When I was first learning how to cook, I was also working full-time as a waitress and living at my parents’ house on Long Island while everyone else was back home, still in school. I worked pretty much every day, except for Tuesdays and sometimes Wednesdays. Every Tuesday night, I reveled in the fact that I could sit in my backyard and just relax.
One evening, I threw together a sort of salad: I took Rachael Ray’s grilled potato, red onion and orange salad and added a recipe for spicy skirt steak that I had found on epicurious. When the meal was prepared and plated, I took it to the backyard and, with a cold glass bottle of Coke, I enjoyed a homemade dinner. For one of the first times ever, I was truly surprised at how good my cooking could turn out, at how much I could really relish something that I had made by hand.
I have made countless meals since then, but that one will always remain memorable. I tried to recreate it when I was in Mallorca, adding some frisée lettuce and some honey goat-cheese croutons to appease the crowd, but for some reason, it just wasn’t the same as that first time. Food memories are hard to recreate.
Oh well. It was still quite tasty.
Spicy Skirt Steak over Grilled Potato, Red Onion and Orange Salad
For the steak:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, halved
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
½ jalapeño pepper, chopped
6 oz. skirt steak
salt
Combine the first four ingredients in a large glass dish. Add the steak and allow to marinate for at least one hour, turning every half hour.
When ready to cook, sprinkle with salt and grill or sear in a hot frying pan. Allow to rest ten minutes before slicing into strips against the grain.
For the salad:
1 orange, peeled and sliced into rounds
1 red onion, sliced into rings
2 potatoes, thinly sliced
salt
1 lime
While the steak is resting, salt and grill the potatoes and the onions until cooked through, about five minutes. Set aside and place the orange slices on the grill for about 30 seconds per side, until just warm. Combine the potatoes, oranges and red onion in a bowl and toss to mix. Divide between two plates and top with the sliced steak. Squirt lime juice over the top of the salad. Serves two.