Grilled Flat Iron Steak with Zucchini/Tomato Salsa

Title as it would read on a restaurant menu:

Grilled Flat Iron Steak with Zucchini/Tomato Salsa
  Southwestern marinated flat iron steak grilled to order and topped with Zucchini/Tomato Salsa.  Served with a boiled potato and grilled Mexican corn on the cob.
$16.95

The $16.95 is hypothetical, but that is roughly what you would pay in a restaurant for what I made tonight.
I used flat iron steaks.

Made a Southwestern marinade using garlic, lemon juice, oil, soy sauce, cumin, and chili powder.

I cleaned up the steaks, cut out the tough silverskin and everything.  That's the only problem with these steaks.  There is a big, inedible piece of silverskin running right through the middle of it.  You have to cut it out or the steak will be too tough to eat.  It wasn't too bad though.  They came cleaned up pretty nice from the butcher shop.
Then I poured the marinade over them and set them in the fridge for several hours.

I have been making a lot of compound butter for steak toppings at work recently.  I figured it was time for something healthier.  So I searched around and salsa topped steak sounded amazing.  I was looking for salsa like Pico de Gallo or something when Mom suggested Zucchini Salsa.  We have zucchini from the garden now.  So, hey, why not.  I looked online for some recipe suggestions.  Didn't really find any that I liked.  So I made my own version.  I used zucchini, tomato, Hungarian wax pepper, parsley, lemon juice, onion, garlic, oil, salt, and pepper.

I was wanting to use lime juice, jalapenos, but we didn't have any around.  So lemon juice and a Hungarian wax pepper was the next best thing.

I boiled some big, freshly dug potatoes,

and made Mexican corn on the cob.

Smeared mayo on the corn, sprinkled on Parmesan and chili powder, and wrapped them in foil.

Then I grilled them for about 15 minutes.

Then it was time to grill the steaks.

I can't seem to get any good grill marks on them on this grill.  Must be it can't be hot enough.  Still got a little but of grill marks here.

The finished product.

It was good.  Very good.  Next time if I make this Mexican corn I will add a bit of salt.  It was still good though.  I am now a fan of salsa for a steak topping.  Must find other salsas for topping.

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Grilled Salt and Pepper Porterhouse Steaks

Yesterday for the 4th I decided to grill steaks.  I'm not a big fan of grilling at home.  Throw me burgers, steaks, chicken, etc... at work and I will grill it to perfection.  Give me a steak at the house and I don't know how to grill it.  Grilling at work and at home are two way different things.  Anyway, since it was the 4th yesterday, I decided I needed to grill something.  We had some Porterhouse steaks in the freezer.  I thawed them out.  Lit the grill.  Now they tell me that the best way to grill at home is to use a plain charcoal grill.  I tried that before, with no success.  So I used the gas grill this time.  I still have stress grilling stuff on it, but not as much as over charcoal.  Thanks to the July issue of Bon Appetit, I used some grilling tips I read in there.  Normally I would light both sides of the gas grill on high.  Bon Appetit says to heat one side hot and the other side low.  That way you sear the meat on the hot side and finish it on the not-so-hot side.  So I tried that.

I'm not a big fan of marinades for steak, especially for great cuts of meat like the Porterhouse.  All they need is salt and pepper.  Here they are freshly salted and peppered.

Then I seared them on the hot side.  Rotating them to make crosshatch marks.

Since Dad and I like our steaks more on the rare to medium-rare side, I put ours off the the side while the other two were getting well done for Mom and Tryphena.

Tryphena made some really nice Ranch and Bacon Potato Salad.

I'm not a big fan of potato salad.  This was actually pretty good though.  Thank you newly acquired Food Network Magazine.  I think I will subscribe to you after my subscription to the now stupid Bon Appetit runs out.

Mom heated up some Calico Beans to go with the steaks and potato salad.  It was all so good.  The steaks were awesome.  Quite possible one of the best steaks I have ever had.  Now that isn't saying much, because I'm not a big steak eater, but I have had some steaks in reputable places, and this was just as good or better if I can say so myself.

Now this is why I don't like grilling at home.  I took a temperature of the well done steaks.  They read 165 F.  Well done.  Mom and Tryphena cut into them, and they are kinda medium to med-well.  Um, grrr!  That almost always happens at home for whatever reason.  It doesn't happen at work though.  Hmm...  Then I had to finish off the "well done" steak in the oven.  Oh, well.  I am now determined to master this home grilling.

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