Tag seasonal ingredients

Say Hello to Your New Favorite Spring Recipe: Seared Flank Steak

Are you ready for the juiciest flank steak you’ve ever had? I know those are big words, but I firmly believe you’ll love this recipe as much as we did. Created by Chef David Herman (catch him at your next hands-on cooking party, if you’re lucky!), this recipe made it’s first appearance at our Spring Recipe Testing. It was gone far too soon and left our team craving more. If you’re having doubts about the validity of these statements, take a look at this beauty:
Seared Flank Steak

You can’t tell me the tender slices of meat, the rich red wine jus, and tangy giardiniera don’t have your mouth watering. Fine. Try it for yourself, and be grateful that we’re sharing. I’m sure after the first bite you won’t be so willing.

The Aftermath

Seared Flank Steak with Red Wine Jus and Spring Vegetable Giardiniera
Similar recipes can be found in our Main Dish Library!

Ingredients
Giardiniera (makes about 2 1/2 cups):
1 cup water
1 cup white vinegar
2 Tablespoons kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 bunch fresh oregano sprigs
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, sliced
1/2 small red onion, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
1/2 cup fresh cauliflower florets, coarsely chopped
3 asparagus, cut into ¼ inch pieces
1/2 Lemon (for juicing)
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Steak:
4 pounds flank steak (You can substitute eggplant steaks for vegetarians)
1/2 Tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 Tablespoon dried oregano (crushed in your palm)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2 Tablespoons canola oil

Red Wine Jus:
1 cup red wine (preferably Italian)
6 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 cup demi-glace (You can sub a vegetable stock for a vegetarian sauce)
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (You can leave this out for a vegetarian sauce)
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Methods/Steps
Prepare Pickling Liquid: In a sauce pan, mix together the water, vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic, oregano sprigs, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Prepare Vegetables: Chop the peppers, onion, celery, carrot, cauliflower and asparagus. Place the vegetables into a bowl and cover with the hot pickling liquid. Stir and set aside for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Strain Vegetables: When ready to serve, strain the vegetables from the pickling liquid, remove oregano sprigs and return to the bowl. Season giardiniera with lemon juice and olive oil. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

Trim Steak: Trim the silver skin and excess fat from the flank steak. Do not discard any of the trimmings. It will be used to create the jus.

Prepare Dry Rub: Combine all spices in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over trimmed steaks.

Sear Steak: Heat a large sauté pan over high heat. Add the canola oil and sear the steak on both sides until golden brown in color. Transfer the browned steaks to a parchment lined sheet pan. (For rare meat, cook steak to 125ºF, for medium- rare to 135-140ºF.) Save the sauté pan and all of the juices (fond) stuck to the bottom of the pan to create jus.

Prepare Jus: In the same sauté pan used to sear steak, on medium heat, add the steak trimmings and sear until browned but not burned (for a vegetarian version, use a new pan, skip the beef trimming and start with reducing the wine). Deglaze the pan with red wine and scrape the bottom of the pan well. Add thyme sprigs and reduce liquid by half. Add the demi-glace and Worcestershire sauce, cook for 4-5 minutes, remove the thyme sprigs and with a slotted spoon remove any remaining beef trimmings. Reduce heat to low and add the butter, salt and pepper. Taste and re- season with more salt and pepper as needed.

Plate: Slice the flank steak into thin strips against the grain. Divide the steak among the plates. Drizzle the jus onto the steak and top the giardiniera.

Serves/Makes
Serves 10

Recipe created by Parties That Cook’s Chef David Herman

A Hands-On Cooking Party with No Guests: Spring Menu Recipe Testing

About a month ago, a select group of PTC staff met for a day of experimenting, trial and error, and delicious taste testing. Our team of chefs spent hours chopping, searing, and baking recipes from our upcoming Spring Menus. The atmosphere was fun, light-hearted and casual.  It was like our own hands-on cooking party, but every guest was a professional chef, and I was lucky enough to tag along. My excuse? Taking photos of the process and finished products. Some of my favorite shots are below. Keep an eye out for these recipes popping up in blogs throughout the Spring season!


As you can see, it was an absurdly good delicious day. Our chefs did a great job testing these recipes [ and our office team did a great job re-testing  at cookbook club ]. A cookbook club recap is coming your way soon!