Latin Style Steak with Beans-Potatoes and a Easy Tomato Salad

Full credit for these recipes goes to Daisy Martinez. I saw her show Daisy cooks on Create TV and it looked so yummy that I had to make it. Plus I had all these tomatoes and beans from the farmer's market which I wanted to use. Since I didn't have many of the spices she mentioned (its a new kitchen ya c'mmon... i'm working on stocking the pantry) I improvised the original recipe which asked for a homemade blend of adobo seasoning. Looking back at my ingredients my steak recipe is significantly modified from Daisy's. Whatever........it still tasted good damn it! Frankly, I had never made steaks at home before. Actually I rarely eat beef except for that occasional juicy steak at a nice restaurant. In spite of my limited experience with eating steak I know one thing about cooking it--NEVER eat it well done...you'd rather eat a piece of leather (any real steak liking person will second me on that). Rare is too red for me frankly. My personal favorite is Medium, nicely browned on the outside with a nice pink line in the center. The meat is soft and juices flow out of it. So if you're grossed out by thinking its uncooked meat..believe me its perfectly safe and the meat is cooked..just to a different degree. Try it. O.k coming back to my recipe...

Steak:
Ingredients

1 pound thin flank steak or any other kind of cut is fine
1/4 cup vinegar (yes that much!!)
1 tsp chilly powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 pods garlic crushed
1 tbslp dark soy sauce

Method
Mix all ingredients together. Pour it over the steak in a glass dish. Cover with sran wrap and marinate for an hour or overnight in the refrigerator. Heat a pan till its sizzling pan. Cook the steak 3 minutes on one side and 2 minutes on the other. Take off the heat and let the meat rest for about a couple of minutes before serving. Keep in mind that during resting the meat continues to cook. Adjust cooking times for thicker steaks or for different levels of doneness. If you're new to this try using a meat thermometer. For rare have an internal temperature of 140 degrees F, medium:160 and well done 170.

Beans and Potatoes
Cook two diced potatoes till 3/4th done. Drain and keep aside. Heat olive oil in a pan. Add three pods of crushed garlic to the oil as it heats. Once the the oil sizzles add potatoes. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste and fry till potatoes are golden brown. Add fresh green beans and stir fry for a few minutes. I left the beans with a little crunch in them. Serve with the steak.

Tomato salad
Dice 2 Roma tomatoes and half a red or Vidalia onion. Add to a bowl. Add 1/4 cup chopped cilantro (or parsley if you want). Add salt, pepper and generous amount of good quality olive oil (about 3-4 tblsp). Stir and serve immediately. If you don't want to serve immediately hold off on the salt and olive oil until ready to eat.