Grilled flank steak with chimichurri

What the heck is chimichurri? First of all, it is so good you may never eat ketchup or steak sauce on your steak again. It is a sauce made from garlic, herbs, olive oil and vinegar common from Argentina all the way north to Nicaragua. Lots of variations, as you can imagine, but this versions comes from Rachel Ray--minus about half the olive oil. You won't miss it.

Flank steak with chimichurri

• Handful of parsley
• Leaves from 4 stems fresh oregano
• Leaves from 5 sprigs of sage
• Leaves from 6 stems fresh thyme
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or crushed
• 1/2 purple onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 Tablespoons of red wine vinegar
• 2-3 Tablespoons of olive oil

Chop the herbs finely with a big, sharp knife (see Greek turkey burgers post). Just keep piling the herbs up and chopping them and again until they are all mixed up and chopped and too small to tell which herb is what. Mix the herbs with the onions and garlic and add vinegar and olive oil. You can make it ahead of time, but it doesn't require much time for the flavors to blend. You really don't have to measure the oil and vinegar--just pour a little in there until it looks right. Do not get out a measuring spoon for this!

• 1-1.5 pound flank steak -- you can use almost any boneless cut of steak, but flank steak is really lean without being dry. Skirt steak is more traditional but has a lot more fat.

Season as you like, but Rachel Ray recommends Montreal steak seasoning and it works. Drizzle with just a little olive oil and rub it in to the meat; then sprinkle on your seasoning. Cook on the grill or I use the grill pan on my range. Don't overcook it--you have to figure out how long to cook on each side depending on how hot your grill is. You can also use a meat thermometer to get to 160 degrees for medium. If you cook it more than this, it will be tough and taste like cardboard. After the steak is cooked, let it rest--that means let it sit on the cutting board for a few minutes before slicing against the grain. Serve the steak with the chimichurri.

Nathan made sweet potato fries to go with our steak, but that is his recipe. Maybe I will post that sometime, but I will have to find out how he makes them--so good and my boys eat them up. We also had fresh corn on the cob. Mmmmm...sounds yummy, right? Well, don't just sit there drooling, get up and cook something!