South of the Border...(NOT TACOS!)

When most people go out to dinner and have a fantastic meal they are thinking about when they can come back and experience everything all over again; me on the other hand is tasting every ingredient to find a way to log it into my "food memory banks" so I can recreate the amazingness at home.  This was the case a few weeks ago as we were celebrating a family birthday at a local bistro (amazing food, horribly overpriced) and my husband ordered skirt steak with chimichurri.  One bite in and by the look on his face I knew we would be working our magic on this at home.  If you are not familiar with Chimichurri, it is a hugely popular sauce/condiment in Argentina, almost the national sauce of the country (that's my kind of country, sauces are my weakness!)  This sauce is very much a Latin infused pesto, very simple to make and delicious on pretty much anything you can imagine.  Often we think of Latin-American food and our minds go straight to sub-par Tex-Mex or ground beef tacos, please hear me shouting as I type this....IT IS SO MUCH MORE!!

Chimichurri Sauce
(This is a single recipe, however; I doubled the recipe because I used half to marinate the steaks and the other half as a sauce)

1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2/3 cup Red Wine Vinegar
2 Tablespoons of Lemon Zest
3 Tablespoons of Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

1 1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

6 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh oregano leaves

4 Tablespoons of zested garlic
3 Tablespoons of minced shallots
1 teaspoon of fresh cracked black pepper
2 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes

This is a deconstructed picture of the ingredients before they get blended into something muy delicioso!

Once all of the ingredients have been chopped, minced, zested and diced you want to pour them into the blender or food processor and pulse until well blended (but do not puree).  At this point I took half of the chimichurri (remember that I doubled the recipe) and I poured it over these beautifully marbled skirt steaks.

As with most marinades it is better to allow the flavors to hang out overnight, if that is not an option then give them at least a couple of hours.

The remaining chimichurri should be placed in a non-reactive bowl (aka not a metal bowl) and covered with plastic wrap.  It can be made a day in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

Once you are ready to cook the steaks there are many options. I went with an indoor, electric skillet for many reasons. 1. there is a large, open cooking surface 2. I will not loose any of the chimichurri essence in the grill grates. We like steaks medium in our house, this means they were cooked 5 to 7 minutes on each side. Allow the steaks to get a good sear and try to only flip the steaks one time.

Now as we discussed in the last post men (many woman do too, this one included) love a good meat and potatoes dinner and while we were eating Latin infused beef I though we might as well go the same route with the mashed potatoes.  My family shares an almost unhealthy obsession with Abuelo's Mexican restaurant (seriously the food there is like an incredible sexual experience!) So I take no credit for this side dish, other than being the vehicle to recreate them.

Abuelo’s Papas con Chile™
3 lbs. red potatoes
3 oz cream cheese – cut into 2" squares
½ cup heavy cream
10 oz Velveeta – cut into 2 " squares
½ TBS salt
¾ tsp granulated garlic
¼ cup sour cream
½ cup diced red bell peppers
½ cup diced green bell peppers
2 cans chopped green chiles
½ cup chopped green onion tops
2 TBS of finely chopped jalapeño – seeds removed

1.Wash and scrub potatoes until clean
2.Place potatoes in a pot covered with water and boil until soft.
3.Drain potatoes
4.Add the rest of ingredients and mash. Be sure all ingredients are incorporated.

As any good home chef I did make one modification, once all of the peppers and jalapeño were diced and seeded I sauteed them with the chiles in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil until them were tender.  Seriously these potatoes are AMAZING and could probably be served as an entree all by themselves. So this is my humble take on a little Latin American Cuisine, I hope you try these recipes and enjoy them as much as my family did.