Stuffed Flank Steak

Flank steak is usually my first choice for fajitas or steak salads but sometimes I want to do something a little fancier with it. That’s when I go for this preparation. I tend to throw in whatever yummy stuff I have on hand for the stuffing but I never use bread crumbs. In my opinion, they don’t bring anything to the party in this particular case. Last night, I had a 1.5 lb. flank steak on hand and went scrounging in the fridge to see what might make it extra special.

My plan was to butterfly the flank steak and flatten it out like a book. You have to get a flank steak with pretty consistent thickness to make this work. Since I had purchased one that was rolled up in the packaging, I couldn’t see that my choice wasn’t ideal for this approach until I had it out on my board. This is where I should have considered just grabbing my mallet and pounding it out to an even 1/2-inch thickness. Instead, I doggedly stuck to Plan A and ended up with some holes that needed patching once I had finished butterflying it. A quick search of my deli drawer yielded the perfect solution: sliced ham!

(I would have used more but this was all the sammich meat I had.) Disaster averted, I mixed up the stuffing: 2 oz peppered goat cheese, 1/2 cup chopped sundried tomatoes, 1/3 cup chopped artichoke hearts, and 1 minced garlic clove.

Then I spread it over the flank steak, leaving about an inch boarder all around.

Then I rolled that sucker up tight like so…

Since my mangled steak needed a bit more support than usual, I was liberal in my use of butcher’s twine to tie it up:

I usually don’t throw in a tie lengthwise but it definitely helped keep all of the stuffing in place. I had some beeyootiful coals going in the Green Egg…

So I set my Egg up for indirect heat and put my flank steak on when the dome was about 500 degrees. I let it be for about 10 minutes and then flipped it.

After another 12 minutes, I removed it and let it rest for about five minutes, tented with foil. (FYI that mine was on the rare side so you might want to shoot for 30 minutes total.)

Then we sliced it up…

And plated it up with some summer veggies for a quick and delicious dinner.

Vampire Steak

No, this steak won’t suck your blood and make you immortal. The fine folks at Cooking Light call it that because it is quite heavy on the garlic. As my husband pointed out, it would then make more sense for it to be called Anti-Vampire Steak. I guess since everyone is so pro-vampire these days, they figured this name was a better sell.

I already have a few flank steak recipes and the variations are pretty much in what marinade or rub you use. After developing a few favorites, I’ve sort of stopped even reading flank steak recipes. There are so many and they all seem the same. So, why did this recipe catch my attention when I was flipping through my July issue? Well, first it was the name. (Marketing works, people.) And then I saw it had a boatload of garlic and smoked paprika — two of my favorite grab-ya-by-the-taste-buds ingredients.

I braved the 100-plus degree temperature here in Texas to try it out. My verdict: Good flavor and guaranteed to keep vampires away. Here’s the rundown…

Ingredients

4 tsps minced garlic

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsps Spanish smoked paprika

2 tsps chopped fresh tarragon (I used some lemon thyme because I had it and it was awesome)

1 1/2 lbs. flank steak, trimmed

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Combine first four ingredients.

Score a diamond pattern on both sides of steak; rub juice mixture evenly on both sides. Cover; refrigerate one hour.

Preheat grill to high heat. (I would recommend 500 degrees or a bit higher dome temp if using an Egg; set up for direct heat.) Remove steak from fridge and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.

Place steak on grill rack and grill up to 6 minutes per side, based on thickness and desired degree of doneness. (More like 3 minutes per side if you like red/pink center.)

Remove steak from grill; tent loosely with foil and rest for 5-10 minutes.

Cut steak across the grain into slices and serve it on up.

(No picture here ’cause we were too hungry.)

Simple + Easy + Yum. If you want to avoid the scorching heat outside, you could use a grill pan on your cook top for this one. I threw some other stuff on my Egg afterwards so as not to waste my coals. I REALLY like this rub so would recommend you give it a spin on any cut of beef.

Up next: some coleslaw that is so doggone good I can’t stop eating it.