This morning on Cooking Channel’s series“French Food At Home,” Laura Calder made a luxurious, expensive recipe. She called it Basil Beef, and it started with a beef tenderloin. On TV, she seared the tenderloin, barely touching the inside, although she gave directions for cooking it in the oven if you wanted it more done. (It is those directions which Cooking Channel has on the web site, no doubt at the direction of their lawyers.) The tenderloin was then thinly sliced and allowed to marinate (yes, after cooking) for hours in a dressing made from lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil and fresh basil.

Tenderloin is way too rich for my pocketbook, although some time back I did find a smaller-than-normal piece on expiration-day sale and enjoyed it greatly. But I thought the technique might be fun to try with flatiron steak, another piece of meat which is quite tender and which is best served on the medium-to-rare end of the spectrum.

So I found a flatiron steak at Kroger tonight, seared it on my cast iron griddle, and then cut it into thin strips on the bias. I improvised a bit on the marinade, replacing the fresh basil with dried thyme and minced garlic, adding a little dry mustard as an emulsifier, and hitting it with a bit of soy sauce in lieu of salt. I would give you a recipe but I was not paying much attention to quantities.

I tried some just now — after just a couple of hours, not nearly as long as Laura Calder let hers marinate — and it was quite good. The rest may be even better tomorrow.