Thursday, August 27, 2009

Marinated Flank Steak

I have about a pound of flank steak (Sunset $9.99/lb) marinating in this:

1/2 cup soy sauce (Kikkoman, always)
1/2 cup cooking sherry
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 heaping tablespoons minced ginger (Oh, $%^&, I used 3)
3 to 5 cloves minced garlic (3 huge ones)
1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (forgot this, added it halfway thru)

The recipe is from The Pioneer Woman. I also scored the steak with 1/4 inch deep cuts about an inch apart  across the grain of the meat as suggested by simply recipes.

Later today, I'll be cooking the steak. Not sure if I will be using the grill or the oven. She used a grill pan.

UPDATE:
By the time I cooked the steak, it had been marinating about 20-24 hours. I removed it from the bag and coated both sides with kosher salt and pepper (as suggested by simply recipes). I grilled it on a gas grill on high for 5 minutes per side. I let the meat rest for 10 minutes under a loose foil cover. The resulting steak cut easily and was tender, but perhaps a little too well done. Taste-wise I would say it was a little too salty which I'm pretty sure had to do with the salt coating. I will say that the marinade was good and I loved the taste of the ginger, garlic and soy, but the flavors of the sherry, honey and oil were lost, probably in the salt. Still, an easy dish which can be made ahead. Another web site (can't remember or find it) suggested bagging several of these and putting them in the freezer to save time the next time you want to cook it (the steak marinates as it defrosts). Finally, Mark Bittman has an interesting marinade using lime juice. He also suggests drying the steak well with paper towels before grilling. I seem to remember reading about this suggestion for grilling meat. It leads to better grill marks since the surface moisture does not have to boil off which steams the meat and cools the grill surface slightly. I think this was what the salt coating was supposed to do, but it added too much salt flavor.  

Next time:
Use toasted sesame oil
No salt coating.
Pat dry meat before grilling
Grilling time: about 4 minutes on a side.

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