Cooking for Others is Love - No. 290

Flank steak, Father’s Day, twice-baked potatoes + the beauty of rethinking tradition

WE’VE STARTED A TRADITION to spend a July week with our grown children sharing a house in the woods, making meals, taking walks, playing highly competitive board games, and accepting the relentless packing and unpacking that comes with it.

As I was going over some of our more successful past menus with one of my daughters recently, and specifically was referring to the ‘’Saturday grill night’’ where the sides are summer vegetables (sautéed squash, twice-baked potatoes I’ve made ahead and frozen, green beans, ripe tomato-basil salad) and only the beef filet needs to be tended over hot charcoal, she quipped:

‘’Why always filet?’’

Which to me sounded a bit like a spoiled royal uttering, ‘’Oh Mummy, not beef filet again.’’ And honestly, the reason we choose filet in spite of its expense is that my husband is really good at cooking filet over charcoal. He paints it with Worcestershire and soy sauces and then presses salt into minced garlic and rubs this paste into the meat. He can tell when it is done just by pressing down on it with his fingertips. He says if it is still a little soft, it is still a little rare. I selfishly can focus on everything else, and I know with good bread and something for dessert, that meal effortlessly pulls together.

‘’It’s so boring,’’ she added, still talking about the filet. ‘’What about hanger or flank steak instead?’’

And just like that, I was rethinking summer steak night because I don’t want to be boring.