The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Skirt beef steak supper

“This is the first time ever that I’d be happy if you left your other shopping on the counter.”
The pretty woman in TKMaxx joked.
We had been talking about the skirt of beef that I had just bought. She had never heard of the cut but as you know it has become a bit of a mission for me to spread the word on the cheaper cuts. Her interest was really tweaked when I mentioned that we at it as steak.
“It doesn’t cut like a fillet but it’s far better than a lot of sirloins that I’ve bought and at £6 for 800 grams it’s a bargain.”

I did remember to take my shopping bags home and last night we indulged in skirt of beef steaks, beside the pond. Delicious. And we still have enough meat left over for a couple of beef stir fries.

Here is D’s method for cooking skirt of beef steaks. It sounds complicated but it is really simple:

You can cut steaks of any size off the skirt. Typically we take the best bits for steaks and divide the rest over two stir fry meals. So our steaks range from 200g to 250g each.

D thinks that there are six factors in cooking a steak well, whether it is fillet, sirloin, skirt or rump:
1 – Bring the steak to room temperature first. Leave it to sit on a plate on your worktop for at least 30 minutes. That prevents raw chilly bits in the middle.
2 – Pan temperature. Our stove top halogen ring goes from 1 to 9 and we use 5 for steaks. But if you preheat it for too long (like the oil in the pan starts to smoke) then it is too hot. Give it 3 minutes at 5 to warm up.
3 – Apply the oil mix to the steak, not into the pan. A skillet is best.
4 – Put thicker cuts on the pan first – leave maybe 15 seconds or more before adding thinner steaks. It’s guesswork, really.
5 – We like to use a timer that can countdown seconds
6 – Short cooking time for rare (1 min / 40 seconds), longer for medium (2 mins / 1 min). You can easily take a steak off the pan, slice it partly open, and put it back on the pan if you want it more well done
6 – Leave them to rest on warm plates in a warm oven (about 70c if you can manage it) for 5 minutes before serving

Skirt of beef steaks recipe

Ingredients:
2 steaks cut from a skirt of beef (200g-250g each)

The oil rub:
On a plate, mix these well with your finger:
2 tbsp olive oil
Quarter tsp garlic granules
Quarter tsp ground black pepper
Quarter tsp salt

Method:
Preheat the frying pan for 3 minutes at medium heat (without oil)
Rub the mix all over each steak
Toss the steaks in the pan for 1 minute (thinner steaks added after 15 seconds or so)
Turn and cook for a further 40 seconds