Skirt Steak and Strawberry Salad

Even though we are in the middle of winter (with Boston getting 3-4 feet of snow in the past week), we enjoyed a wonderful spring-like day in Washington DC today. Of course that called for a dinner of perfectly grilled steak. I marinated a pound and a half of glorious grass-fed skirt steak from a local farmer’s market in a Strawberry Balsamic Mesquite marinade and grilled it on a charcoal grill and added it to a salad. My regular readers know that I love combining fruit flavors with grilled meats. A few weeks ago I had discovered a really good quality thick and syrupy Strawberry Balsamic and so I used that as the base of my marinade. And to double up on the fruitiness, I laid the steak over a bed of fresh baby lettuce leaves and fresh strawberries. I added a crunchy element to the salad with thinly sliced bits of celery (the green inner stalks) and crumbled some good quality Maytag Blue Cheese on top and dressed with a simple vinaigrette of strawberry balsamic and extra virgin olive oil. This turned out to be a great dinner – it was low-carb, healthy and delicious.

Ingredients:

1. 1.5 lbs of skirt steak
2. 3 tablespoons of Strawberry Balsamic
3. 1 tablespoon of regular Balsamic vinegar
4. 3 tablespoons of good quality extra virgin olive oil
5. 2-3 large cloves of garlic
6. 2 teaspoons of Mesquite seasoning
7. ½ teaspoon of freshly grated black pepper
8. 2-3 cups of fresh baby lettuce
9. 8-10 fresh strawberries
10. 2 stalks of celery (preferably the light green ones from the inside of the bunch).
11. 2-3 ounces of Maytag Blue Cheese

Directions:

1. Peel the garlic cloves.

2. Prepare the marinade by mixing in the following ingredients: 1.5 tablespoons of the Strawberry Balsamic, 1.5 tablespoons of the olive oil, 1 tablespoon of regular Balsamic vinegar, grated garlic cloves, mesquite seasoning, and freshly grated pepper.

3. Using a meat mallet or a meat tenderizer lightly beat the piece of steak (this helps to break up the fibers).

4. Rub the marinade evenly over both the sides of the piece of steak. Place in an airtight container and place it in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours (or overnight).
5. After the steak has marinated a while and you are ready to cook it, take it out of the refrigerator and bring it to room temperature.

6. Light up your charcoal and grill the steak for about 6-7 minutes on each side (depending on how high is the heat on your grill, how thick the piece of steak is etc…)

7. Rest the grilled steak for 7-8 minutes before thinly slicing it in strips.
8. Lay the baby lettuce in a large salad bowl.

9. Wash and slice the strawberries and place them over the lettuce.

10. Also wash the celery stalks and chop them in small pieces. Place them in the salad bowl.
11. Crumble the blue cheese and lay it over the salad.
12. Make the vinaigrette by mixing in the remaining amount of Strawberry Balsamic and Extra Virgin Olive oil (1.5 tbs+1.5 tbs of each).
13. Lay the sliced steak pieces on the salad and dress the salad with the vinaigrette. Gently toss the salad. Enjoy!

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