Looking for a perfect steak? Have you ever heard of Sous Vide? Using sous vide method you will able to cook a perfect steak.
With all the health concern of eating too much red meat, once in a while I crave for it…yes, a juicy and flavorful piece of meat. I am trying, and yes…trying to cut red meat, but growing up in Brazil and meat being one of the staple food there it is hard to break the habit. I know, it is not an excuse since I been here for so long. So if I am eating meat, better be good, really good, this way I feel less remorse…
I found that using sous-vide method, one can never overcook the meat. Even the toughest cut will be tender, flavorful and moist. It is all about right temperature and cooking time. It is true that cooking sous vide can be lengthy…but well worth the time, especially that you can place the meat in the water-bath and “forget” about it.
There are many choices of sous-vide cooker, I decided to go for the ANOVA cylinder one, because of my limited kitchen space and two, being able to use different sizes of containers as I see appropriate. Again, of all my kitchen gadgets, I truly believe that this is one of my favorite and most useful one…
Okay…enough of “talk” and let’s get to the yummy flank steak…
Ingredients:
- Approximately 1 lb flank steak
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 to 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cumin, powder
- ½ teaspoon oregano fresh if available
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- ½ tablespoon fish sauce (can be omitted)
Method:
In a medium bowl mix all the ingredients except the steak. Make sure that the salt and sugar are diluted in the marinate sauce.
Add the steak making sure that the steak is covered with the marinate sauce. Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Set you water-bath to 56°C.
Place the steak into a 1 gallon freezer quality plastic bag.
To create a vacuum in the bag, carefully place the bag with steak into the water-bath, make sure to immerse the bag until near the seal, this will create a vacuum, then seal the bag. I usually seal the bag leaving approximately 1 inch open and then immerse the bag until near the seal and finish by sealing the remaining 1 inch.
Cook for 5 to 6 hours. Once the cooking time is off, remove the steak and sear both sides in a cast iron pan, just enough to produce a golden color. Serve hot.
Flank steak in spite of low fat content is very flavorful, because of its muscle content this particular cut has lots of fiber, which make is tough. In order to make it tender the meat should be marinated in sauce containing ingredients known to tenderize meat, such as lemon, vinegar, pineapple juice, orange juice and so on. When serving, the meat should be cut into thin slices and against the grain.