Yes, I finally found skirt steak at the grocery, so I’m trying out the Serious Eats recipe, mostly because the marinade/salsa looks so tasty. Luckily there are just two of us and the little under-1 lb package will do. Even at that small size, it was $18, though, so I don’t want to make any mistakes.
I made few changes to the salsa:
- I only used dried ancho chiles, 5 of them, instead of the two kinds in the original
- I added two roasted jalapenos from our garden
- I did not use canned chipotle peppers
- I did not have, nor want fish sauce, so I added a 3rd tablespoon of soy sauce
- Neither did I have the coriander seed, so I just skipped that
- And mostly, I didn’t do all the juicing of fresh fruit nor the toasting and grinding of seeds—I didn’t even chop my own cilantro!
I’ll be back later to show how it all worked out on the grill—that’s the part I’m worried about, that cooking with the lid off won’t give me the char I want before the meat’s too done. In the meantime, here’s the sauce, with my variations:
Carne Asada Salsa
See the original recipe here: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/09/carne-asada-food-lab-recipe-kenji.html
Ingredients
- 5 whole dried ancho chilies, stems and seeds removed
- 2 roasted jalapeno peppers, peeled and seeded
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 6 medium cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup cilantro paste—solves dealing with the disgusting smell of cilantro
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- Kosher salt
Preparation
- Place dried ancho chilies on a plate and microwave until pliable, about 20-30 seconds. I didn’t know how this would work out, because I only ever reconstitute dried peppers to use in chili or to make enchilada sauce. I always strain the reconstituted, blended chiles, so I was concerned about the pepper skins, but they blended up nicely.
- Transfer to a blender with the rest of the ingredients, except the salt.
- Blend for 1-2 minutes until smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender jar to get all the bits.
- Transfer the salsa to two bowls, one to eat later as a dressing, the other for the marinade.
- Add 2 teaspoons kosher salt to the marinade, dip meat portions in the sauce, then pour all into a sealable bag. Seal and refrigerate for about 3 hours.
- Add salt to taste to the remaining salsa and refrigerate.
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