Recipe: Arrachera (Mexican style skirt or flank steak)

meat

Expat Mexicans are often prone to homesickness at dinnertime, and coming from one of the best eating countries in the world, it's hard to blame them.  In an effort to help, as well to learn some new things myself, I always encourage Carla to call home for recipes so we can make some proper food here in Vancouver.  Arrachera has long been a bit of a holdout in our repetoire.  There was initially a bit of a language barrier deciding which cut of beef it actually is - classically, it is a skirt steak, but a flank will do in a pinch.  The biggest confusion however, came from the fact that in Mexico the final product is much more tender than the same cuts prepared Canadian style - did we have the right cut after all?  We did, but a key element in the process was not quite there - the tenderizing and marinating stage.

blend the first part of the marinade

If you've done a bit of pastry work, you know that some fruits don't get along with gelatin desserts - there is an enzyme called protease that breaks down the proteins in the gelatin.  Apply this to a cut of meat, which has a lot of protein, you have a tenderizer.  For this reason, many preparations for arrachera call for pineapple juice.  The trick here is to get unpasteurized pineapple juice or while you will get a nice marinade, you will miss out on the tenderizing effect as the pasteurizing process will have killed the enzyme.  To make sure, you can puree fresh pineapple in a blender and add that to the marinade.  If you choose to strain the juice out of the puree or not is up to you.

Beyond the marinade, the desire is to get a very fast and high heat sear on the meat - you want some good caramelization on the surface while maintaining a nice medium rare inside.  The first of our steaks were done on a hot grill, but we actually got a better result the second round by getting a cast iron grill pan as hot as we could on the stove, then got and even faster, more effective sear.  After resting, by slicing the steak thin and across the grain, you effectively tenderize the meat some more by cutting the fibres shorter.

blend in the cilantro

You will need:

1.36kg / 3lbs                       skirt steak (or flank)

375ml / 2.5C                       fresh pineapple juice / puree

1                                          medium onion

4 cloves                               garlic

20ml / 4tsp                          black pepper

20ml / 4tsp                          smoked paprika

20ml / 4tsp                          ground cumin

30ml / 2Tbs                         brown sugar

15ml / 1Tbs                         adobo sauce from chipotles (see recipe for abuela's chipotle)

2 bunches                            cilantro

add the meat to the marinade

10ml / 2tsp                          kosher salt

Method:

 - if needed, trim the meat of any fat and silverskin

 - poke the steaks all over with a fork

 - if using fresh pineapple, roughly chop up and puree in a bar blender

 - strain the pineapple juice if desired and set aside

 - roughly chop the onion and garlic and put in the blender

 - add the spices and adobo and blend with half of the pineapple juice

smother it but good

 - roughly chop the cilantro and blend into the mix along with the other half of the juice

 - completely smother the steaks with the marinade

 - marinate up to 48 hours, turning and rotating periodically

 - when ready to cook, remove from the marinade, wipe the steaks clean and pat dry

 - get a grill or frying pan very hot

 - season with salt and pepper

 - sear the steaks quickly, colouring both sides

 - let rest

 - slice thin and across the grain

 - enjoy

sear it hard