What's For Dinner: (Mostly) Grilled Marinated Steak

Oof -- this steak dinner was almost the steak-dinner-that-wasn't. Earlier in the day we had joked about having the pizza place on speed-dial in case the steak didn't turn out well; little did we know at the time that we almost considered resorting to that choice!

For our final meal together before my parents returned to Ohio, we decided to make a steak dinner. This decision was heavily swayed by watching an episode of Good Eats in which Alton Brown cooked the steak directly on the coals after blowing away the ash with a blow dryer. Too intriguing not to try, right?

So, after a morning spent in Fort Collins, we stopped off at Whole Foods on the way home and picked up some steak. Though Alton used a skirt steak cut, they didn't have this cut at the meat counter, so we opted to purchase a slightly thicker cut of steak. (Which I can't quite remember the name of, though the butcher assured us it was "better.") Note the extra thickness. That will turn out to be a key player later on in the story.

So, once we got home, I put D in charge of making the marinade. We let the meat marinate for several hours, and in the meantime enjoyed a nice hike at Vedauwoo. After our hike in the woods, we came home and the men set to cooking the steak on the grill. The charcoal chimney was set up, the charcoals got hot, and after using the blow dryer technique to remove the ashes from the coals, the steaks were placed directly on the coals. Now, Alton cooked his steak for about a minute on each side, and then removed it from the heat, wrapping it in aluminum foil for 15 minutes and letting it rest. The men followed this same method. Of course, this meant we neglected to remember that our meat was a bit thicker than what Alton had used -- and yes, after 15 minutes of rest, it was found to be, um, still ready to moo when cut into to check out the meat's doneness. So, back to the grill! Several more minutes on the coals, but to no avail. It just didn't seem to want to cook. One theory is that, in addition to not taking into account the meat's thickness, the coals may also never have gotten hot enough to fully cook the meat.

So, long story short, the meat was finished in the stove under the broiler. I think the lesson here is to make sure the coals are extremely hot when cooking directly on them, and also take into consideration how thick the meat is when determining cooking time. But, for all the drama, the steaks turned out really nicely. All's well that ends well, right?

"The Steak That Almost Wasn't" Marinade

1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup soy (or tamari) sauce

medium bunch green onions, rinsed and diced

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup lime juice (about 2 limes)

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1. Place all the ingredients in a blender. Place the lid on the blender and blend to combine.

2. Put the steak into a large glass bowl. Pour the marinade over the meat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

3. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

 (adapted from Good Eats)