More adventures with steak

A New Years Resolution of mine is to be more adventurous with our dinner menu. I consider myself an okay cook. I think half of being a good cook is having a tested/approved recipe and fresh ingredients. Actually, I think that's all there really is to it.

I cooked my first steak a little while ago and decided it wasn't all that difficult. Plus, my awesome sister-in-law told me over Christmas break that red meat is one of the few foods that the human body can super-efficiently extract iron from, and I though I don't really seek out recipes that require red meat, I want more iron in my life.

I was flipping through our favorite cookbook of all time and came across Thai-Style Beef Salad. A compromise of all things Sarrison: a salad (something I like), steak (something Harry really likes), and Thai (something we both love).

Plus we tested our nifty new camera to document.







It was actually really perfect! Harry fried up some ramen noodles to go with his (he loves him some carbs) and while it was pretty good, I preferred my salad unadulterated.

If you're interested, here's the recipe:

Thai-Style Beef Salad

(serves 4 as an entree)

1 TB vegetable oil
1.25 pounds flank steak, trimmed of excess fat and patted dry with paper towels
Salt and ground black pepper
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup juice from two limes
4 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 medium cucumber peeled, seeded, and sliced thin
1/2 small red onion, sliced thin
1 TB packed torn fresh mint
1 TB packed torn fresh cilantro
1 head Bibb or Boston lettuce leaves washed, torn into pieces (couldn't find any so I used butter lettuce which I thought was pretty tasty)
1/2 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped (I JUST REALIZED I FORGOT THIS PART! DANGIT!)

1) Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until it's smoking. Season steak liberally with salt and pepper, lay it in the pan, and sautee, not moving it until well browned, 4-5 minutes. Turn the steak over with tongs and reduce heat to medium. Continue to cook until steak is browned on the second side, about 5 min. Transfer steak to a plate and let it rest for 10 min.

2) Whisk fish sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes together in a medium bowl until the sugar dissolves. Remove half of the dressing and set it aside in a larger bowl. Cut the steak across the grain on the diagonal into 1/8" slices, and halve those into roughly 3" lengths. Add steak to the smaller bowl of dressing, toss to coat, and let marinate for 5 min.

3) Remove steak from dressing and discard the marinade. Toss the steak, cucumber, onion, cilantro, and mint with the reserved dressing in the larger bowl. Arrange lettuce on a large serving platter or individual plates. Spoon steak and vegetables over the lettuce and drizzle the salad with any dressing left in the bowl, then sprinkle with peanuts. Serve immediately.