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This is sorrel. Sorrel is real special because it's got kind of a very
lemony taste to it. It's strong, and that's because it's very high in
oxalic acid. What we're going to do with this today is make a sauce called
chimichurri. Chimichurri is an Argentinian sauce made out of greens that's
served over meat or poultry or fish, all good. Chimichurri is traditionally
made with flat leaf parsley, but we're going to make it with sorrel.
We're going to serve chimichurri over a pepper-crusted steak. What I have
here is about a pound of grass-fed flank steak. Ooh, pretty nice. The first
thing that we want to do is tenderize it and marinate it.
We're going to marinate it. So, one thing that's kind of nice is if you use
some of the same flavors that are going into the sauce to marinate the
meat. So some of the things that go in the chimichurri are lime juice, red
wine vinegar, garlic, salt, and that's what's in here, just a little bit of
each of those and I'm going to pour it over this piece of beef. Then set
that aside for at least a half an hour or so while we make the sauce.
To make the chimichurri, I'm going to put a cup of chopped sorrel, a fourth
of a cup of chopped cilantro, garlic, red pepper flakes, a little lime
juice, a little red wine vinegar, some cumin, some salt and pepper, and
pour. A third of a cup of olive oil. Yay.
Set that aside and cook your meat. Here's our marinated steak, and we're
going to pepper-crust it. Grind, on the coarsest setting, some whole
peppercorns, and it's pepper-crusted.
My favorite way to cook, especially beef or fish, is to sear it in a cast
iron skillet on both sides and then stick it in the oven. That way the
juices of the meat or the fish stay in there. One minute on each side.
Okay. One minute on each side and it goes in a 400 degree oven.
Now if you want it kind of rare, it's going to be in there four minutes. If
you want it well-done, it's going to be more like seven minutes in there.
How you tell is you poke it with your finger. This is rare. That feel of
the meat? This is medium-rare-rare. This is medium. This is getting to be
medium-well, and that feel right there, that's well-done.
So I'm going to cut this on the diagonal, against the grain of the meat. By
cutting it against the grain, it's easier to chew. I bet you're wondering
why it's called chimichurri. At least I was. So, what I found out was when
the British invaded Rio de la Plata in Argentina, the prisoners asked for a
condiment, and it was all mixed up English, Spanish, and their native
language, and it came out as something like, give me the condiment, which
was chimi Salsa, chimichurri. Or somebody else thinks it's because they
were saying give me the curry, which is hilarious. Whatever. It tastes
good.
Here comes the sorrel chimichurri. Pepper-crusted steak with chimichurri
sauce, sorrel chimichurri sauce.