Plate showing a serving of flank steak, spiced roasted carrots, and quinoa pilaf with cranberries and almonds on a cheery spring placemat

A faux-Morrocan feast

Just made an amazing meal for a Monday night.

Eating out of the freezer now that we’re in COVID-19 week 3. I took a flank steak out with little idea of what to do with it other than marinate it.

So I did what I usually do, rummaged around in a few sites and found some things that were interesting, scribbled a few reminders down and stepped boldly into the kitchen with some half-baked ideas. Morrocan flavours were high on the list, as there were some sad carrots in the fridge that were good for roasting but not much else. No couscous, but quinoa.

Dinner: flank steak with a hefty marinade, spicy roasted carrots, and quinoa pilaf with cranberries and sliced almonds. The nice thing was, other than getting the steak into the marinade in the morning, the whole meal came together in about 30 minutes. We had Propeller Porter with it.

Divine.

Flank Steak

Marinate the steak for several hours in:
1/2 large red onion, chopped
juice from 1 large lemon
a slog of red wine vinegar
a slog of sherry or port or red wine
2 inch thumb of ginger, minced
2 tbsp soy
1 tbsp each cumin and ancho chili pepper powder (or a poblano in ancho sauce if you had leftover like me)
1 tsp each oregano, turmeric
Salt and pepper

Grill on high for 5 min each side. While the steak is cooking, throw the marinade into a pan and boil it up for the 10 min or so – cooks down to a lovely relish to serve w/the meat.

Spiced Roasted Carrots

Oven to 425F, roast for 15 minutes
Lots of variations on this, but I whisked together:
a blurg of olive oil
1/2 tsp or so each of ground cumin and smoked paprika
1/4 tsp or so cinnamon
Use long skinny carrots, or if you have nasty ones like I did, peel and slice lengthwise. Toss the carrots with the spiced oil and lay in a single layer on a baking tray.
While they’re roasting, mix about 1/4 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream) with some lime juice (I squeezed 1/2 a lime). Serve the carrots with the yogurt drizzled over, and top with chopped pistachios if you’ve got ’em.

Quinoa Pilaf

1/2 yellow onion chopped fine
1 c quinoa
2 c broth (I had chicken in the freezer, but veggie would work)
2/3 c dry cranberries
2/3 c sliced almonds
In a small saucepan with a lid, slop a blurg of olive oil and toss the onions in to saute for a while. Throw rinsed quinoa and broth into pot, bring to boil, lower heat and put lid on. Let it sit for 10-15 min.
While quinoa is cooking, toast the sliced almonds in a dry pan.
Toss quinoa, almonds and cranberries together.

ENJOY!