Stuffed Flank Steak

This recipe is a little bit tricky but worth it.  The great thing about any kind of stuffed meat is that there is a lot of flexibility in terms of what you put in the stuffing.  For this particular recipe I used some Asian flavored greens, but you could substitute lots of other vegetables and flavors.  This recipe is also flexible based on how you like your steak cooked.  The times mentioned below are for a rare-medium rare steak, but you could cook longer for a higher level of doneness if you are so inclined.

Yum.  

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs flank steak

1 bunch of mustard greens

2 Tbsp olive oil

3 Tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp sesame oil

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp crushed red pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place rack about 4 inches from top of oven and preheat broiler to high.  
2. Remove stems from mustard greens and chop.  Pieces should be fairly large because greens are going to cook down to a fraction of original size.  
3. In a large pot heat olive oil over medium high.  
4. Add minced garlic and cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds).  
5. Add chopped mustard greens to pot and stir with a wooden spoon.  Continue to cook until greens have reduced and turned a bright green color.  
6. Once greens have reduced add sesame oil, soy sauce, and crushed red pepper.  
7. Stir until all ingredients are incorporated, then remove from heat.  
8. Place flank steak between two sheets of plastic wrap.  
9. Pound with a meat mallet or small skillet until meat is approximately 1/2 inch thick.  The idea is to spread the meat out as much as possible to get a wide, thin steak.  
10. Remove meat from plastic wrap and discard plastic wrap.  
11. Spread greens in an even layer on top of meat.  Make sure to leave a 2 inch edge on one side of the meat.  
12. Starting at the end where the greens go all the way to the edge, roll meat and greens until you have formed a spiral.  Soy sauce and moisture from the greens will be squeezed out while you do this.  That is normal.  
13. Tie spiral together with several pieces of kitchen twine.  Once meat is secure, transfer to a baking pan lined with foil, seam side down.  
14. Put in oven for 5 minutes.  
15. Rotate meat so that the seam is now up and return to broiler for another 5 minutes.  
16. After meat has browned, remove from oven.  Tent with foil and rest for 10 minutes before cutting.  
17. Cut into slices 1-2 inches wide and serve hot.  Enjoy!

Notes

• I love greens of all varieties, but mustard greens are my favorite for a dish like this.  They are extremely hardy and there is little chance of them burning or falling apart in the oil and garlic.  If you prefer you could also try kale, collards, or Swiss chard.
• The hardest part of this recipe is pounding the meat to the desired thickness.  The plastic wrap kept tearing and slipping  and I kept having to add more sheets.  Finally I got awesome boyfriend to whack it a few times with a heavy skillet and this worked infinitely better than my feeble attempts with a baby hammer.
• I bought my kitchen twine in the grocery store.  It was on display among the other kitchen utensils- spatulas, whisks, and the like.  
• I take my steaks pretty rare, while awesome boyfriend likes a more medium steak.  I cooked to a rare, cut half off, and put it back in the oven for an additional 6 minutes.  This brought the remaining steak up to a medium and we were both happy.  

If you don't own one of these you should invest in one immediately.  A
large nonstick soup pot with a lid has many uses.  I love mine.  

When your greens look like this they are done.  

Before we pounded it with a skillet, the steak was about 3 times the
desired thickness.  

You can see that after we pounded the steak it was much wider and
thinner.  Just pile the greens on top of there when you're ready.  Start
rolling from the top, not the edge where you left your 2 inches uncovered.  

You can also buy a much longer version of this that comes on a spool.  

Some of the soy sauce and olive oil from the greens started leaking out
when I started rolling everything up.  I recommend that you do this
on a cutting board or a towel to avoid a mess.  

Remember, you're not covering with foil- only lining the pan.  

Judge me if you want, but the first time I saw the words 'tent with foil' I
had no idea what they meant.  Here's a picture.  You are literally forming
a kind of tent with a piece of foil that will help keep the steam around
the meat while it cools.