Grits and Flank Steak

The remains of a grilled flank steak chill out in the meat drawer of the fridge. A flank steak runs a little under two pounds — way too much for a meal for two. It was a dear purchase from Marin Sun Farms, but it has already provided four meals.

• Dinner for two, Grilled Flank Steak in Churrasco Marinade with Chimichurri Sauce by Joyce Goldstein,
• Part of an Asian salad with noodles and greens I took to a Giants game,
• The leftovers of that as a salad for my lunch the next day.

My leftover flank steak generally goes into a steak salad, but I wanted something different for this last remaining hunk of steak.

Carol mentioned that at her conference at Westerbeke Ranch, they were served creamed chipped beef on toast, a humble dish in such a resort setting. But she said it was very special, more like toast points with a creamy, beefy dipping sauce. That’s one idea, but maybe I could come up with something other than toast as a partner for the beef.

Why not do the steak with a cream sauce and serve it over sliced, fried polenta? That’s a nice twist on the classic. Or grits, steak with a cream sauce over grits. But If I’m going to serve it over grits, why not make it with the grits?

I did a whole story on grits a while back, and I still have some authentic stoneground grits left, from those a friend brought from Georgia. Maybe I could adapt my South Carolina brother Wendell’s recipe for Shrimp ‘n’ Grits. But then I have a much simpler shrimp and grits recipe from The New York Times, of course; grits, stock, butter, bacon, shrimp. How simple is that? I just switch out the shrimp for the steak.

So that’s just what I did.

bacon, peas, grits, steak

fry up your bacon, then your steak

  stir up your broth and grits

 

And that was real good, although I must admit the color is not appealing.

Grits and Flank Steak
Loosely based on a NY Times recipe for Grits and Shrimp by David Chang and Joaquin Baca  

2 cups chicken stock
1 cup stone-ground grits
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1⁄2 cup chopped bacon
2 tablespoons butter
Leftover grilled flank steak, sliced thin
2 poached (or warm-bath-cooked) eggs (optional)
1⁄4 cup chopped scallion.

1. Heat stock in saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in grits, beating out lumps. Add soy sauce and salt and pepper and simmer, whisking frequently, until grits lose their raw taste, about 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cook bacon in skillet until crisp; remove to paper towels. Pour off the bacon grease, but don’t wipe the skillet, add half the butter to the skillet and, when foam subsides, put in steak, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook, turning once or twice, until warm through, two or three minutes. (Watch out for the salt, bacon is salty and soy sauce is salty.) Stir the bacon and steak together to warm the bacon.

3. When grits are done, stir in remaining butter and the bacon and steak. Serve it with the (optional) eggs. Scatter scallions over all.