Garlic Flank Steak

Difficulty:  Easy

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Cost per serving: $3.00 to $4.00

Useful leftovers: Yes

Flank steak is a great cut of meat! It has hardly any fat but a lot of flavor and a wonderful texture. It's not fork tender like a tenderloin but has a nicely chewy, beefy texture. It is one of my father's favorite meals. He liked the well done bits on the thin ends.
You can easily alter the recipe but be careful to use a meat that can stand up to strong flavors. The delicate qualities of a veal chop would be lost in this recipe. It would work with salmon but not halibut for the same reason.
Flank steak
A head of garlic
Olive oil
Fresh rosemary
Paprika
Red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

Trim the steaks if needed. If there are bits of fat you can usually pull them off with your fingers.

Take the head of garlic and slice off the root end (the non-pointy end). Crush the head with your hand to separate the cloves. Take each clove and smash it and take the skin off. Most cooks do this by laying the flat blade of a chef's knife on the clove then hitting it with your fist, but you can use a meat pounder, small frying pan or if are like me - just your hand.

Put all the peeled garlic in a pile and chop like mad. Don't worry if the pieces aren't all the same size.

Put the garlic on the meat, sprinkle with paprika and rosemary. If you are going to let it marinate then cover it and marinate and add the red wine vinegar and seasonings right before you cook it. If you are going to use it right away add all the ingredients and smoosh it all over the meat.

In any case let the steak come to room temperature before you cook it.

Prepare a charcoal grill and when it is quite hot add a chunk of almond or oak wood if you have it to the side of the coals and replace the grill and cook the steak. You want high heat to cook it quickly and to burn off all the garlic. You can also use a heavy bottomed pan and grill it right on top of the stove or use a broiler.

If your grill is hot the steak will be done in about 7 minutes, more for a thick steak and less for a thin one.

Remove it from the grill and let it rest at least 5 minutes in a warm place before you cut into it. It's ok to let it cool a bit and it's fantastic even at room temperature.

Since this steak has some strong flavors it is best to serve with something that contrasts.  I like to serve it with my Super Sauce with some chopped cucunbers added.

You can make this recipe much easier by buying (the horror!) chopped garlic, cooking it in an indoor broiler or leaving out the almond wood.

Thunder Chicken

Difficulty: Medium

Prep time: 5 minutes for one or two servings

Cooking time: 15 - 25 minutes, then 5 minutes to rest

Cost per serving: $0.50 to $2.00 depending on what chicken pieces you use

Useful leftovers: Yes. This is great cold

 
I created this dish for a fancy dinner I was catering many years ago at a nice house in Los Altos. There was a large komado grill and I asked a friend to get a charcoal fire going in there. He dropped a whole 20 pound bag of charcoal and lit it. That grill was so hot it took all the hair off both my arms and I was using long tongs!

The chicken came out great. And it's so cost effective. That's business talk for 'it makes a cheapskate smile.'

This recipe is for range cooking but it works as well on an outdoor grill.

I have an aversion to burnt garlic and can tell if there is a molecule of it in a red sauce. I hate it on fish. To me garlic should be barely translucent, not brown.

However for this dish the garlic gets really cooked. Browned. Destroyed. Yum!

Chicken
Garlic, for each piece of chicken figure 2 whole cloves of garlic
Toasted sesame oil, figure a teaspoon per piece of chicken and one more tablespoon for cooking
Salt
Pepper

Cut your chicken into serving size pieces. You can leave the skin on or take it off. Put the chicken in a bowl.

Chop the garlic. You don't have to make all the pieces the same size, just chop away. Dump it in the bowl with the chicken.

Sprinkle on some sesame oil.

You can marinate the chicken overnight to get a deeper sesame flavor in the chicken but it works well if you cook it right away too.


If you cook it on the stove put a small amount of sesame oil in a cold, heavy bottomed pan and add the chicken. Turn the heat on and bring it up to medium. You want the garlic to brown but not burn. It is going to cook for a long time so it's critical you get the pan the right temperature. If it is sizzling hard it is too hot. If it is not sizzling then it is too cool.


You can cook the chicken completely in the pan or you can brown it in the pan then put the pan in a hot oven (400°) until it is done. You'll get crisper skin if you cook it all on the stove top but you will get more tender chicken if you finish it in the stove. You can also finish it in the stove then crisp the skin in the pan.

When the chicken is completely cooked let it rest for 5 minutes before eating. The best way to know if it's done is to touch the chicken. Chicken that is still raw in the middle feels squishy and when it is overdone it feels hard. This is the only tricky part of this recipe; getting the chicken cooked properly and the skin crispy. It takes a little experience.

You can garnish the chicken with sesame seeds or chopped raw tomato and basil or cilantro. This dish goes well with mashed, roasted or baked potatoes, a cooling green salad and some sauteed veggies.

Lamb Flank Steaks

Difficulty: Medium

Prep time: A minute. Plus a couple of minutes to heat the pan

Cooking time: A minute or less on each side

Cost per serving: $3.00 to $5.00

How to use leftovers: Sliced thin on crackers with mustard and lemon juice, or added to salads, perfect for sandwiches. Best eaten cold as a leftover as these are thin and can dry out.

A pretty nice lunch featuring Lamb Flank Steaks

I love these! Inexpensive (for lamb), easy easy easy to cook and very tasty.

You have to use a hot, heavy-bottomed pan for these. They need to brown fast without overcooking the thin interior.

Lamb flank steaks - figure 2 per person. They are about 2 oz. each, or you can serve one as an elegant appetizer
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Salt the lamb. Put a teaspoon of oil in the pan for each steak. When it starts to smoke add the flank steaks. Don't crowd the pan or they will boil in their own moisture rather than brown. You want them to brown in less than a minute.

When they are browned turn them over and brown the other side. They will brown more if you wipe them around the bottom of the pan to scrape up the brown bits.  As soon as they are browned take them out of the pan and keep them warm on a plate for a minute.  Grind pepper over them.