Flank Steak Olivia

One of the best parts of having this new blog is that so many of my college, high school, and long distance friends that I have lost touch with over the years have all started creeping back into my life to tell me how much they love it, what they want to read about, and to give suggestions. It has been SO much fun hearing from all of them and I can't wait to see who else comes out of the woodwork. If you have been following, you might have noticed that one of my sorority sisters at Tulane posted on the comments, about what she does for a tex-mex marinade. She is from San Antnio and lives in New Orleans now, so obviously she is NOT afraid of flavor and neither am I!

On Friday night, my mom got me and my sister 2 tickets each to go see Cats (memmmmmmmmmmmmmoriesssss) at Wolftrap, and I wanted to make a nice dinner for beforehand. Since I already had a lot of the ingredients that I had used for the fajitas, I thought I would try out Olivia's marinade. Since my sister seems to love cooking grilled chicken 5 nights of the week, I opted for a flank steak at Whole Foods so that I don't start clucking. I have always loved flank steak- it is a fairly economical way to serve steak to several people (one flank steak usually serves 4 or 5, even 6). I paid $26 for a two pound guy at Whole Foods because I have an aversion to the new safeway, and I read that God-forsaken book "Eating Animals" and am unfortunately now paranoid about eating grass fed beef blah blah blah etc. If you marinate it well it just takes on the delicious flavors so nicely and is really good. It is also not bad for you since it is such a lean piece of meat.

Around 4 pm I went up to Whole Foods and narrowly beat my sister back to the house (she gets home at 5 on the dot and I had very strict instructions to have gone to the grocery before she got home so I thought better not mess around). Fortunately my dadboss was out of town for a golf tournament so I had some flexibility on that Friday afternoon (Dad: if you are reading this, I stayed at work until 6 pm and then went in on Saturday too). My point is that we had to leave for Wolftrap at 7 exactly, so we had to eat at 6. If you wanted to go to the store and do this for a weeknight dinner after work, it is totally doable and you can be in bed by 9 watching your shows (most of my crime-solving ones start at 10 but I like to be all snuggled when they come on). If you are not in hermit mode, then you can have people over for dinner and still have time to go out afterwards. Whatever you like!

If you are just making this for one or two people, you can either have the butcher cut the flank steak into two pieces and freeze one for later (I love having stuff in the freezer as it often eliminates a trip to the grocery) OR you can slice the whole thing up and make a steak sandwich or steak salad to bring for lunch the next day. Your coworkers will be so jealous that you are not having to leave the office to go spend $14 on a mediocre salad.

Here we go to the grocery store:

Like I said, I just really don't like that Social Safeway very much. For staples that you cannot get at WF (like Fruit Loops), it is fine, but for produce and meat I think WF is smaller, laid out more effectively, and I know my way around so I can get in and get out faster which I needed to do on Friday. From fajita night, we already had nacho ingredients at the house (chips, cheese, sour cream, salsa), lettuce, cilantro, beans and corn, half an avocado from the mexican salad, garlic, and olive oil. My sister had some cumin in one of the 86 ziploc bags of spices that she brought down from Boston when she moved. Spices are really expensive to buy one at a time, but they last forever so just build up your spice arsenal as we go and you will be fine. I thought I would try one of the pre-made dressings that WF sells in the vegetable sections, so I grabbed a bottle of chipotle ranch. I also grabbed 4 limes for the marinade and 2 six packs of Corona lights to go with them. And a two pound flank steak. We were out of there for under $50, which I usually wouldn't spend on myself, but for 4 people, $12.50 per person is not bad including beers.

I got home right as CM was pulling in the driveway (phew) and shortly after that her bf arrived. Colleen, my friend that was coming with me, showed up right as the nachos were coming out of the oven so it was perfect. Greg cracked us some coronas and I got to marinating.


For Flank Steak Olivia:
-Lay steak out in a brownie pan, platter, ziploc bag or something that can hold it while it marinates.
-Chop about 1/2-1 cup of cilantro and sprinkle it on top of the steak.
-Chop coarsely 3-4 cloves of fresh garlic (don't fool around with the kind that comes already chopped in a jar, it's not as good)
-Cut 2 limes into quarters, squeeze lime juice on top of the steak
-Drizzle olive oil all over it (about 1/4 cup)
-Sprinkle rock salt or regular salt all over the entire thing
-Sprinkle cumin all over the entire thing
-Let sit for 30 minutes or if you prep it in advance it can sit for overnight in the fridge or as long as you want. During marination flip him over a couple of times to spice each side and use a spoon or fork to get each side coated in ingredients.
-Have whatever boy or person who is not scared of the grill throw it on a preheated grill for about 15-20 minutes. I don't know the exact timing on the grill, but flank steak is a very lean cut of meat so it takes longer to cook. Just keep checking it, you are going to slice it very thinly so don't worry about cutting into it to see if it's done. I like mine medium rare, CM would prefer to eat it practically black, but the nice thing about flank steak is that the outsides can we well done and the inside where it's thicker can be medium rare.
-If you don't have a grill, you can cook it in the oven at 350-400 degrees for about 30 mins, just keep checking it.
-After it is cooked, take a SHARP knife and slice it as thinly as you can, on the diagonal, so that you get tons of thin strips. Put it on a serving dish, drizzle the juice from it on top, put a little bunch of cilantro on the side or middle and voila!

While the steak is marinating:

Make a batch of nachos for everyone to nibble on. Like I said in the fajitas post, there is no one that doesn't love nachos (that I've ever heard of, and if they are they're probably a creep). Usually one of us at the house will just pull the nachos out of the oven, pour salsa and sour cream in a bowl and everyone eats them right there from where they are sitting on top of the stove. This is almost always inconvenient for me since that's where I need to be but we all figure it out! You can put them whereever you want though and serve them right off of the cookie sheet/tin foil/whatever- they go fast. AND, if anybody whines about them being "unhealthy," tell them that not only are nachos a great snack as they have a carbohydrate and a protein (fresh cheese), and at the end of the day 4 chips with cheese isn't going to kill anyone.

While everyone is enjoying some nachos and the steak is marinating:

Make the mexican salad from fajita night. If you don't want to re-read that post, it is chopped romaine lettuce, a 1/2 cup to 1 cup of chopped cilantro (some people hate cilantro, if you do you can just add less or skip altogether), 1/2 can each of rinsed black beans and rinsed corn, and half of an avocado (if you dont' want the avocado to get brown, sprinkle the cubes with lime juice before tossing in the salad bowl). When you are ready (as steak is coming off the grill) toss with the chipotle ranch dressing or whatever kind you would like. I have a problem with over-dressing by accident so just take it slow, you can always add more!

Let everyone serve themselves salad and steak. The flavors are all so tasty together. The salad has a little kick with the chipotle ranch, tastes fresh with the beans and corn and cilantro, and you can really taste all of the flavors on the steak. This was an awesome, fun, and easy meal to prepare and I will certainly do it again! Side note: the corona lights with the fresh lime wedges REALLY pull everything together so do NOT forget to have about 20 of those on hand.


Love and Happy Hostessing!!!