Dijon Balsamic Marinated Steak

Dijon Balsamic Marinated Steak

I am a bit of a steak purist at heart. Most often, I enjoy my steak well seasoned with kosher salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper and that's perfectly delicious, thank-you very much. Sometimes though, especially when we are having guests, I will use this very simple marinade which compliments the natural flavor of the beef extremely well. An hour or so is all the time this marinade takes to do its flavor infusing work before being grilled, pan fried or broiled to juicy perfection.

I cooked these gorgeous striploin steaks on a very hot cast iron grill pan with just a little vegetable oil sprayed onto the pan. Cast iron is my preferred stove top pan for cooking steak because it gets quite hot and retains that heat during the cooking process. One of the essential things necessary to achieving a perfect medium rare steak, or any way you like it cooked really,  is not to cook cold steaks straight from the fridge. Allow the meat to sit, covered at room temperature for about a half hour depending on the thickness of the steaks. These steaks were about 3/4 of an inch thick and were grilled for only 3 1/2 minutes per side. It is also essential to let the steaks rest after cooking to let the meat relax and let the juices redistribute throughout. Just loosely cover them with aluminum foil for 5 minutes or so before serving.

This recipe provides enough marinade for one steak so that you can easily multiply the ingredient amounts depending on the number of steaks you are grilling.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 tsp freshly ground coarse black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together and pour over the steaks in a large Ziploc bag. Marinate for an hour or two before cooking on a hot grill pan, a gas grill or under the broiler.