Flank Steak with Soy Sauce and Garlic

Once, a long time ago, I lived in a basement apartment (that's "English basement" to those of us who want to feel better about living underground) in Washington DC right after college with three wonderful ladies, where I made little money and paid what now seems like a blissfully tiny amount in rent.  I hardly went out for dinner in order to save money...not to mention general laziness, but we won't talk about that.  Scrimping money turned out to be a blessing in disguise, though, in that it pushed me to learn how to cook, and to cook often.

Although the meat at our nearby Safeway ("Soviet Safeway" for any of those familiar with DuPont Circle in Washington, DC) was of a quality that I would question using at this point in my life, I didn't know any better at the time and went on my merry way, using the flank steak for a recipe I found on Epicurious.  It has turned out to be one of my favorite recipes, one that I often use when having people over for dinner because it is delicious and so simple (if you've been to my place and eaten this, rest assured the flank steak was of the utmost quality).  The soy sauce in this recipe makes the dish.

Feast your eyes on this incredibly complicated and long list of ingredients:

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 TBS olive oil
5 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp black pepper
1.5 to 2 lbs flank steak

Get your marinade ingredients together (which is basically everything except the flank steak)

Kevin gave me that olive oil dispenser as a gift--isn't it pretty? I loves it.

Pour the marinade over the flank steak.  For marinating, I like to use the resealable bag method, but use whatever works for you.  I put the flank steak in a gallon size resealable plastic bag, put the bag in a dish/bowl (just in case there's some pesky hole or leak in the bag), and pour in the marinade.

Make sure steak is well covered in the marinade, and refrigerate for 3 to 6 hours (leave the bag in the bowl just to be safe). Turn every hour or so to get even marination.

Preheat your broiler, grill, or grill pan.  Remove the steak from the marinade, and shake off excess. Discard the garlic.  You don't have to do this next step, but I used a paper towel to blot the flank steak to make sure that it browned instead of steamed--I did this after one time where I cooked the steak on an indoor grill pan and the apartment filled with smokey steamy marinade-y fumes. At least my guests had a je ne sas quoi scent lingering on their person to help remember the dinner.

I used the broiler method last time which made me happy.  I broiled the steak for 4 to 5 minutes on each side (about 9 minutes total), and it turned out to be a beautiful medium rare.

Slice across the grain at an angle to get your perfect pink rosy slices of hedonistic, savory meat.

Love this dish.  Ta-da!