This is what's for dinner. It is over 100°, no one is in the mood for heavy food. So quick, fresh and easy, please. I bought a flat iron steak and was tired of the Asian marinades I have been cooking all summer. I was in the mood for a little spice. Enter, Merken. This is a Mapuche Spice from Chile. It uses Goat's Horn Chile Peppers, coriander seed, cumin and salt. The peppers are sun dried after picking, and then are smoked in wicker baskets hung from the ceiling over a wood fire. They are then stone ground and mixed with the other spices, although the chile is the predominant flavor. It is not hot at all, just smoky and complex. 
I made a mixture of
2 T Merken
1 clove of garlic minced
2 T brown sugar
1 T cider vinegar
1 T Worcestershire.
Make this into a paste and cover both sides of the flat iron. Let the steak chill, wrapped well for at least an hour. Over a hot grill, cook the steak for about 4 minutes each side. It is best hot and medium rare in the center. It will be prone to burning because of the brown sugar, so keep an eye on it.
We are having ours with pico de gallo. The garden is bursting with jalepenos, so I whipped this up. Delicious and cool with the meat, delicious with tortilla chips before dinner even gets to the table. I use a chopper from you-know-where, and that is why everything is precisely the same size. I know Gordon Ramsay would kick my lazy little behind out of the kitchen for not chopping them by hand, but boy, it is SO easy this way! Notice my grapefruit spoon, it does a great job seeding tomatoes and peppers!
Pico
1 large tomato, seeded, diced
4 jalepeno peppers, seeded, diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded, diced
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
1 sweet onion, diced
Juice of one lime
Salt and Pepper
Does it get any easier than that? I plated it up with a little quinoa I made a few nights ago. I love summer eating! Get out there and grill!
