skirt steak

BBQ season is here, although I wouldn’t complain if we had some more rain. We are headed into serious drought conditions here in California. But, no rain is forecasted for the weekend and temperatures are up in the 70’s. It’s good grilling weather and steak is on the menu. We prefer hanger, skirt, and ribeye steak on the grill. And, of them all, my family is most fond of skirt steak, a cut which has unfortunately become more expensive because its popularity for fajitas.

Arugula is present year round in my garden, it has self sowed itself prolifically enough to more closely resemble a weed. The wild selviticca is very peppery and tart, unlike the tamer varieties you find in the supermarket. You don’t need much to make a big impact.

Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

Grilled Steak with Roast Garlic and Arugula Chimichurri

8 cloves of roasted garlic
1 small shallot
1 large handful of arugula
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
Olive oil
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1-1/2 to 2 pounds of steak for the BBQ

In the bowl of a regular or mini-food processor combine the garlic and shallot, pulse until finely chopped. Add the arugula and pulse again, add the olive oil, wine vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Pulse to combine into a green sauce.
Meanwhile preheat your BBQ grill or stove top grill pan on high heat. Rub the steak with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill to your desired doneness. Let the steak rest on a cutting board for at least 10 minutes before cutting against the grain.
Serve with chimichurri sauce.

Grilled Skirt Steak with Arugula Chimicurri Sauce

Grilled Skirt Steak with Arugula Chimichurri Sauce

Note: Roast Garlic

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
Cut the top 1/4 inch off the top of a head of garlic.
Place in the center of a piece of aluminum foil and drizzle with olive oil.
Wrap the foil, enclosing the garlic, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until soft.
Allow to cool before squeezing the cloves from the skin.

Ok, I give up; the red wine pickle brine has won! Inspired by Mr. Fitz’s hanger steak and the beet pickle brine that was tossed down the sink, I purchased skirt steak at the butchers.

Then I got curious about the difference between skirt steak and hanger steak, were they the same? I thought so, but I was wrong. A little searching turned up the answer. There are four cuts which are very similar in looks but come from different places on the cow; the skirt, flatiron, hanger, and flank steaks. Isn’t the Internet amazing? You can find out anything with just a few clicks. Following is a quick map of where you will those various steaks:

Skirt steak, it turns out, is actually the cow’s diaphragm muscle, it’s chewy but tender if cooked quickly and left quite rare. It has quite a lot of marbling and is very flavorful. It’s a long and narrow piece of meat, as much as a few feet in length. It takes well to marinades or dry rubs. It’s one of my favorite cuts and has been discovered in recent years. At my butchers it was more expensive per pound than a T-bone steak!

Flank steak comes from the belly area near a cow’s back legs. It’s much leaner than the skirt steak and takes well to marinades and grilling. Flank should be sliced against the grain for serving.

Hanger steak comes from deep inside the loin, encircled by the rib cake. It’s relatively tender compared to skirt and flank steaks (and more expensive since there is only one per cow). The French call this cut an onglet; it’s frequently seen on menus in bistros accompanied by pomme frites.

A flatiron steak comes from the front shoulder of the cow; it’s sometimes called a top blade or petite tender.

I’d recommend cooking all of them to rare to medium rare.

This post should probably be titled “Skirt steak marinated in red wine pickle brine with chimichurri sauce”, but that’s a bit of a mouthful! Chimichurri sauce is a green herb sauce originally from Argentina; there it’s commonly paired with steak.

Red wine pickling brine and marinade

Red wine and vinegar marinade

2 cups of red wine vinegar
1 cup of red wine
½ cup of water
¼ cup of honey
1/3 cup of packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
2 teaspoons of black peppercorns
16 sprigs of fresh thyme (8 for heating with marinade)
8 sprigs of fresh rosemary (4 for heating with marinade)

Combine the red wine vinegar, red wine, water, honey, brown sugar, salt, peppercorns, 8 sprigs of fresh thyme, and 4 sprigs of rosemary in a saucepan and slowly bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat and allow the herbs to infuse the marinade as it cools.
Once cool remove the thyme and rosemary.
Pour the marinade over the steaks, adding the other fresh herbs.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, overnight would be ok.
Pat dry before grilling (we used the BBQ) or cooking on a stove top grill. Since a single steak will vary in thickness you will have a range of “rareness”. We cooked on fairly high heat for 3 minutes a side.

Skirt steak

Marinating skirt steak

Chimichurri sauce

Chimichurri sauce

1 cup of fresh parsley leaves, stalks removed
¼ cup of fresh oregano
¼ cup of fresh mint
3-5 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of shallots
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper
½ teaspoon of chili flakes (less if you do not want spicy)
¾ cup of olive oil

Combine all the ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor. Process until finely chopped by turning off and on, scrape down the sides as needed.
With the machine running, slowly add the olive oil until an emulsion is formed. Scrape down the sides as needed.
Pour into a container and refrigerate. This will keep for 3 days in the fridge.