I thought I'd change tack and talk about cooking for a change of pace. Are you scared yet? =P

A couple of friends have been housesitting in the boonies and decided to do a BBQ on Sunday. Since I generally can't resist bringing at least some sort of dish to such events, I ended up bringing some marinaded flank steak. Normally, I do a marinade that is pretty much your standard bulgogi - soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, black pepper, green onions, sesame oil and red wine. The previous time I cooked flank steak, I changed things up a bit and made a Vietnamese-style sauce - fish sauce, lime juice, jalapenos, grated ginger and sugar - to accompany the bulgogi. Inspired by the reaction to that experiment, I decided to wander even further from that and not even use soy sauce. Since the results were rather tasty, I feel confident enough to share this one with the general populace even though I haven't "perfected" it yet.

The recipe:

1 lb of flank steak

First marinade:
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 lime's worth of juice

Soak it in this for 20-25 minutes. Rinse and dry off steak. Season with salt and sugar.

Second marinade:
One moderately sized root of ginger, grated
4-6 cloves of garlic, pressed
One medium-sized ancho chile, finely chopped
One medium-sized jalapeno chile, finely chopped
One tablespoon's worth of ground black pepper
One teaspoon of sesame oil

Blend all the ingredients of the second marinade together so you have a rough paste-like texture. FYI, it might be easiest to use a food processor to chop the jalapeno & ancho chiles to the appropriate fineness. Once the ingredients have been combined, apply this second marinade to both sides of the steak and let it sit for at least 30 minutes so the flavor soaks through.

Finally, grill to desired doneness. My personal preference is to grill the entire steak to medium-rare and then slice it up. The final result should be appropriately spicy, but with touches of sweetness around the various flavors.

Please note that all measurements are very very very rough - I'm guesstimating since I don't use measuring instruments for most things. I seriously recommend modifying as necessary. If you have additions, comments, feedback on this recipe, please leave it in the comments.