I find that I end up making a lot of skirt steak—especially when I can get thin cuts—because of its quick stove-top cooking time. (Because we don't have a kitchen vent, thicker cuts of meat have been known to result in unwanted, though exciting, visits from the fire department.) After it's cooked, I typically either finely chop the meat for steak sandwiches—which I make with sautéed onions and a healthy dose of Gruyère cheese on a nice baguette—or thinly slice it over greens for Thai-style beef salads. After years of cooking steaks over high heat only, The Zuni Café Cookbook's recipe was a revelation. First you trim off the fat and season the meat with salt (to deepen the flavor, you can then refrigerate the steak for as little as four hours and as much as a day, depending on the thickness of the meat). Before you cook the steak, blot it with paper towels, then coat it with olive oil. (I had always put the oil in the pan first, before throwing the steak on.) Then, on a preheated grill or a hot skillet over high heat, sear each side of the meat until it's "splotched with a little color," and then slightly lower the heat to cook the meat through—a few minutes for a very thin cut and eight minutes for a thick cut. I find that this recipe makes for perfectly cooked steak, without the char from cooking at high heat only.
INGREDIENTS
- 5 to 6 ounces skirt or hanger steak for each serving
- Mild olive oil, as needed to coat the meat
- Salt
