Skirt Steak with White Wine Holiday Sauce

Alton Brown introduced me to Skirt Steak in his book, “I’m Just Here for the Food”. Skirt Steak is cut from the plate cut (belly) of the cow. It is a long, thin, tough, and extremely flavorful cut of steak. In fact, this cut is my favorite type of steak to cook and serve. I improvised this recipe tonight as a belated Christmas Dinner for my girlfriend and her brother.

• 1-2 pounds skirt steak
• oil (veggie)
• salt and fresh ground pepper

For the Sauce:

• 3/4 cup white wine
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• pinch of tarragon
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnanmon
• dash of ground cloves

1. Let the steak sit at room temp. for about 10 to 15 minutes. This step is important as it narrows the temperature gap between the meat and the pan it will cook in.
2. Apply a little bit of oil to both sides of the steak and season liberally with salt and fresh ground pepper.
3. Let the steaks sit for 5 more minutes.
4. Heat the largest pan you have over medium high to high heat. Cast iron is wonderful, however I use my Tri-ply pans and these work great as well. I reccomend avoiding non-stick pans as this cuts down on fond development during cooking.
5. Place the skirt steak into the pan and sear for 3 minutes without touching or moving the meat. (Moving the meat cuts down on the yummy crust formation, and we wouldn’t want that would we?)
6. Flip the steak and cook for 3 minutes on the other side.
7. Remove meat from heat and let sit, covered with a bowl or tin foil, for 5 minutes.
8. Remember skirt steak is a tough piece of meat. Cut the meat at an angle across the grain.

Sauce:

1. While the meat is sitting covered by the bowl, letting all the juice work it’s way through the meat, pour the white wine into the pan.
2. Add the tarragon, cloves, and cinnamon, and soy sauce.
3. Reduce by half or so, stirring and scraping the pan to get all that delicious fond mixed into the sauce.

Carve the meat as stated above and arrange on a serving platter. Drizzle the sauce over the meat and serve. The sauce in this recipe hints at the taste of warm cider and goes great with bulger pilaf.

Moussaka

This is one of my SO’s favorite dishes. Three or four times a month she will ask me to make this dish. This recipe is adapted from Bade Jackson’s “Turkish Cooking” Eggplant Moussaka recipe.

• 6 medium/large potatos peeled and chopped into circular rounds
• Olive Oil for shallow frying (I use a mixture of Olive Oil and Corn Oil roughly 50/50)
• 1 Tbls butter
• 1 large onion chopped
• 2 large tomato’s chopped
• 1 lb. ground beef (or ground lamb/mutton if available)
• Chopped fresh parsley to garnish (roughly 3 or 4 Tbls)

1. Fry the potato rounds, a handful at a time, in the oil. Cook the potato until it just starts to brown. I like to use a wok with enough oil to just cover the potato and cook at a medium high heat.
2. Transfer the potato into an oven proof dish. Make sure it has high sides – a dutch oven is perfect.
3. Continue roasting the potato’s a few at a time until all potatos are cooked. The potatos should cover the base of the dish when done.
4. Empty the oil out of the wok. Set aside the pan with the potato’s.
5. Melt the butter in the wok.
6. Add the ground meat and cooked until browned.
7. Drain off any excess fat.
8. Add the onion and tomato.
9. Cover and cook over medium heat.
10. While the beef ingredients are cooking – preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
11. When the over is preheated – pour the meat mixture over the potatos.
12. Add a little bit of water or beef broth. You just want to add enough to keep the dish from burning. Roughly 3/4 cup to 1 cup. This will vary depending on the size of pan.
13. Place in the oven and cook for about 40 minutes, until the meat starts to brown.
14. Remove and garnish with the fresh chopped parsley.

This meal is great with slices of thick cut whole grain bread and butter and Spiced Ice Tea. This recipe makes enough for 4. Any leftovers are great the next day. Just reheat in a pan. The potatos are so tender the almost melt, almost forming a nice hash. Enjoy!!

Travels

Well, the move to Oregon went off without a hitch. I have a wonderful new apartment in Gresham, OR with a splendid view of Mount Hood just down the road. The roads were fine, the weather great, and the time spent relaxing. It had been a while since I got to see different parts of the country. It was beautiful.

Anyway, I am still processing the trip and hopefully will have some fun tales to tell once I get me bearings.

Jicama Salad

I’ll be house sitting all of next week. Last night I visited the couple for whom I will be house sitting. They fed me an delicious meal of venison steaks and this AMAZING salad. Many thanks to Wayne and Lois for introducing me to the tasty Jicama plant.

1 Jicama – roughly 12 oz.
1 Orange
1-2 Mangoes
Red Onion – Thinly sliced or chopped
Juice of 1/2 a lime (the other half is great for eating. mmm. Limes)
Fresh Cilantro roughly chopped
Fresh Mint roughly chopped
Chile Flakes
Olive Oil – Extra Virgin
Dash of Salt

Peel the Jicama and cut into matchsticks about 2″ long. Peel the orange and remove as much of the orange from the membrane as possible. Roughly Chop the mangoes. Combine the above ingredients in a large bowl. Add the onion, chile flakes, lime juice. Add in the cilantro and mint. These herbs should be added to taste. Save a little of the mint (chopped) to use as a garnish.

Add just enough olive oil to coat. Roughly 1/4 cup or less. The oil should just coat all the ingredients. Add a little salt to taste. Mix everything. Add the mint garnish.This is an amazing taste sensation. Wonderful blend of hot and sweet.

Sedlo Olenya

This is a recipe for Saddle of Venison. I make this with a large venison roast instead. This recipe is adapted from, “Russian Regional Cooking” by Susan Ward.

Ingredients:
Large Venison roast (anywhere from  2  to  5 pounds)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Thick sliced bacon (enough to cover the top of the roast)
450 ML of beef stock
6 fl. oz. of sour cream
1 tsp. horseradish

The Marinade:

8 oz. dry white white
4 oz. Olive oil (I use a pepper flavored olive oil)
1 large onion thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, crushed
roughly 20 black peppercorns
2 tsp. dried thyme

Make the marinade first. Combine all marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Add the venison to the dish. Coat the roast. Marinade at least 24 hours. Occasionally basting the roast.

When ready to cook the roast: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Remove venison from the marinade and pat dry. Strain the marinade and reserve. Rub salt and pepper into the  top and side of the roast. (I pull out as much of the garlic from the strainer as I can to rub into the skin as well.) Put the roast onto a rack in a baking dish. Cover the top of the roast with bacon strips. Pour the reserved marinade and the stock into the roasting pan. Roast at 450 for about 30 mins.

Reduce the heat to 350. Continue to roast at 350 until desired doneness. As a guide, I cooked my 2.5 pound roast for almost three hours. Baste the roast every 15 minutes. I cover the roast about half-way through.

When done cooking, transfer the roast to a cutting board and carve into slices. Place the marinade into a medium sized saucepan. Heat at high until boiling – then reduce down to medium low. Add the sour cream and horseradish and stir until cream is mixed into sauce. Continue to simmer for a few minutes. Serve the meat with the sauce drizzled over.

This goes well with wild rice, steamed aspargus, and a nice read wine. I recommend Black Opal Shiraz which has a nice peppery flavor to it.

Upcoming Travels

Pretty exciting news. At the end of August I will be moving to the west coast. (Most likely Oregon, but possibly Seattle, WA.) Naturally, I will be posting periodically about the move, and during the trip out there. More coming soon about the trip.

Chicken and White Wine Sauce

Today was lazy day in the kitchen. I didn’t really feel like cooking tonight, but I bought a new pan (a All-Clad 8″ fry pan) today and was excited to try it out, so I whipped up this recipe on the fly. I have to say, I loved the new frying pan. (I will post later reviewing the pan). This recipe is great with rice, I didn’t feel like cooking any veggies, but asparagus would be great with this recipe.

Chicken and White Wine Sauce

2 skinless/boneless chicken breasts
Butter
Spices (I used a Cajun rub and Spike seasoning)
1/4 cup White Wine (I used Twisted River Gewurztraminer)
1/2 chopped Onion
3 or 4 chopped baby Portabella mushrooms

1) melt just enough butter to coat the bottom of your pan. When the pan is heated – place the chicken breasts in the pan. Use a medium lo to medium heat to cook the chicken.

2) season to taste.

3)cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Flip the chicken over. Continue to cook for another 5 to 10 minutes.

4) heat some good quality olive oil over medium heat in another pan. When the oil is hot (but not smoking) add the mushrooms and onion. Stir occasionally.

5) remove the chicken and place on a plate.

6) pour the wine into the pan. Stir almost continually (just pause long enough to stir the mushroom and onion mixture)

7) reduce the wine sauce to half.

8) spoon the sauce over the chicken.

9) sprinkle a spoonful of the mushrooms and onions over the top of the chicken.

10) serve with rice. Spoon some of the sauce over the top of the rice.

11) add a couple of spoonfuls of the mushroom/onions on top of the rice.