SALT BLOCK-GRILLED FLANK STEAK
Flank steak has to be pretty much the best thing this side of getting a foot rub while drinking a root beer float. But it's tough. It's ornery. There is a common strategy to making flank steak supple enough to eat without popping your jaw out of joint: marinating. I've made coffee and ginger marinades, lime and tequila marinades, smoked salt and chile pepper marinades, vinegar and sugar marinades, you name it. Every time, great steak. But think of the poor steak: a wonderful, flavor-packed piece of meat subjugated to intense acids and sugars and salts. What if you're a purist, racked with guilt? The flank steak puts you in a quandary. How do we get the elemental flavor out of a meat that resists the teeth? As usual, the solution to every quandary is to think outside the box, or in this case, outside the pan. The two simple tricks to this dish (if you can call steak seared on a giant block of salt a dish) are cutting the meat thin, against the grain, and cooking it fast at a high temperature. Oh, and don't cook it on indifferent steel, but on a block of glowing, flavor-packing, tenderizing Himalayan pink salt.
Yield serves 4
Number Of Ingredients 2
Steps:
- Cut the flank steak lengthwise along the grain of the meat, creating two long strips. Then, turning the piece perpendicular to the blade of your knife, cut the strips across the fiber of the meat into 1/4-inch-thick strips, each about 2 to 3 inches long. Set aside.
- Heat the salt block on a stove, as described in Heating on page 269.
- To test whether the block is hot enough, place one piece of meat on the block. It should sizzle vigorously (or however it is that a piece of meat sizzles when it is really sizzling). Alternatively, use an infrared thermometer, or try to hold your hand 2 or 3 inches away from the block. If you can't, it's hot enough.
- Place about 12 pieces of steak on the block, or as many as the block will hold without the pieces touching. After 5 seconds (yes, just five seconds), flip and cook for another 5 seconds. Repeat with the remaining steak and serve immediately.
- Make sure the salt block is off the heat, and let it cool to room temperature before cleaning and storing it (see page 270).
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