten in moderation, is healthy.
There’s no question, though, that everything in moderation is a creed that’s difficult to follow in a steak house.
But what I reaffirmed in developing and testing the recipes for this book is that a steak dinner doesn’t have to be a larger-than-life feast to be enjoyable and satisfying. At home, it can be a family meal, part of a varied diet, with the meat served in portions that fit easily within the dietary guidelines.
While I offer menu and side-dish suggestions, for the most part I leave it to you to add the vegetables, carve down the portions, or cut away the dessert altogether. Use common sense and sculpt your steak dinner into something compatible with the diets of those who will eat it.