Marinated Skirt Steak

Skirt steak.  All the rage on Food TV these days and hard to find, and when you do its from either a sketchy ethnic market or one that is uber expensive (got that whole paycheck).  Yippee...I found a good source that is CHEAP...Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Markets (I'm mayor on Foursquare at the Arcadia CA store) finally carries it. CHEAP I can't stress that enough, paid $1.29 lb for the stuff today.  I can buy a few pounds for next to nothing and let the fam feast away on its goodness without breaking the bank.  Not that I have anything against a great aged ribeye, but there is a huge difference between $1.29 and 14.99/lb!

A couple of things to think about. Skirt steak is a tough cut of meat.  It responds well to acidic marinades that break down the tissue.  Cutting ACROSS the grain also makes it much easier to chew and swallow.  The former is pretty easy to do, the latter is even easier is the grain is readily apparent.

The marinade I use here is loosely based on a marinade that is used on a Santa Maria Tri-tip (a cut that's pretty exclusive to CA and some areas of the South Western US).  I used Thai Chili peppers, but a red Jalapeno that is more commonly found can be used to bring in the bit of heat.  The rest of the ingredients are so simple and common it falls into the category of stupid easy.  Do marinate the skirt steak for at least 2 hours so the tissues break down and soften for the best chew and taste possible.

Make your life easy, get yourself a mini-food processor to make whizzing up the marinade a breeze.  Without the task of finely mincing and grating all of this is a chore.  I got a nifty one from Braun that comes with my handblender at Target a while back that does the trick nicely.  And it was cheap and very durable.

Marinated Skirt Steak

4-5 lbs skirt steak
1/2 c balsamic vinegar
1/2 c olive oil
2 red Thai chili or 1 red jalapeno
2 t rosemary
1 small onion, peeled
4 cloves garlic
2 t salt
1 t ground black pepper

Combine vinegar, oil, peppers, rosemary, chilis, salt, pepper, garlic and onion in blender or mini-food processor.  Whiz until blended and solids are finely minced.  Put skirt steak and marinade in a non reactive container and cover.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

1/2 hour prior to cooking bring skirt steak out and let sit at room temperature to warm up for better cooking.  Pre-heat grill to HIGH.  Cook skirt steak to med-rare at most, past medium and it is too chewy, tough and dry to eat.  About 3-4 minutes per side.

Let stand 10 minutes in foil packet.  Cut across grain.

Cherry Cream Cheese Pie

 I could have sworn I posted this before, but I can't find it anywhere.  Pardon the duplicate if there is one out there that I missed.

This came about because my wife loves Cherry Pie and I love Cheese Danish.  I created this recipe in my head and did it years ago when we were in the apartment in Valley Village that had an oven barely big enough to fit a pie plate in.  It worked and has been on the list of fun brunch food for us for years.

It is stupid easy to make as I use bought puff pastry sheets instead of taking the day or so to make it from scratch.  (Did that once for bragging rights, but seriously the store bought stuff is pretty marvy).  The sheets are smaller than a pie plate so you do need to roll it out a bit and then use the roller to pull the corners out a bit more.

 The corners won't meet in the middle, but that's OK.  If you stretched the dough to meet there you'd have it too thin and it would burn before the cream cheese filling had set.

 Pick a good Cherry Pie filling.  I've gone through several brands before I found one that I liked.  I really like the Cherry Pie Filling from Fresh & Easy stores based here in suburban L.A.  They have stores in So Cal, AZ and NV...use the handy store locater HERE to find the one nearest you.  Of course you can always use your favorite brand and make the filling from scratch if you so desire.  Just trying to make it a bit easier for you to duplicate what I did.  I like this brand as its not too sweet and the cherry's also have a bit of a sour bite to them.

Lastly leave the cream cheese out over night so it is amply soft for mixing.  Not having it at room temp makes it nearly impossible to beat in the egg and have a light fluffy mixture.


Cherry Cream Cheese Pie

• 1 sheet puff pastry - thawed
• 1 8 oz pkg cream cheese - room temp
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/4 t almond extract
• 1 egg
• 1 can Cherry Pie filling

Preheat oven to 400F

Flour your pastry board well.  Lay down the sheet of puff pastry and gently roll until it will fit into your pie plate.  Give the corners an extra roll or two until they are an additional inch or so further out from the pastry.
Place in pie plate.

Mix cream cheese, sugar, almond extract and egg.  Beat until fluffy.  Pour into prepared puff pastry.

Carefully spoon pie filling over cream cheese mixture.  Pull corners of pastry up and over towards the center of the pie, they won't meet. See picture of the detail.   Bake 40-45 minutes until golden brown. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.  Can serve at room temperature as well.

Smoked Sausage and Barley Soup

This last week has not really been soup weather here in LA.  It doesn't change the fact that a bowl of soup makes a nice light meal.

What I like about soup is they are really pretty easy to make.  Even with limited kitchen skills any one can put a decent dinner on the table.  Of course ready made broth is the way to go if you want to cut corners and have the taste of an all day simmered soup.

To that end I've discovered on a bottom shelf at Fresh and Easy Market their "organic" low sodium Chicken Broth for $1.99 for 32 oz.  Such a deal - small dent on the old check book and big on flavor.  Can't go wrong with that combo.

I love Barley for lot of reasons.  Its just a little firmer on the bite than rice, a very mellow nutty taste and really versatile.  The one draw back you have to be aware of is that it is a tough grain to cook up as it is very dense so you do need to plan ahead a little when cooking with it.  

I keep a lot of staples on hand.  Everyone has their own for the pantry, fridge and freezer.  Smoked Sausage like a kielbasa is one I keep in the freezer as its a quick go to for dinner.  You can do it as a stand alone meat entree or in a soup, either way its good.

This soup idea got its start from the simple barley soup my Mom has made for years.  Its just a ham bone simmered down until the meat falls off the bone in a pot with some onion, water and barley.  Not exactly a fiber rich soup.  Its tasty enough but I really don't like picking meat off bones so that isn't really the meat option for soup as far as I am concerned.  Swapping out another smoked pork product would get the same flavors, adding in some more vegies help the fiber content which helps the old plumbing and of course herbage to up the savory flavor and I have a soup that's a winner around here in the winter.

Smoked Sausage and Barley Soup

• 1 lb smoked sausage (like a kielbasa)
  
• 1 large yellow onion - diced
  
• 1 large carrot - slice
  
• 1 T chopped garlic
  
• 2 32 oz cans Chicken Stock
  
• 1 c barley
  
• 1 T dried parsley
  
• 1 T dried tarragon
  
• 1 t thyme
  
• 1 t fennel seeds - crushed
  
• 1 t fresh cracked pepper
  
• 2 bay leaf
  
• 1 t liquid smoke
  
• 12 oz bag spinach
  
• olive oil
  
• salt
  
• green onion finely sliced
  
• fresh grated Parmesan cheese
  

Place barley and 1 32 oz can of chicken stock in large pan.  Bring to boil then cover and simmer stirring occasionally 20 minutes.  At end of cooking turn heat off and allow barley to steep in the stock 1 hour with lid on.

Coat bottom of stock pot with olive oil and heat to shimmering over medium high heat.  Add diced onion,carrot and pepper cook about 5 minutes until onion is translucent. Slice sausage in 1/4 inch thick pieces. Add to pot along with parsley, tarragon, thyme and fennel. Cook until onions are beginning to caramelize and the sausage is browned about 10-15 minutes.  Stirring often.  When sausage is browned add the garlic and stir one minute to get the garlic cooked.

Add liquid smoke, remaining 32 oz chicken stock, barley and its remaining liquid.  Test for seasoning and add salt as needed.  Bring to boil and then reduce and simmer 10 minutes.  Add spinach, stir in and cook 5 minutes until the spinach has wilted but still bright green.

Garnish hot soup with sprinkle of Parmesan and sliced green onion.

Really important cook the spinach only until wilted but still bright green, the flavor is much better and the texture is not slimy at all.

"Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Market" find, 32 oz low sodium organic chicken broth at $1.99 can't be beat.