Vegetables, Beans and Meat

Went grocery shopping to prep for a potluck lunch at the friends'. Threw everything into the trolley, and on a whim, the man strolled by the meats section. He spied a beautiful slab of beef flank and decided to add that to our contribution at the meal.

The pasta salad would take more effort to sort out than a steak. Ingredients don't just go into one pot to be boiled. They would have to be separately marinated, cooked and grilled. Prep began a day in advance anyway. After boiling up beans and roasting zucchini and all, the man turned his attention to marinating the meat. He wanted any excuse to use a generous pour from the treated apple bourbon as marinade. That went in, along with the vinaigrette of apple and pomegranate. Soy sauce too. Decided to skip the salt. Didn't seem necessary. He's been watching too many episodes of Iron Chef.

The next day, the grilling of the steak was easy. Bits of smoke floated out, but the smells were heavenly. We thought, definitely didn't require additional salt even at this point. That would come from the soy sauce in the marinade. The man charred it on the outside, and left the insides pink. Textbook. Then we had to be very careful about transporting it over, to ensure that the pink insides of the steak stayed pink. Luckily, it wasn't a far drive, and there was smooth traffic along the way.

We were absolutely tickled that the dear doggie at the friends' didn't exactly react to the food on the table till we uncovered the flank. He smelt the meat and popped out from nowhere to lay his snout on our lap and looked at us with the most beseeching of doe eyes. Awwwww... After a while, we slipped him two lovely slices of beef to nom on. He was a very happy dog that afternoon. His owners rolled their eyes.