Carefree Cooking

Another Steak Sandwich

I got some flank steak last week hoping to make some fajitas. I've never made fajitas before (although it's very similar to a wrap). I didn't get a chance to buy some tortilla so either I use that for something else, or rush to the supermarket to pick up a pack. As you might have guessed (from the title above), I went the lazy route and just made a sandwich out of it.

In the past, I would season the flank with some steak seasoning and cook it like I would cook a T bone. But this time, I wanted something different, so I started experimenting with different types of marinate. I pretty much grab whatever I had in my pantry. So for the marinate, I added some dark and light soy sauce, sweet cooking wine, sesame oil, brown sugar (just to see how it would taste like), salt, pepper, and some hot sauce. I marinated the meat for about a day just to make sure that the meat absorbs all the flavour from the marinating mixture.

I used a bit of oil to cook the steak. Since flank steaks are relatively thinner than your average T bone or Prime Rib, make sure you don't cook it too long. I wouldn't advice going for well done for this type of meat as it will not be edible. Just like any other steak, make sure you let the meat rest for a bit (around 5-10 minutes). Slicing the meat is very critical. You MUST slice the meat across the grain. From the surface of the meat, you should be able to see some lines going from end to end. Make sure you cut perpendicular to this, otherwise the meat will be very chewy.

Now we can contemplate accessories for the sandwich. We can use some green salad vegetables, but I already did that in a previous carefree cooking entry. So this time, I thought I'd use onions. Slice the onions into rings and use the same pan you used to cook the steak to cook the onions. This way, the onions get to absorb some of the leftover steak "goodness" from the pan. Just put a little bit of oil, then saute the onions until they are tender. The more you cook onions, the sweeter they get. I like to cook them really well to get all the sweet onion flavour. Normally you know onions are good to eat when they turn brown. But if you use the same pan you used to cook the steak, the onions will get a brownish color from the soy sauce so the color is not a good indication of done-ness in this case. I suggest just taste a piece to see if it's cooked to your desired standard.

To assemble the sandwich, you can use mayonaise or horseradish sauce. This is really a personal preference so I urge you to experiment. The good thing about this dish is that a piece of flank steak can make a lot of sandwich so one cooking can last a few meals. Isn't that carefree cooking.

posted by carefreecooking @ 11:10 PM