Weeknight Dinner: Flank Steak with Tangerines

We spent the transitional weeks of the Spring Equinox awakening to the color green. We celebrated at the springtime table with a crisp green salad tossed in herby Green Goddess dressing and with roasted asparagus from oven and grill. We chopped all of those vegetables and herbs using cutting boards and knives correctly chosen and cared for. We dwelled in nature’s own palette as we decorated with green, from the palm green of curtains and wallpaper to the bottle green and Jadeite of kitchen and dining room. Decorating with green provided an interesting transition beyond its association with springtime. When the column published, I heard from numerous readers. Green is, it turns out, a popular color, but people who love green (greeners? greenies? greens?) feel it is underrepresented in lifestyle writing. Herewith let us raise a milky louche of Absinthe to the greens, for their love of this sophisticated color and its centrality in the palette of our lives.

It so happened that the conversation that resulted from the column on decorating with green coincided with a design consult I was working on. Amidst the work space of color swatches and image boards, something that became apparent, as the delightful surprise we sometimes get in design work, was the importance of the relationship between green and orange. In the design work, it manifested as an unexpected but powerful pairing between saturated dark orange and cool dark green – as another designer called it, “something very L.A.” It is, but the pairing was triggered by a discussion on social media between myself and several readers after I tweeted an image of a darling baby snail making its unhurried way along the newly opened orange brachts of the bromeliads in our city garden. That discussion proved that orange lovers (orangeries?) love their color as much as greens do. And it proved that orange and green, though adjacent and therefore technically disharmonious on the color wheel, can, in fact, belong together.

Of course, cooks have known this all along. Orange and green harmonize on the plate and in the bowl as nowhere else; in fact they are among the original harmonizers. Crunchy carrots and crispy green beans proudly wear their colors in the kaleidoscope of giardiniera. We dress our salad with orange-sherry vinaigrette. Tricolors of peppers are roasted with sausage for a colorful pasta dinner. We set up the home bar with disks of orange and wedges of lime, and from it serve limeade, orange sparklers, and Italian sodas in green apple, citrus, and lemon-lime.

Contrast is at the core of this month's weeknight dinner: beef with tangerines. Think not of the takeout standby of beef tips swimming in brown sauce, buoyed by red hot peppers and strips of orange peel. This beef with tangerines is a salad of seared beef served over peppery greens with sections of sweet tangerine. The beef is smoky and dark from a long marinade in Asian spices, the tangerines slightly charred and juicy from a quick turn on the grill. Serve this weeknight dinner on its own or with brown rice. Start off with sake martinis and finish with bowls of ice cream – we have recipes for appropriately hued green tea and peach.

Flank Steak with Tangerines

A good grill pan is a worthwhile investment for your urban kitchen; here is an online source for a good one. Five-Spice Powder, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and chili oil are pantry staples; look for them among Asian groceries, whether at a specialty store or the supermarket.

  

For the steak

1 1-1/4 – 1-1/2 lb. flank steak

1-1/2 tablespoons Five-Spice Powder

Salt

Extra virgin olive oil

For the marinade

1-1/2 tablespoons fresh tangerine- or orange juice

1-1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

½ tablespoon chili oil

1 teaspoon ground ginger

For the salad

2 - 3 heads bitter greens such as arugula or mizuna, or a combination

3 tangerines or 2 navel oranges

For the dressing

2 tablespoons fresh tangerine- or orange juice

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 clove garlic

2 teaspoons ground ginger

½ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Extra-virgin olive oil

Marinate the steak

Overnight - 8 hours before serving

• Pat the flank steak dry with paper towels.
• Use a fork to gently prick the steak on all sides.
• Lightly season the steak on all sides with salt.
• Measure the Five-Spice powder onto a plate. Gently shake the plate to distribute the spice mixture.
• Place the steak on the plate. Turn the steak onto the powder until the steak is evenly coated on all sides with the spice powder and there is no spice powder left on the plate.
• Cover the steak loosely with paper towels and set aside to dry-marinate at room temperature for ½ hour.
• Measure the marinade ingredients into a large zip-top food bag. Zip the bag and shake it gently to mix the marinade.
• Unzip the bag and gently place the dry-marinated flank steak into the bag. Rezip the bag. The bag should be closed tightly so that the steak is in full contact with the marinade. Open and then reseal the bag just a bit at one end to release air trapped inside if the bag is puffy.
• With the bag tightly closed, massage the marinade onto the beef. Place the bag containing the marinating beef on a plate and refrigerate overnight, or a minimum of 8 hours.

Prepare the salad

½ hour before serving

• Rinse, dry, and spin the greens if they are gritty.
• Place the greens into a large salad bowl.
• Peel, pith, and remove the seeds from the oranges / tangerines. Safely use a citrus knife to section each orange / tangerine. Place the fruit into a bowl and place the bowl within reach of the cooking surface.

Grill the steak

20 minutes before serving

• Brush a grill pan with extra-virgin olive oil and heat the pan over medium-high heat.
• Remove the marinated steak from the plastic bag. The marinade should be thick and clinging to the steak.
• Carefully place the steak on the heated grill pan. Be careful as the marinade may sizzle.
• Grill the steak on each side until very fragrant and dark mahogany in color, approximately 4 minutes per side for medium-well.
• Once the steak is nicely grilled, carefully place the steak on a cutting board with a reservoir. Turn off the heat under the grill pan.
• Let the steak rest for 5 minutes before carving and serving (see below).
• While the steak is resting, scatter the citrus on the surface of the grill pan. Quickly sear the citrus, no more than 1 – 2 minutes, and carefully transfer the seared fruit back to the bowl.

Make the dressing

Just before serving

• While the grilled steak is resting, press the garlic clove into a serving bowl. Measure the orange / tangerine juice, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and hot pepper flakes into the bowl. Whisk the ingredients together, and then add 1 – 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil in a thin stream into the bowl, whisking as you go, until the dressing is thick but pourable.

Serve the meal

• Use kitchen tongs to steady the cut of beef as you safely carve the beef against the grain into thin slices. Transfer the slices to a serving platter.
• Scatter the greens with the seared citrus, adding any accumulated fruit juices to the salad bowl. Lightly toss the greens and citrus together.
• Pass the beef, salad, and dressing at the table.

Resources

Beef Salad with Blood Oranges and Gorgonzola

Fennel Salad with Oranges and Lemon

Cutting Boards and Knives