London Calling

I rarely eat red meat because I'm trying to watch my cholesterol, but a little now and then doesn't hurt. The photo above is a little misleading, because I didn't end up eating all of that, but I thought it looked nicer with a full plate! Sky picked up a small London broil at Eastern Market after work (maybe subconsciously inspired by the upcoming Olympic games?), which is a cut I've never worked with but took surprisingly little time to make. Despite its name, we didn't broil it - instead, we used this recipe, which called for coating it in a dry rub and cooking it on a grill pan. Grilling gave it a nice charred crust, which sealed in all of the juices. I tweaked the dry rub recipe based on what we had and it turned out much spicier than expected. I liked it a lot, but noted below how to tone it down. For a side, I roasted two ears of corn over a flame on the stove and then coated it with a thin layer of margarine and a dash of smoked paprika, which is my favorite spice right now.



Total time to cook: 50 minutes

Ingredients:
1 1 lb London broil
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cayenne pepper (use 1 tsp for a less spicy rub)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp Hungarian or sweet paprika
2 ears corn
1 tbsp margarine
1/4 tsp of smoked paprika

Steps:
- In a small bowl, mix the cayenne, oregano, garlic powder, black pepper and Hungarian/sweet paprika.

- Rub the olive oil all over the meat until its fully coated.
- Coat the meat with the dry rub, using half on each side (and don't forget the edges.)

- Let the meat sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.
- In the meantime, cook the corn, holding it over a flame until the kernels start to blacken a little (you'll see the kernels puff out as they cook.)
- Set aside the corn.
- Heat a grill pan over medium heat.
- Cook the meat for about five minutes on each side for medium-rare - at the halfway point on each side, change the angle so you get crisscrossed grill marks (an even char helps to seal in the juices.)
- Remove the meat and let it rest for five to ten minutes.

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- Turn off the heat, but put the corn on the grill pan for a few minutes to get it hot again.
- Coat the corn with the margarine and then very lightly season it with the smoked paprika.
- Slice the London broil along the bias and serve immediately with the corn.