In My Mother's Kitchen: Flank Stank
It's Memorial Day weekend, which is the unofficial beginning of the grilling season in the United States. Grilling is often seen as a stereotypically masculine activity. Even in homes where women do much of the cooking, men are often the ones firing up the grill. That was not the case in my childhood home, where Mom did 100% of the cooking, including the small number of things that were grilled.
A gas grill was one of the very few single use devices that we possessed. It lived in the garage, and in the summer Mom would haul it outside into the back sidewalk near the porch. In the winter, she would fire it up in the garage, which was a large two story attached garage so there was plenty of room to light it up safely. In either case, the dish made on the grill was almost always a flank steak. In fact, a hurried consultation between my sister and I could not come up with anything else that Mom ever made consistently on the grill, other than occasionally a different cut of beef like a T-Bone. The grill was definitely under utilized, but the flank steak was fantastic so you can't say we didn't get our money's worth out of it.
I have no idea if Mom created this recipe herself or found it somewhere.
Flank Steak
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
1 clover garlic, mashed (or 1/4 tsp garlic powder)
healthy dash of hot sauce
1 flank steak
Mix marinade ingredients together and heat in microwave until honey is dissolved and mixture is well blended, 45 to 60 seconds.
Score steak in a diamond pattern.
Pour marinade over steak.
Let steak marinade all day. Turn several times throughout the day.
Broil steak until desired doneness, 4-5 minutes on each side.
Slice thinly.
Boil remaining marinade until reduce to half a cup.
From high school onward, flank steak was by far my favorite thing that Mom made. On my yearly trip home to North Dakota to go to the BWCA she always made sure to make a nice medium rare flank steak for me. We often ate it with pasta to soak up the marinade. Any leftovers were frequently made into delicious sandwiches with horseradish mustard and melted cheese. In fact, when I gave up red meat my Mom's initial reaction was something to the effect of "but I have a flank steak in the freezer for your next visit."
EDIT: Upon reading this, my father said that one reason the grill was purchased was to provide a backup stove in case the power was out, since we had an electric stove in the kitchen.
A gas grill was one of the very few single use devices that we possessed. It lived in the garage, and in the summer Mom would haul it outside into the back sidewalk near the porch. In the winter, she would fire it up in the garage, which was a large two story attached garage so there was plenty of room to light it up safely. In either case, the dish made on the grill was almost always a flank steak. In fact, a hurried consultation between my sister and I could not come up with anything else that Mom ever made consistently on the grill, other than occasionally a different cut of beef like a T-Bone. The grill was definitely under utilized, but the flank steak was fantastic so you can't say we didn't get our money's worth out of it.
I have no idea if Mom created this recipe herself or found it somewhere.
Flank Steak
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
1 clover garlic, mashed (or 1/4 tsp garlic powder)
healthy dash of hot sauce
1 flank steak
Mix marinade ingredients together and heat in microwave until honey is dissolved and mixture is well blended, 45 to 60 seconds.
Score steak in a diamond pattern.
Pour marinade over steak.
Let steak marinade all day. Turn several times throughout the day.
Broil steak until desired doneness, 4-5 minutes on each side.
Slice thinly.
Boil remaining marinade until reduce to half a cup.
From high school onward, flank steak was by far my favorite thing that Mom made. On my yearly trip home to North Dakota to go to the BWCA she always made sure to make a nice medium rare flank steak for me. We often ate it with pasta to soak up the marinade. Any leftovers were frequently made into delicious sandwiches with horseradish mustard and melted cheese. In fact, when I gave up red meat my Mom's initial reaction was something to the effect of "but I have a flank steak in the freezer for your next visit."
EDIT: Upon reading this, my father said that one reason the grill was purchased was to provide a backup stove in case the power was out, since we had an electric stove in the kitchen.