Chimichurri Skirt Steak with Roasted Vegetable Tamales and Pico de Gallo

Here is a preview of the delicious dinner that Derek made and has yet to provide any sort of recipe that will outline how it was made.

Chimichurri seems to be a common meal component on our table lately, showing up about three times within the past month. It is a great way to use up fresh herbs and adds a refreshing yet subtle richness to the dish that it accompanies. In this case, it was to enhance a marinated steak to bring a bright note to an otherwise "heavy" meat.

The steak itself was a simple skirt steak. When you buy a skirt steak - think PREPARE AHEAD OF TIME. These bad boys do so much better when they are marinated since by nature, they are a tougher cut of meat. The marinade serves to break down some of the tough fibers and to infuse flavor. Oil and acid are typical components of a good steak marinade - and I believe this case was no exception to that.

The chimichurri was made with cilantro and mint as the primary herb flavors.

One of the real stars of the dish was the tamale. We had some corn husks sitting in our pantry for quite sometime. The original purpose was to make tamales - which is a common use for the corn husks anyhow - so I was excited when the dish actually came to fruition. Tamales, though delicious, are not the healthiest dishes on earth but Derek made an effort to cut down on the amount of lard - yes, real lard, appetizing... - to minimize the waistline expansion. For the filling, he roasted some finely diced zucchini, pepper, and onion and then used them as a stuffing for the tamale. The tamale itself is a masa dough mixutre made with lard. The dough and vegetables are wrapped up in the pre-soaked corn husk and steamed until cooked through.

To accompany the tamale, Derek made a fresh pico de gallo - diced tomatoes, lime, cilantro, salt, red onion, EVOO - that went perfectly adding a pop of juiciness and freshness.

The overall meal was impressive. Though I found the steak to be a little bit oily/greasy - it had a ton of flavor and was tender. If you get that with a skirt steak, you know you have done a good job. I served my steak over a small bed of spinach to make a quasi-steak salad, my preferred way of eating sliced steak - so that would be a highly recommend way of putting the dish together. The chimmichurri acts as a sort of dressing in this instance. It reminds me of one of the dishes that my Dad would make when I was younger - a Tuscan Steak Salad. In this case, the Italian ingredients are substituted with Southwestern flavor.

If I get the recipe - I will post it, until then, the pictures will have to tell the story.