Oven Flank Steak without Marinating

Flank steak is really tasty. Of course, often it's because of the marinade. I've been wondering what a plain flank steak would be like and decided to make as plain and easy a flank steak as possible. Just salt and pepper and a hot oven. That's it.

I already had the oven at 450°F for a loaf of bread. During the last 20 minutes of the bread cooking I threw in the iron grill pan to heat it up. When the bread came out, I cooked the steak.

Ingredients:

• 1 flank steak
• Enough olive oil to lightly coat the pan
• Salt and pepper

Procedure:

1. Salt and pepper both sides of a flank steak and let it come to room temperature.
   
2. Preheat the oven to 450°, placing an iron grill pan in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a grill pan, use a broiling pan with a rack.
3. Lightly oil the hot pan with a brush.
4. Cook the steak for 5 minutes on each side (total 10 minutes).
5. Remove the steak from the pan, tent with foil, and rest an additional 10 minutes.
6. Slice thinly across the grain.

This results in a medium rare steak that tastes of beef. Beef. Plain beef. A nice treat. We had it in sandwiches on the freshly baked and still warm bread. It was white bread with some dill in it.

We now have half a flank steak left over that is not already flavored with a marinade. This means some of it can become fajitas while the rest becomes Chinese stir-fry. No pre-set flavors to worry about. We could be really bad and make sandwiches of slices fried in butter. No, no, that would be really bad. Steak and eggs for breakfast? Hmmm. So many possibilities.