Saturday, June 4, 2022

Steak and Shirazi

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This wrap's bright and bold flavors make my mouth do a happy dance. 

Grilled flank steak and shirazi salad wraps featuring Certified Angus Beef Brand

It starts with thinly sliced Greek seasoned flank steak that we top with a sultry tahini sauce. Next, we add a Shirazi salad bursting with Middle Eastern flavors and finally sprinkle on some crumbled feta. We wrap all of that up in a warm, soft piece of naan bread, and it is oh so fantastic! 

Shirazi Salad

Shirazi is named after the region from whence it hails, Iran. We like to call it Middle-Eastern pico de gallo. It is a salad with tomatoes, Persian cucumber, onion, herbs, and an acidic dressing. We can't always get Persian cukes, but English cukes work. Like pico, we find it is best served about an hour or two after making it.

Grilled flank steak and shirazi salad wraps
Shirazi salad is brightly flavored and is fantastic with grilled chicken, steak, or by itself.

Here's the recipe for the whole shebang, with pictures and tips following the recipe.

Grilled flank steak and shirazi salad wraps featuring Certified Angus Beef brand

Steak and Shirazi

www.nibblemethis.com

Published 06/03/2022

Thin-sliced Greek flank steak, tahini sauce, brilliantly flavored Shirazi salad and crumbled feta on naan.

Ingredients

For the Shirazi Salad
  • 2 cups diced tomato
  • 1 cup English cucumber, seeded and diced
  • 1/2 cup diced red onion
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
  • 1 ounce olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried mint
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
  • salt to taste, about 1 teaspoon
For the Tahini Sauce
  • 1/2 cup tahini 
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and very finely minced
  • juice from 1 grilled lemon (about 1 ounce)
  • chicken stock (about 1/4 cup)
  • salt to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon)
  • 1 teaspoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Instructions

  1. Dry brine the flank steak. Score the steak on both sides by lightly dragging a very sharp knife across the steak in a criss-cross pattern. Wipe the steak with the oil and season it with the Cavendar's, mint, and oregano. Roll it up, place it in a bag and refrigerate it for 8 to 24 hours. Take it out of refrigeration 1 hour before cooking.
  2. Make the tahini sauce.  Whisk the tahini, garlic, parsley, and lemon juice together. Whisk in chicken stock until you get a thick sauce-like texture. The amount of stock depends on the thickness of your tahini since it varies from brand to brand, but we used about a quarter cup. Finally, season it to taste with salt.
  3. Make the Shirazi salad. Place the tomatoes, cuke, onion, parsley, and cilantro in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk together the lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, pepper, mint, oregano, and salt to taste together to make a vinaigrette. Pour the vinaigrette over the veggies and toss. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
  4. Grill the flank steak. Preheat your grill to 500°f. Grill the steak 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. It is always best to cook according to internal temperature, but 4 minutes at 500°f is pretty consistent for us for flank steak.  This one was 131°f when I pulled it off the grill.
  5. Rest the steak. I'm always a proponent of resting steak on a resting rack. In this case, I like to do it over the cutting board where I have drizzled a little oil, lemon juice, oregano, and mint. Any drippings will mix in to make an excellent board dressing that will amplify flavors. 
  6. Grill the naan.  You can do it directly on regular grill grates, but it is even better to use a griddle plate. 
  7. Slice the steak thinly across the grain. You can see how the fibers run lengthwise through the steak; you want to cut perpendicular. You can use the slices just like that, or we like to chop it up further for the wrap.
  8. Build the wraps. Lay a naan bread and top it with 3 to 4 ounces of steak. Drizzle the tahini sauce over that. Top that with a hefty spoonful of Shirazi and about an ounce of feta cheese. Fold the naan over and secure it with a toothpick. We find they are easier to eat if you wrap the lower half with a foil sheet. 

Yield: 4 hearty servings

Prep Time: 00 hrs. 25 mins.

Cook time: 00 hrs. 15 mins.

Total time: 40 mins.

Tags: Greek, steak, Middle Eastern

Why do you score a steak.
Scoring the flank steak with a knife like this does two things. First, it maximizes the surface area that comes in contact with the seasoning. Second, the edges of the cuts get crispy during cooking, giving you a different texture and more flavor.


Large Big Green Egg with Craycort grates
My weapon of choice for this cook was a large Big Green Egg because I planned to swap out one of the grate modules with a griddle plate for toasting the naan bread. Ha! I just noticed I have a modular grill grate in an Egg in a BGE Modular Nest (table). Totally modular, dude. 

Grilled flank steak and shirazi salad wraps
Most of the finer seasonings will absorb into the steak or seem to disappear during the dry-brine period. Feel free to freshen it up with some more seasoning after brining. I do.

I grill the lemon because I think it adds a hint of smokiness to the tahini sauce.


The tahini sauce might not look much, but she's got it where it counts, kid.

Shirazi salad pops with color as much as it does with flavor.
The Shirazi Salad pops with color as much as it does with flavor. It's also fantastic by itself with pita chips.

Does flank steak remind you of a beaver flap tail? It does me.

Big Green Egg modular nest
Whenever I am cooking on my grills, I have a TimeStick and Thermapen within arm's reach. 
Time Stick [Affiliate Link]   Thermapen [Affiliate Link]

Craycort cast iron grates in a Big Green Egg
Here, you can see that I have removed one of the grate sections and dropped in the griddle plate. This system from Craycort has options like the griddle plate, veggie wok, and a chicken throne.


Big Green Egg with flank steak and naan bread
The griddle does a better job with naan than just toasting it on the regular grates because you get complete surface contact. We probably did the naan for about 20 seconds a side. They are pre-cooked, so you only need long enough to heat them up.


Certified Angus Beef Brand Greek Seasoned Flank Steak
Resting the steak on a resting rack minimizes moisture loss. If you put it on a flat surface, you are trapping the heat. That will steam the bottom of the meat, which creates excessive moisture loss. 


Greek seasoned grilled flank steak featuring certified angus beef brand
You can put them in the wrap just like this, but I like to chop them up.

Grilled flank steak and shirazi salad
Big-time flavor. We've already made these twice this month because we like them so much.


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