The Chef: Levi Winters
The Chefs column highlights local culinary masters. The chefs share a recipe that has a lot of meaning to them and thankfully, how to make it. (Well, at least most of it, sometimes secrets must remain that.)
This month’s chef is Levi Winters.
LEVI’S STORY
My dad and I made this for the Coweta Cattlemen’s Association Cook Off during the Coweta Kiwanis Fair.
We did not win. Might have had something to do with my dad trying to bribe Sheriff Lenn Wood, who was one of the judges.
Despite my dad getting arrested, we had a great time.
We love Tex-Mex food and my parents both grew up in Oklahoma. I spent some time there as well. Tex-Mex is basically the food of the state. Anyway, this is a great use of a less expensive cut of meat.
Marinated Tex-Mex Flank Steak 
This recipe is perfect for fajitas, quesadillas, enchiladas, tacos, well you get the picture.
First, make sure you marinate the meat for at least a couple of hours. Second, make sure you cut the meat perpendicular to the grain. It’s easy to tell because those muscle fibers are in lines and go straight across the meat. Just cut perpendicular to that, roughly ¼ inch size strips.
Recipe:
4-6 pound flank steak
½ cup soy sauce
⅓ cup honey
⅓ cup spicy mustard
Two tablespoons of minced garlic
⅓ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons taco/fajita seasoning or cayenne pepper for more heat.
2 chopped scallions/green onions.
So here’s the hard part: Mix all the ingredients – except the steak – in a large bowl.
Next, put the steak in the bowl and saturate it in the marinade. We usually put the steak in a large plastic storage bag along with all the marinade, letting it gel for a couple of hours or so.
This is best grilled on a hot grill, but a hot cast iron skillet will work just as well. Just make sure it’s high heat, this is not a meat you want to slow cook. Every grill is different so I’m not going to give you how many minutes a side.
What you want is medium rare and pull the steak off around 130 degrees. Make sure and let the meat rest for 10 minutes or so to get all the juices back where they belong.
Then, slice perpendicular to the grain in about ¼-strips and enjoy.
