spinach-stuffed flank steak and white bean and tomato saute

Here is last night's Spinach-Stuffed Flank Steak and White Bean and Tomato Saute.

This is my first time buying Flank Steak and I chose to buy it at Goeman's Lakeshore Meats. They are a fantastic butcher in the north end of St. Catharines, where else, but on Lakeshore Rd. It's nice and close and they are very friendly and helpful there.

Once I started working with the meat it required me to butterfly the steak. This is my first time butterflying and it was a simple task that I suppose could go horribly wrong if you were to use the wrong knife. The stuffing consisted of spinach, parsley, garlic, capers, asiago & balsamic vinegar and is then spread over the meat which is then rolled and tied with butcher's twine. The recipe called for two packages of frozen spinach, but I opted to use just one and it turned out perfect (there was even stuffing left over).

The steak is broiled for several minutes under the oven's broiler. This is my new favourite way of cooking meat even though it's a little risky. I've always had it work out because if you stay close and keep an eye on it everything should be OK. A probe thermometer is a great way of keeping track of the done-ness of the meat. Both Nuno and I enjoy a very rare piece of steak with charred outside, but when I took the meat out of the oven and sliced the middle was still very rare. It was easy enough to fix, I just sliced the entire steak, placed all pieces back onto the baking sheet and broiled for a couple minutes more.

The White Bean Saute, well, there isn't a lot of explaining here other than it's fantastic. Somehow all the ingredients in this dish bring out a fresh flavour in the tomato.

I loved eating both these recipes and will surely make them again. It really is an awesome dinner that tastes restaurant quality and is quite a lot of fun to make.