Simplicity

Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the thought of making dinner.  I know it sounds silly, but today was one of those days.  I haven’t been sleeping well lately, and I finally took a day off of work to try to rest, even though actual deep sleep eludes me.  I sat around, planning dinner in my head, but every recipe required planning and chopping and cleaning and prepping….well, you get the idea.  I finally managed to wander to the basement to stare into the depths of my chest freezer, hoping a good idea would pop up and smack me in the face.  Not quite, but the top chunk of meat was a flank steak, so I picked it up and brought it upstairs to defrost.

I was already roaming on the internet, so I searched for a flank steak recipe.  Most involved grilling and marinades.  I was not about to operate the grill; even though it’s been unseasonably warm, I feared injuring myself in the 40-mile-per-hour wind gusts.  All the marinades involved food-processing ingredients I didn’t have; and even if I had them, my food processor is toast, so I’d have to do them in the blender or something.  Sigh.

So I picked up my son from school and went to the library.  I don’t know why, but I suddenly started craving baked potatoes.  Well, that’s easy enough, I told myself.  I’ll just broil the flank steak and have baked potatoes and some random green vegetable from the freezer.  When I got home, I opened the fridge, took out the steak, and a container of leftover shallot vinaigrette caught my eye.  Perfect!  I smeared it over the steak, added some fancy garlic salt, and let it marinate while I baked the potatoes.

Flank steak is a fairly muscular cut of meat.  If cooked right, it can be tender and full of flavor, and there are a couple of secrets to getting it that way.  First, marinades, especially with tenderizing ingredients like salt and vinegar, add flavor and make the meat more malleable.  Second, these cuts must be eaten rare or medium rare.  Cooked more and they become almost inedible.  I had a one-inch-thick piece, and I broiled on high five minutes each side.  Third, they must rest at least 5-10 minutes after coming out of the heat before slicing.  I’m sure there’s some sort of chemistry and/or physics here at work,  but I don’t know exactly why it works.  But it works.  Finally, be sure to cut perpendicular to the grain.  This is easy with a long cut of meat.

While this was going on, I steamed some green beans to go with it. Nothing fancy; I just decided to enjoy the simple flavors of good beef, green beans and a baked potato (with salt and a dab of sour cream).  And that was exactly what my tired brain and body needed.