For as many days as we are blessed with warm weather between the months of April and October (November if we're lucky), my usual body odor can best be described as eu'de mountain man which is an intoxicating aroma of campfire smoke with the subtle notes of cheap beer. This is because there are few places I would rather be than in my backyard lighting up some charcoal and tending to a steak while sipping a Bud Light or two while I survey a freshly mowed bakyard as nats dance in the glow of the setting sun. It's heaven. Far be it from me to wax poetic here. Let's get down to the business of cooking.
I actually arrived at the charcoal party quite late in my grilling career. I guess I was like many Americans who are probably scared to attempt cooking the way our forefathers had been for generations (What would I do with the coals when done? Should I use ligher fluid or not? What if I dropped out of Boy Scouts before I was a Webelo?) All these questions and more certainly kept me tied to that propane albatross year after year. But after suffering the embarrassment of my in-laws disapproval when having to run out to three different gas stations for a tank refill in the middle of a Mother's Day cookout, I knew there had to be a better way!
Cooking with charcoal is very simple and the flavor it imparts is just miles beyond what you get from your gas grill. But don't worry, I've cooked flank steak many times on my gas grill and this recipe will be just fine. So if you don't want to run out and by a Weber just because you read some dude's blog post, you can just skip the parts about lighting a grill below.
What You Will Need:
For the Pesto (this will yield about a cup of pesto)
About one pakced cup of fresh cilantro. (I just tore off about half of a bunch into the food processor)
One green onion
One garlic clove
One jalepeno pepper
Juice of one lime
Salt
Olive Oil
For the Steak:
1 Flank Steak -about 1.5-2 Pounds
1tsp cumin
1tsp chili powder
1tsp grill seasoning (any brand)
Olive Oil
The Goods
Rough chop onion before throwing in the food processor
Depending on how hot you want your pesto, you'll want to scrape out the seeds and veins from the jalepeno. The easiest way I've found to do this is splitting it in half and then using a grapefruit spoon (with the serrated edge) to scrape out the center. Rough chop these guys as well.
Put your cilantro, jalepeno, onion, and one garlic clove in your food processor, turn on low or pulse while slowly pouring in your olive oil until it gets to the consistency of a pesto or a chunky sauce.
Poor contents into bowl, add juice of one lime and salt to taste.
Let's talk a minute about hardwood charcoal vs. briquettes. What I've noticed: 1. Hardwood charcoal (looks like blackened pieces of plywood), will heat up quicker and will produce a hotter fire. However it will not last as long - better for faster cooking, not slow sustained heat. Which is great for a flank steak that you want to get a nice sear on and serve medium to medium-rare. You'll note by the "365 brand" that I find these at Whole Foods (you know, where the liberals shop). What's that in the backround you ask? Well that's my shed, thanks for asking we had it built . . .oh, you mean the chimney starter. We'll get to that.
Chimney starters are great. I never really had any luck getting a fire started the traditional way by building a pyramid of briquettes and hoping they'd ignite. What would usually happen is that I would have to add a lot of lighter fluid and I just could never get paste the taste that it adds to your food. People say you gotta let it cook out, but I don't have time and usually the fire starts dying down by the time it disipates, so I learned how to use the chimney starter and it's awesome.
Step 1. Take off the top grill rack (you'll notice I'm not concerned about discarding the leftover briquettes that didn't fall through from last time). Then tip over the chimney starter ontop of the bottom grill, and stuff the bottom with 3-4 pieces of crumpled up newspaper.
Step 2. Turn over the chimeny and fill with charcoal.
Step 3. Light the newspaper in a few spots around the chimney
Step 4. Walk Away. It will get smokey. In fact, close the doors and windows to your house so your furniture doesn't smell like the teenage hilltop hideout where you smoked "barkies" with your friends.
Let your steak sit out for about 30min-1hour before cooking. Taking the chill off will help the meat cook more evenly.
Drizzle the steak with olive oil and season it up.
By this time (about 20 minutes or so), your charcoal will start to ash over. All the smoke from the paper has subsided, and you'll see the charcoals on the bottom of the chimney getting red-hot. Once those top pieces are just starting to turn gray, grab the handle and carefulley tip the coals over into the grill. Spread them out being careful not to drop them into the bottom of the bowl.
Put your top rack back on and let heat up for a few minutes and then place your steak on and grill to desired doneness. You can tell by poking it, and how it bounces back if it's done or not. If it's still really "fleshy" and has a lot of give, it's probably medium rare. If it's really firm to the touch, it's closer to well done. You can but a bit off the end to test. With flank you have a piece on the end that's thinner which will more well done which is great if you're like me and have a wife that doesn't like her pieces as rare.
While the steak is resting on a cutting board (so the juices distribute evenly throughout the meat), get your tortillas ready. I take abotu 5 or 6 at a time and place them on a plate covered in a damp paper towel. Pop this in the microwave for 30 seconds and it will bring your store-bought tortillas back to life!
Folks I don't want to get political here, but I think this is as an important time as any to make a plea for equal marriage. I mean how can you look at the above photo and not understand why a man might want to marry a perfectly cooked steak? And understand that it's a very holy union indeed.
The finished product. Simple and delicious.
No comments:
Post a Comment