Sasha's Kitchen: Lemongrass Grilled Strip Steak

I will have to preface this recipe by saying that although it just looks like a slab of meat, it was a great marinade and a delicious thai inspired steak.  I was inspired by my old (but beloved) Caribbean and Pacific Rim cookbook, to create a lemongrass flavored marinade for steak.  My recipe is totally different from the one in the cookbook, but stays true to two things used to flavor the steak: soy sauce and lemongrass.  You can use either fresh or dried lemongrass for this recipe and I recommend fresh lemongrass if you can get your hands on it.  I used a nice organic cut of strip steak for the recipe, which was lean and absorbed the flavors well.

I marinaded the steaks overnight, which gave them a wonderful strong flavor from the marinade.  This wasn't intended as we wound up saving the steak for a day due to some last minute dinner plans.  I took the steak out of the marinade after about 10-12 hours though so not to over-marinate it.  I like how this worked out - the soy and pineapple juice made for a lovely marinade, with flavors of both lemongrass and cilantro.

Sasha's Lemongrass Grilled Strip Steak
2 organic strip steaks
2/3 cup of soy sauce
2/3 cup pineapple juice
5 T lime juice
5 T minced lemongrass
1 T sesame oil
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 jalapeno, diced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1 T brown sugar

To prepare the steaks, it is very simple.  Just combine the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl and marinate the steaks overnight (or for at least 5 hours).  Then, use a grill pan to grill the steaks to your liking.  I'd suggest serving with potatoes, fried rice or a salad.  I like this dish with a first course of a homemade Caesar salad.  My husband had his with an egg served sunny side up, which worked nicely, he said.