Woodfired Steak with Chimichurri Sauce
Woodfired Steak with Chimichurri Sauce – a delicious way of eating your steak, definitely one of our favourites. Skirt steak is a hard working muscle, usually used for slow-cooking or Cornish pasties but if you marinate it for a while and then cook it real quick, it’s a great surprise – full bodied and flavoured and standing up well to the punchy chimichurri sauce. We’re using the heat of the oven but also using it like a barbeque by cooking over embers. Do give it a go, we don’t think you’ll be unhappy – check out this week’s video here!
Woodfired Steak with Chimichurri Sauce – Ingredients
1 piece skirt steak, about 500g
1tbsp red wine vinegar
2tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1tbsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes – more if you like it hotter!
1tsp hot smoked paprika
Juice of 1 lime
Another tbsp red wine vinegar
Large handful fresh herbs, chopped – parsley, coriander, oregano, thyme
another 100ml olive oil
Woodfired Steak with Chimichurri Sauce – Oven State
Tuscan grill over a bed of embers
Woodfired Steak with Chimichurri Sauce – Method
- Make the sauce by mixing the onion, garlic, dried oregano, chilli flakes and hot smoked paprika with 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1tbsp red wine vinegar and the juice of the lime. Mix well and let this stand for a good couple of hours if you have time.
- Once the sauce base has stood and marinated, mix in the fresh herbs and the 100ml olive oil. This is your punchy chimichurri sauce.
- Cut the steak in half and bash to get an even thickness with something solid – we used a pestle but a rolling pin will work or a steak hammer. Rub the steaks on both side with a little oil, some salt and pepper and 1tbsp red wine vinegar. Leave the steaks to marinate for 30 minutes or so.
- Make a fire with some dry hard wood – we used some pieces of super dry oak – and put the Tuscan Grill over the flames to heat up.
- Let the flames burn down so you are left with a good bed of embers and when the grill is hot brush it with a little olive oil – we use a brush made with a few sprigs of fresh rosemary tied together. Don’t use a pastry brush as it will disappear in the heat!
- Dry the steaks with a piece of kitchen paper and slap them on the oiled grill. Cook for a minute or so on each side until the steaks are no more than medium rare. Take them off the grill, put them on a clean chopping board and let them rest for 4-5 minutes.
- Slice the steak across the grain and serve at once with the chimichurri sauce.
Woodfired Steak with Chimichurri Sauce – Alternatives
Try different cuts of steak – rump, ribeye, sirloin all work well.
Mix up the fresh herbs you put in the chimichurri sauce – we use whatever is growing well in the garden.
Serve the steaks in some pitta pockets or with some crunchy hasselback potatoes.