This simple combination of skirt steak and cucumber salad is easily the steak dish I make most often. For the salad, combine two cucumbers, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced; one medium tomato, cored, seeded and thinly sliced, minced Thai chili to taste; a good palmful of fresh mint, finely chopped; 3-4 tablespoons of lime juice; and a splash of fish sauce (start with around a tablespoon if you're not a huge fan of the stuff, yet). Toss all ingredients to combine.

As we all know, steak lovers can be pretty particular about how they like their steak cooked. Having said that, I'm not going to insist on any specific method or level of doneness. Most recently, I grilled a 1.5 pound skirt steak, trimmed of excess fat and cut into three pieces, over a very hot (three seconds max with the hand test) fire of hardwood charcoal. If grilling is out of the question, broiling the same skirt steak works just fine. After resting the steak, cut it across the grain into thin strips. This shortens the muscle fibers and yields a more tender cut.

[Photo: Nick Vagnoni]
If possible, try to time your steak grilling and salad making so that the cucumbers don't sit in the lime juice for too long. They'll lose some of their crunch after a while. From there, it's as simple as tossing the steak with the salad. This time around, I also added some thick slices of red onion, which I dressed with olive oil, kosher salt and cracked pepper before grilling. Coarsely chopped, the onions add a welcome sweetness to the salad. Tossing everything with some boiled rice noodles made the salad a bit more substantial (read: dinner).

As a side note, I made this salad in college while a roommate's mother was visiting. Several month's later, that same roommate approached me with her phone and a slightly puzzled look, saying "It's my mom. She wants to talk to you." Her mom wanted the salad recipe, which I gladly gave to her over the phone.