Grilled Thai Steak Salad

This past week I had Mark and Mary Enger over for dinner, along with Steve and Taffy Hirtz. Mark and I met in the 3rd grade and have been friends ever since...52 years and counting. Mark lives in Portland, OR now and works for Kaiser Permanente. I'm a huge fan of Pinot Noir, especially the the ones from the Williamette Valley in Oregon. So this became a topic of conversation at our dinner.

I was horrified to find out that all these years I have been mispronouncing Williamette and Oregon. I had always pronounced Williamette as "Will yum ette". It's actually pronounced "Will am ette". And the Minnesotan in me always pronounced Oregon as "Or a gun". Imagine my horror when I found out the natives simply pronounce it as "Or gun". So after 59 years of pronouncing them both wrong, I am now able to speak like an Oregonian.

For our dinner that night, I used a Frankenrecipe. I took parts of different recipes and sewed them together. I used Sherlyne Hutchinson's marinade from" Grilled Thai New York Strip Steaks" and combined it with Amanda Hesser's salad dressing from "Beef Salad with Asian Dressing". It was delicious. Actually, beyond delicious. It was like climbing on a little Thai raft and paddling right up next to fantastic. This recipe serves 4.

Ingredients for the Steak and Marinade
1 flank steak (1 1/2 -2 pounds)
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon hot chili oil
10 cloves garlic, crushed

Ingredients for the Salad Dressing
3 tablespoons nam pla (Asian fish sauce)
1/4 cup peanut oil
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely minced

Ingredients for the Salad
10 ounces shredded red cabbage
10 ounces grated carrot
3 bunches green onions, cut in 1/2" pieces
1 bunch mint leaves, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped

Directions

1. Put flank steak in a ZipLoc bag. Combine marinade ingredients in small bowl and stir to mix well. Pour over steak, seal bag and refrigerate for 6 hours.
2. Prepare a charcoal fire for direct cooking over high heat.
3. In a small bowl, combine salad dressing ingredients. Stir to mix well.
4. Combine salad ingredients in a large salad bowl.
5. When coals are hot, remove flank steak from ZipLoc bag and pat dry with paper towels. Place steak over coals, cover the grill and cook for 12 minutes (6 minutes per side). When cooked, remove steak from grill, tent with foil and let steak rest for 5 minutes.
6. Stir dressing and add to salad ingredients in salad bowl. Toss and divide among serving plates.
7. Slice steak across the grain in 1/2" strips. Place 3 or 4 slices on top of each salad plate and serve.

Wine pairing: Zinfandel