So, the next step up from having a song stuck in your head is having a song stuck on your speakers. I am the worst offender of being in stupid love with a song and playing it over and over (and over) again. There are many reasons I adore living alone and playing the same songs incessantly is right up there with leaving home shopping television on while I sleep. Side note to my beloved QVC: super not cool to demonstrate a bissell stick vac in the middle of the night, last night–a vacuum stills sounds like a vacuum through my TV speakers and will wake me up.
Two weeks ago, I swear I played “The Wanderer” by Dion approximately 712 times in one week. It’s usually not songs I newly discover that make the broken record club. Most often, it’s songs that come up on a shuffle of sorts that I haven’t heard in a while that spark either high or low on the emotional spectrum, that make the cut. I will take a minute to note here that as far as said emotional spectrum goes, if it’s a scale of 1-10, I’m either ranging in the 1,2,3 or the 7,8,9, not often in between.
So when it comes to what defines my song obsession of the moment, I’m either dancing all over my car or apartment to it or crying like those cartoons where the water starts building up around them and they swim away, because of it. I’ve been playing Vince Gill’s album “These Days” on repeat for almost a week straight and I don’t see any end in sight because every song on it satisfies one or both of the aforementioned emotions. No one can stop me either because if a Vince Gill tree falls in the forest…
Okay moving on, these steak tacos make for a perfect summer night dinner. The chimichurri, that gets its smoky edge from the addition of a charred poblano pepper, doubles as both the marinade and the topping for the tacos. I used a skirt steak but you are more than welcome to substitute a flatiron steak or another of your favorite cuts, if more readily available or a better price. Since the chimichurri has so much flavor, on top of the marinated steak, I left the toppings simple with a little sour cream and red cabbage. Okay, click through below to read the recipe in full!
Ingredients (makes 4 tacos)
Tacos:
1 pound skirt steak, excess fat trimmed
4 flour tortillas
1/4 head red cabbage, thinly sliced
Sour cream, to taste
Chimichurri marinade/topping:
1 poblano pepper
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated (or minced)
1/2 jalapeño, seeded and minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh oregano leaves, finely chopped
2 limes, juiced
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Directions
To make chimichurri marinade/topping and steak:
1. Remove steak from fridge, rinse and dry with paper towels, and lay flat and uncovered. Allow them to come to room temperature, about 10-15 minutes while you prepare the marinade.
2. Over a low heat, char the poblano pepper on the stovetop burner. Rotate slowly with metal tongs, to allow each side to blacken. Once charred on all sides, place in a plastic zip top bag using tongs, seal, and set aside for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a medium mixing bowl, prep and combine the remaining chimichurri ingredients, prepared as specified in ingredient list.
4. After the charred pepper has cooled inside of the zip top bag, use the back of a butter knife (I find this tool works best,) to remove/scrape the skin from the outside of the pepper. Once the blistered skin is removed, remove the seeds and ribs from inside the pepper, and finely dice. Stir into existing chimichurri mixture.
5. Using half of the mixture, marinate the meat. I prefer to layer the meat with marinade flat, in a dish versus the zip top bag method because I find the mixture stays evenly and consistently coated the entire time. Feel free to use the method you like best. Marinate meat, covered top, bottom and all over, for 20 minutes at room temperature. Note: Because the marinade contains lime, the acid in the lime will start to cook the proteins in the meat if you leave it for much longer than 20 minutes, so don’t.
6. After meat has marinated for 20 minutes, scrape off most of the marinade from the meat’s surface and pat dry with paper towels (the drier the surface, the better the sear! moisture is a meat-browning enemy) A few herbs left is just fine but we want the surface of the meat to have a good amount of direct contact with the skillet so it can sear, rather than just wasting that high heat just on cooking the herbs, garlic, and chiles that were coating the meat during the marination.
7. Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat for at least 3-4 minutes. Cook steak for about 4 minutes per side, until medium rare. Of course, this depends on the size of your cuts and your preference of doneness. This is what I did for a medium rare!
8. Let the meat rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing thinly, against the grain (perpendicular to the direction that the muscle line in the meat.)
To assemble the tacos:
1. Warm each tortilla briefly on the stovetop, over low heat. Spread thin layer of sour cream down the center of each tortilla, divide sliced steak evenly onto each taco, top with red cabbage.
Nifty printable is right about here:
- 1 pound skirt steak, excess fat trimmed
- 4 flour tortillas
- 1/4 head red cabbage, thinly sliced
- Sour cream, to taste
- 1 poblano pepper
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated (or minced)
- 1/2 jalapeño, seeded and minced
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup fresh oregano leaves, finely chopped
- 2 limes, juiced
- 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- Remove steak from fridge, rinse and dry with paper towels, and lay flat and uncovered. Allow them to come to room temperature, about 10-15 minutes while you prepare the marinade.
- Over a low heat, char the poblano pepper on the stovetop burner. Rotate slowly with metal tongs, to allow each side to blacken. Once charred on all sides, place in a plastic zip top bag using tongs, seal, and set aside for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a medium mixing bowl, prep and combine the remaining chimichurri ingredients, prepared as specified in ingredient list.
- After the charred pepper has cooled inside of the zip top bag, use the back of a butter knife (I find this tool works best,) to remove/scrape the skin from the outside of the pepper. Once the blistered skin is removed, remove the seeds and ribs from inside the pepper, and finely dice. Stir into existing chimichurri mixture.
- Using half of the mixture, marinate the meat. I prefer to layer the meat with marinade flat, in a dish versus the zip top bag method because I find the mixture stays evenly and consistently coated the entire time. Feel free to use the method you like best. Marinate meat, covered top, bottom and all over, for 20 minutes at room temperature. Note: Because the marinade contains lime, the acid in the lime will start to cook the proteins in the meat if you leave it for much longer than 20 minutes, so don't.
- After meat has marinated for 20 minutes, scrape off most of the marinade from the meat's surface and pat dry with paper towels (the drier the surface, the better the sear! moisture is a meat-browning enemy) A few herbs left is just fine but we want the surface of the meat to have a good amount of direct contact with the skillet so it can sear, rather than just wasting that high heat just on cooking the herbs, garlic, and chiles that were coating the meat during the marination.
- Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat for at least 3-4 minutes. Cook steak for about 4 minutes per side, until medium rare. Of course, this depends on the size of your cuts and your preference of doneness. This is what I did for a medium rare!
- 8. Let the meat rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing thinly, against the grain (perpendicular to the direction that the muscle line in the meat.)
- Warm each tortilla briefly on the stovetop, over low heat. Spread thin layer of sour cream down the center of each tortilla, divide sliced steak evenly onto each taco, top with red cabbage.