Stuffed Flank Steak (Matambre)
Happy New Year! Let’s make this a good one. How about kicking it off with a winter dinner party? Something cozy and intimate? Maybe followed by a game or two? Well, I have a dish for you!
As I have most certainly mentioned before, for Christmas dinner we carry on Gary’s family tradition of preparing a typical Christmas meal from a different country. Over the years we’ve traveled the globe and this year we settled on Argentina. To be clear, we don’t just make typical food from whatever country we choose, we try to make the meal that would be served in most homes on Christmas Day (or Christmas Eve, as the case may be).
It turns out that on the Christmas table of many Argentinean homes, you might find Matambre or Argentinean Stuffed Flank Steak. I found a great recipe for Matambre on Jo Cooks and will include her preparation image so that you can easily follow the steps in the recipe. The most challenging part of this dish is butterflying the flank steak. I would recommend doing it with a very sharp knife (absolutely essential) and a cold piece of meat. I imagine you could also ask your butcher to do it for you if this step would prevent you from making the dish, because I can assure you the rest is so simple and the result is absolutely impressive. Once the flank steak is butterflied, you pound it to an even thickness, roll it around some sliced ingredients, tie with butcher’s string and season. I did all of this well before baking in the oven, so that the time before dinner is completely hands off.
In Argentina, where Christmas is a summer holiday…I’m sorry but can we just take a minute to talk about this? Does anyone else have a hard time wrapping their heads around a hot, sunny Christmas? Do South Americans have entirely different Christmas movies? Ones that are not entirely snow-centric? Anyway, since it’s summer in Argentina when this dish is traditionally served, it is often grilled but we chose the baked method which resulted in perfectly cooked meat. And Matambre is often served with Ensalada Rusa (a cold potato salad), which we made, and it was delicious, but I would recommend that you serve it with mashed potatoes and a green vegetable. Enjoy!
Matambre
Ingredients
- 2 lb flank steak
- 1/4 c olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 c cilantro chopped
- 1/4 c parsley chopped
- 1/2 tsp salt plus more to taste
- 1/2 tsp black pepper plus more to taste
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 3 hard boiled eggs quartered
- 1/2 med green bell pepper sliced
- 1/2 med red bell pepper sliced
Instructions
- Prepare your grill for cooking over medium direct heat or preheat your oven to 350F.
- Using a sharp knife slice the flank steak and open it up like a book (from one small end to the other, without cutting all the way through so that you keep the meat attached at one end). If you want to make the meat thinner, you can pound it with a mallet to flatten it out and even out the thickness.
- Arrange the quartered eggs in 3 rows across the flank steak at different intervals (see image above). Repeat with the sliced peppers.
- Carefully roll the meat up over the filling, I did it from right to left, across the grain, jelly roll style. Tie with butcher's twine to hold it together. Season the outside of the roll generously with salt and pepper.
- The temperature on your grill should read around 400°F. Place the roll on the grill and grill it on both sides for about 4 or 5 minutes per side, for a total of about 20 minutes. Or do as I did: bake the steak for 1 hour at 350F. Let the roll rest for 15 minutes before slicing into 1/2-inch thick rounds.
Follow
