Spicy Asian Flank Steak

This spicy asian flank steak is SO good. I do not think I need to sell this recipe any more than that because I know that once you try it, you'll make it all the time. It is that good. The secret is cutting the finished product correctly: you can see from the photo that I've sliced the meat very thin. The reason is that flank steak is a tough cut of meat, so by slicing it thin and across the grain, you get to enjoy a meltingly tender bite of steak. Winner, winner, steak dinner.

Spicy Asian Flank Steak

2 pounds flank steak

1⁄4 cup hot chile sauce, Sriracha

1⁄4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger

2 cloves garlic, grated

Juice of 1 lime

1⁄4 cup freshly chopped cilantro

To make marinade: In a gallon side zip-top bag, add the chile sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and lime juice together. Seal the bag and squeeze bag to thoroughly mix the marinade. Add the meat to the bag, seal it shut, and evenly distribute the marinade over the meat. Then ensure that all air is out. Marinate meat about 30 minutes, turning bag over a few times to distribute marinade evenly. (If you want to make this the night before, don't add the lime juice until about 30 minutes before you're ready to grill it and make sure to keep the bag 'o meat in the fridge. Prior to grilling, have meat come to room temperature by removing from fridge for 30 minutes.)

When ready to grill, discard the marinade, and grill the steak on high heat to desired doneness. Steak should not exceed medium rare for optimum tenderness; many people prefer flank steak to be medium rare. Grill 4 to 5 minutes per side; remove meat and let sit at least 5 minutes before slicing; if more grilling is required, grill 1 to 2 more minutes per side. Remember to thinly slice it across the grain.

To enjoy this gorgeous flank steak, try the following: thinly sliced onion, avocado, diced tomatoes, cilantro, lime, and corn tortillas.

The Dinner Party

Mom's birthday dinner party, which was a month ago today (yikes), turned out great - lots of friends, food, and even more wine. Above is the menu that my enormously talented sister, Samantha, created. It has become a tradition that every time there is company for dinner at our house (read as: on holidays and Mom's birthday dinner), Samantha makes a menu that is displayed in a frame.

There were 9 guests for dinner, all women, who arrived at 6:30 that night. I began cooking at 10:00 a.m. and finished at 6:29 pm. Totally worth every moment; I spent most of my day trying to keep my mom out of the kitchen because she was the guest of honor, but when it came to making the pasta and then the agnolotti, my "go-go gadget arm" was broken. Her help was invaluable. Even more important was my Dad who was the best sous chef - prepped, cleaned; we all felt a little bad when he went into his office to watch the Brewers game and left us women to our devices.

So how about the food? Let's see. I was quite happy with the way the dishes came out, except for the agnolotti. Agnolotti is another word for ravioli - a filled pasta - referring the shape of the final product. I really made ravioli, but when Samantha put together the menu, I intended to make agnolotti, which are likened to a priest's hat. So, in an effort to make truly authentic ravioli, I rolled the pasta very thin, so thin you could see you hand through it. I even managed to keep it in one piece. Well, when I served the perfectly cooked pasta, all of the filling had come out in the water - my ravioli's popped! There were two blessings in this crappy situation: 1) I didn't realize it until the dish was platted and served; 2) There was a fresh pesto sauce on there, so it was still not bad; and 3) no one said anything. Man was I mad. I had invented the best friggin cheese filling. I used Mascarpone cheese as the base for its creamyness, freshly grated Parmesan and Ramano cheeses, then some grated garlic, salt, pepper - I know it was good because we made three tester ravioli that day.

Lettuce Wraps

Please don't be scared off by what I am about to tell you.

Monday night I was bored and I wanted to make something I had never done before. I spent at least half an hour going through my cupboards/fridge in a sorry attempt to create something new. I began to digress and wash the bags of lettuce from my most recent trip to the grocery store. As I rinsed the butter lettuce leaves I had an idea - Asian Lettuce Wraps. But I had just used my ground pork in another dish , what would I do? Ah ha! Use the leftover half brick of tofu!

Tofu Lettuce Wraps turned out delicious. I diced the tofu very finely with a minced onion, and chopped button mushrooms, all of which I sauteed in a little toasted sesame oil with Chinese five spice. Then I added a broccoli slaw mix (I also used it as the garnish in the photo) which is shredded broccoli stems & carrot - so I ran my knife through it until it was fine and added about 1 cup of that as well. Then I simmered the mixture in low sodium soy sauce, sriracha (a chili paste available in all grocery stores), rice vinegar, honey (yes Samantha - you can leave it out), and some water. At the very end, I made a slurry of water and cornstarch and added that to thicken the sauce without adding fat. Not bad for a) never doing this before, and b) for not having a recipe.

I also happened to have a bag of edamames (soybeans) in the freezer, so I made those as well. They are so easy; just boil them for 5 minutes and you are done. When you eat edamames, they have salt on them and you dip them in soy sauce and get the beans out of the pod. I skipped the salt after the were cooked, and mixed some sriracha in the low sodium soy - delish!

Let me know if anyone wants the vague recipe I have in my head, or if you have a recipe for lettuce wraps I could look at. I am not as familiar with Asian ingredients/spices yet, so it is harder for me to cook on the fly. I appreciate any help.