There have been lots of posts about chicken and ground turkey breast, so I figured it was time to give a well-exercised part of the cow some TLC.  I was playing around with my spices and found a perfect combination of a smoky-citrus rub to add flavor with a citrus juice medley to tenderize the meat.  I served it on top of a fresh arugula salad with a lemon-olive oil drizzle and finished the plate with blue cheese/plum crostini’s.  Enjoy!

Chili-Citrus Flank Steak

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon dried orange peel

1 teaspoon dried aleppo pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 (1 1/2 pound) flank steak, trimmed

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon fresh, minced garlic

Instructions:

Preheat grill to medium-high heat.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl.  Sprinkle and rub lemon juice on both sides of flank steak.  Rub minced garlic on both sides of steak.  Finally, run steak with spice mixture and let rest for approximately 30 minutes.

Place steak on grill rack coated with cooking spray.  Grill 5-7 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness.  Let rest 5-10 minutes.  Cut steak diagonally across grain into thin slices.

Fresh Arugula Salad with Lemon-Olive Oil Drizzle

Following the lead from my grandmother when she would make a salad dressing, I didn’t really measure anything out for this. I placed about 2-3 cups of fresh arugula in a bowl and tossed with lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil to taste.  I used just a touch of fresh ground pepper and fresh ground coarse sea salt and tossed with shaved pecorino romano cheese to finish.

Blue Cheese Crostini with Plum Jam and Honey

Once again, no recipe on this one.  I was inspired by our lovely blue cheese bruschetta at Saltyard the other evening and decided to throw something together with what I already had in the kitchen.  I used some of the bánh mì (Vietnamese bread) that I had left over and cut into four thin crostini size pieces.  I placed under the broiler in the oven until just toasted.  Spread a thin layer of blue cheese (I used a perfectly, creamy Point Reyes blue cheese) on top of the crostini.  Finally spread a thin layer of plum jam and drizzle with your favorite honey.  I placed back in a warm oven to just combine the flavors and placed on the prepared plate.

All of this washed down nicely with a fruit forward Cabernet Sauvignon!