Flank Steak, Rice, and Artichokes...oh my!

So...you guys want to know what we're eating at Chez Clements tonight for dinner. Honestly...it's leftovers! That's one of my sanity saving devices...never cook a meal that can only feed you once...eat multiple times off of it. Either as the exact same meal or with bits and pieces reincarnated as something else. Trust me...this time honored habit has stopped my head from spinning around like something out of the Exorcist many, many times!

So Sunday's dinner is the starter for this! It was the Tomato-Marinaded flank steaks with herbed basmati rice and artichokes...we also had a cauliflower gratin...but I have to leave in 17 minutes for high school carpool...so you guys get the down and dirty version...rice is starch enough! The gratin will wait!

Oh...and if I decide to reincarnate this, it will be as steak fried rice! yum!

Tomato-Marinade Flank Steak

To make it ridicously simply, I got the recipe for the flank steak from Gavan Murphy, hunky 'Healthy Irishman'. mmmmm! Here's the link to his blog with the recipe. (Oh, and Reet...you can use this for any bit of steak you have on hand!)

http://thehealthyirishman.com/2010/02/touchdown-tomato-flank-steak/.

Yeah...I know. It's not blue. Copy and paste into your address bar and I promise, at some point, I will figure out the whole hyperlink thing!

Now...one thing I did do that isn't in his recipe was save the marinade after I took the meat out. While the meat was grilling, I put the marinade in a pot on the stove and cooked it at medium heat for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally (which means whenever I walked past the stove with nothing in my hands). At the end, I added a generous dollop of extra virgin olive oil (about 1/8 cup) and about a tsp of sugar. Mix, cook a couple minutes more, and use it as a sauce to dip the artichoke leaves in. Yum!!!! If you're not doing the artichokes, simply serve the sauce with the meat and rice.

Herbed Basmati Rice

Ingredient:
1 cup uncooked long-grain white basmati rice
1 3/4 cup water
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 Tbs unsalted butter
2 Tbs minced fresh parsley leaves
1 Tbs minced fresh dill leaves
1 Tbs minced fresh scallions, white and green parts (green onions)
Pinch freshly ground black pepper

Instructions
Combine the rice, water, salt and butter in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce the heat to low, stir once, and simmer, covered tightly, for 15 minutes. (Sometimes you need to pull the pot half off the burner to keep it from boiling over. Depends on your stove. Gas is easier to control than electric!) Turn off the heat and allow the rice to sit covered for 5 minutes. Add the parsley, dill, scallions, and pepper. Fluff with a fork and serve warm.

Note...substitute any herbs you have or want. Fresh is obviously best...dried will work, in a pinch!

How to cook Artichokes

Cut the stem off the artichokes level with the bottom. You want them to be able to stand up. Slice about the top 1 inch off also. If the leaves are super-pokey and will cause bodily damage while eating, use kitchen shears to trim the needle off the top of each leave. If they're not bad, just leave 'em alone! Put about an inch of water in a large pot. Stand artichokes up in the water (stem end down). Slice a lemon and add that to the pot. Bring to a boil, then cover, turn down to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes or until a leave easily comes off.

Now...I have to run and get kidlings for school. I have no time to edit yet. So please ignore and forgive any typos...they will get fixed later. Y'all know I'm too anal to leave 'em!