Steak Worth Making a Flap About

I love steak. I restrain myself from eating it all the time partly because too much of anything is probably not a good idea, but mainly because it costs just too damn much. If it were more affordable, I'd probably eat more than conventional wisdom advises. But really, is conventional wisdom all it's cracked up to be? We've been advised that red meat is the cause of all that ails us for the last 50 years or so, especially if it contains any visible * gasp * fat. Never mind that since then we've replaced fats with weird chemicals and metric tonnes of sugar, we do understand that eating beef is bad. I just don't buy it. 

I buy nicely marbled beef whenever I can because that's where the flavour is. The fat in the meat provides all sorts of interesting benefits as well. To begin with, beef fat is only 50% saturated. The other 50% is made up of monosaturated fat, the kind found in olive oil, which conventional wisdom would have us drinking in vats, it's so good for us. If you buy grass fed beef, all the better for this sort of thing, if you are worried about it. Beef also contains a dense assortment of nutrients like iron, zinc and the B vitamins, which are difficult to gain from plant sources or supplements. Compared to chicken and fish, you get nearly double to quadruple your nutrition bang for your buck as well. 

But enough of justifying why I would eat it more if I found an affordable source...Now to celebrate finding a wonderfully inexpensive cut of beef...Flap meat!

Yeah, I know that sounds ridiculously unappetizing, but if you come across this at your local grocery store (or butcher if you're one of them fancy-pants foodies) buy it. (Especially before all the fancy-pants foodies do, which will gentrify the cut, and drive the price up like a condo in the North End.) The flap steak is also known as the 'bottom sirloin flap meat', and I've seen it listed at Sobey's with this description. At www.canadabeef.ca, they describe the cut as similar to other sirloin cuts in flavour, and I would concur. It's great for grilling, stir frying, making a steak sandwich, and even for roasting. Here's what I did to make this a fantastic dinner in no time flap...I mean flat:

1 lb of bottom sirloin flap meat...marinated in: 
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp red wine vinegar

I let this marinade for about 30 minutes. In the meantime, I made these Chipotle Cumin Sweet Potato Fries as a side:
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- 2 medium sweet potatoes, skin on, cut into sticks...tossed in:
- 2 tbsp grapeseed oil
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp seasoning salt
- 1 tbsp chipotle chili powder
- 1 tbsp cumin

Preheat the oven to 425F, and lay all the fries in one layer on a greased baking sheet. Cook for 30 minutes, turning halfway through.


While all this is going on, heat a skillet to medium high heat, and add 1 tbsp of coconut oil. (If no coconut oil, use something with a high smoking point to avoid burning the oil.) Cook the steaks 3-5 minutes per side depending on the thickness of the steak and desired doneness. Mine took about 4 per side for a medium-well result. 

To complement the flavours in the steak and fries, serve on a bed of lettuce with salsa verde and guacamole. 

Unflappably tasty and good fer ya!



Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 Serving - Steak Only
Per Serving% Daily Value*
Calories 251
Calories from Fat 104
Total Fat 11.6g18%
Saturated Fat 5.5g28%
Cholesterol 70mg23%
Sodium 979mg41%
Carbohydrates 14.6g5%
Dietary Fiber 0.1g0%
Sugars 12.2g
Protein 23.0g
Calcium 2% · Iron 18%

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