Marinated Skirt Steak with Shallot Butter or Bleu Cheese

This was by far the most popular recipe ever at Now We're Cooking.  We put in on our menu the second month, and it stayed on our menu almost constantly for the next 32 months.  This recipe also works well with any tender cut of beef - rib eye or strip steak.  It can work with flank steak, but it's not acidic enough to tenderize the steak, so use a top grade of steak.

Marinated Skirt Steaks with Bleu Cheese or Caramelized Shallot Butter

½ cup hoisin sauce 

¼ cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon garlic

2 teaspoons ginger

2 Tablespoons rice vinegar

1 Tablespoon Mae Ploy sweet chile sauce 

6 6-ounce skirt steaks  

½ cup bleu cheese crumbles 

3 Tablespoons shallot butter (recipe below)

1. Mix the first 6 ingredients together well.  Pour over steaks.  Turn the steaks a few times so they're fully coated.  Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator for 4-24 hours.  (You can also put them all in a plastic bag and freeze them. The steaks will marinate while they're defrosting in the refrigerator.)
   
2. Fire up the grill to high temperature.  Remove steaks from marinade; discard marinade.  Grill steaks for 3-5 minutes per side to desired doneness.  Top with bleu cheese and melt for 1 minute.  Or, if using shallot butter, top steaks immediately before serving.  Alternatively, you can broil the steaks, about 6 inches away from the broiler element.
   

Someone posted a question about how to cut the skirt steaks.  Skirt steak is a long piece of beef that's covered in loose fat.  Lay out the steaks and trim the loose fat by running a chef's knife or boning knife away under the fat, and then angling the knife away from the beef while you run it down the length of the steaks.  Then cut across the narrow part of the steak (with the grain) to portion it into portions of equal weight.

When it's cooked, you want to cut against the grain.  Here's a short video from youtube showing how to do that.

Caramelized Shallot Butter

1 tablespoon shallots, finely chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon tarragon, dried

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

Finely chop shallots.  In a small pan, saute in olive oil, stirring frequently, until shallots have begun to caramelize, about 20-30 minutes.  Stir in soy sauce and cook until all liquid is evaporated.  Stir in tarragon and pepper.  Remove from heat, let cool.  Process in food processor until butter is smooth and creamy with bits of shallots.