Andy Makes Skirt Steak with Romesco Sauce

[Man] Still waiting for RuPaul to do a cooking segment.

I don't know if she will; I hope.

If she came in, I would go nuts.

Actually, no, I would probably just be,

act really cool and be like, hi, Ru.

Do you remember the old Brady Bunch movie?

She played the counselor.

When Marcia comes in, and she obviously has her issues

with Jan, and then Ru just responds,

and you know what, girl?

You better work.

And then it's like [trills tongue].

[man laughs] This is

when they should play this song,

but you can't play the song for copyright reasons.

Anyways.

[light plucky instrumental music]

[garlic peels crinkling]

It's a quiet Monday in the test kitchen.

[Man] Happy Monday.

[laughs] I take a lot of things back, but.

No one likes green bell peppers

in the test kitchen except for Priya.

And Brad.

Everybody's staring at me.

[Man] Hey, there we go. [laughs]

[pestle banging on surface]

Don't wear white when you make romesco.

I had a bit of an accident.

Okay. [claps hands]

Okay, romesco with steak, steak with romesco,

or serving romesco with steak.

Either way, it's all about the romesco.

This sauce I started making maybe 10 years ago,

and it's a sauce made with red peppers,

tomato, some form of vinegar,

usually sherry vinegar, and nuts.

You'll see it with almonds, hazelnuts,

occasionally pine nuts,

and then sometimes bread to thicken it.

I almost always omit the bread,

and with this recipe, I am omitting it.

I just like the saucy consistency you get.

I'm gonna start by just doing a quick marinade

with the steak that consists of the basics,

lemon and garlic.

[Man] Yeah, I saw Kiss this weekend.

[Andy] Ooh!

[Man] Andy, who's your favorite member of Kiss?

You know what, I'm not a Kiss fan.

[Man] Ooh, it's a little bit like drag.

I don't think I listen to a lot of hair metal.

That's the thing.

I'm peeling my garlic with a chef's knife.

[Man] That's very heavy metal. [laughs]

[rock music] Yeah.

You do not need to use a microplane,

but it's me, so

duh.

I'm just trying to stay on brand.

I have two cloves of garlic, and I'm just thinly slicing it.

You could crush the garlic, but because this

is a quick marinade, I just slice it

to get that garlicky flavor out, release that allicin.

Where's Brad when you need him?

I think Brad's on vacation.

I'm gonna add this to a baking dish,

and then I'm just gonna take a little lemon.

Sometimes, I'll just take a vegetable peeler

and just peel a few strips.

In this case, I think I'm gonna just cut some rounds.

[knife hitting against cutting board]

So I'm pretty much slicing half of the lemon,

adding that over, and then we have some thyme and rosemary.

I was thinking we do rosemary...

Well, let's see, maybe I'll go with thyme.

I don't even do much.

I just bruise it like this to release the oils.

I'm gonna add maybe upwards of a quarter cup of oil.

[oil glugging out of bottle]

And then I have my skirt steak here.

I'm gonna season it.

It can take quite a bit of salt

'cause there's a good amount of fat,

but first, I'm gonna pat it dry.

I'm keeping it simple because of romesco;

it's a lot going on.

It has the sweetness from the peppers,

it'll have some heat, it'll have a lot of texture

from the nuts, and so with this steak,

I'm just really keeping it salt, not even any pepper.

I'm gonna add that to the marinade.

I'm wearing some weird pants today.

For one,

I'm clashing because I don't have a solid-colored apron.

I'm wearing a striped apron and then,

I don't know, I bought these pants.

I don't know, it made my butt look good.

So I'm just gonna give this a toss,

and I'm gonna let this hang out while I make the romesco.

I'm gonna let it sit at room temperature.

Again, super simple, the lemon and the garlic,

and use whatever kind of herb you like.

I think thyme, rosemary, bay leaf would be really nice.

So here are the ingredients for the romesco.

You'll always see it with red peppers.

With this one, I add tomato, olive oil,

Spanish paprika, hot smoked, a little bit of cayenne just

because I like the extra heat.

You could use a fresh chili, though, if you like.

First, I'm going to just get this tomato going.

I'm going to just cut it in half,

and I'm just gonna remove the seeds, get in there.

Yeah.

This is someone's fantasy out there.

[crew member laughs] This is what every--

Dirty, dirty, dirty, guys.

So I'm gonna broil this tomato.

It's one large tomato, skin side up,

and I'm gonna let that go until,

really, the skin is completely blistered

and charred and this flesh has softened,

and then we'll remove the skins afterwards.

Okay, while that's happening,

I'm gonna just place this bell pepper directly

on the stove top like this.

I'm gonna just turn this on high heat.

I would turn them every three minutes.

You want them completely blackened and charred.

I like doing it this way compared to under the broiler

because they really become a lot more smoky.

The peppers will start to maybe release some wisps of steam.

The flesh will be really tender,

and then we'll remove the skin,

and that'll be the base of the sauce.

My morning routine, I get up probably around 6:30, 6:45,

if it's a good day, drink.

No, I drink, period, get to the gym, do a workout,

put the face on,

and then I just put on a white T shirt

and some trousers and sneakers.

And that's it.

We got our tomatoes.

Their skins are nice and charred, flesh is soft.

We'll let that cool for a bit.

Okay, these are almost there.

See how black I take them?

You want them completely blistered,

and that's gonna impart that smoky flavor.

But then we're gonna transfer them to the bowl,

cover them with plastic wrap, and then they're gonna steam,

and that's when their flesh gets really soft and jammy.

So two things.

First is you cover it with plastic

so they can steam so the flesh can soften like I mentioned.

But also, it allows for the skin

to separate from the flesh really easily.

Meanwhile-- Meanwhile,

I brought a mortar and pestle.

So I have a third cup, third cup toasted hazelnuts.

I took them really nice dark golden brown.

Hazelnuts have this sweetness to them

that I really like that pairs well with the red peppers.

So I'm just gonna coarsely crush them.

So I'm keeping these hazelnuts pretty coarse.

I like just visually seeing the nuts.

Okay, so we have our hazelnuts.

I'm gonna add it to the bowl over here.

Okay, I'm gonna add two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

to this.

So we have our hazelnut mixture,

just oil, season it with salt.

Mmm, I'm eating this, so yes, I double dip.

A lot of times, you'll see the nuts pounded,

and then everything else is added to it,

and the nuts will help thicken the sauce.

I like having that, the red pepper sauce,

the romesco, and then lacing it

with the hazelnuts so you see it visually.

But if you don't get it,

you'll see what I'm talking about later.

Yeah, I'm going to California.

I like California.

[Man] It's where you're from.

It's where I'm from.

But I'm a New Yorker.

10 years.

10 years. 10 years, yeah.

[Man] That's the official marker for--

10 years.

I felt like a New Yorker as soon as I stepped,

or even before I moved here.

I was like, I belong here.

And then I went to school here, graduated,

been lucky enough to work here.

It's home.

Even when I'm wherever I am in the world, in the country,

when I come back, it's like a sigh of relief.

But it's not for everybody.

And if it's not, and you live here,

get the [beep] out 'cause you're taking up space.

I'm gonna just slip the skins off

like that from the tomatoes.

If you were wondering, oh, Andy,

you didn't core the tomato, well,

that's because I was gonna just do this.

Cool.

[Man] You need a little longer for 'em?

Let's just do it.

Okay. [chuckles and whimpers]

Okay.

[Man] All right, so what are you doing now?

So I'm just gonna remove the stem like this,

and then I'm just gonna start peeling.

I'm being really cool right now because this

is so damn hot, but you would never know, right?

Okay, so we have our peppers, skins removed.

I'm just gonna give them a rough chop

before I add them to the [speaks in foreign language].

Okay, this might be too much, but we'll go slow.

[pestle thudding in bowl] [light pleasant jazz music]

30 minutes later, pesto.

Is that video ever gonna come out?

[Man] 30 minutes later is [speaks indistinctly].

[pestle thudding in bowl]

Here's where we're at.

The peppers are mostly broken down.

You still see some pieces.

I'm gonna add the tomatoes, one clove of garlic,

a bit more salt,

half a teaspoon hot smoked paprika.

It has a bit of heat.

It doesn't have that much fiery heat to it.

That's why I add a bit of cayenne.

Two tablespoons sherry vinegar.

Quarter cup extra virgin olive oil.

The vinegar hits you.

I like it to be pretty bright.

It's sharp, it's sweet, it's spicy, it's smoky.

We're serving it with steak.

We gotta cook that off, but it can be served

with so many different things.

[steak sizzling in pan]

Remove the marinade.

I don't even know if the skillet needs any additional salt.

[steak sizzling in pan]

We're gonna let this go for about four minutes per side,

and then we'll pull it off, let it cool,

serve it with the romesco.

It's been about four minutes.

[steak sizzling in pan]

Let that go another four minutes,

and then we'll [makes slicing noise].

We're gonna let this sit for about 10 minutes to rest,

and then we'll slice it up and serve it with the romesco,

a little bit of parsley, and a little bit of zest.

So you could see that the romesco actually got a little bit,

it got even more red.

When you first combine the vinegar, oil,

and the cayenne and paprika, it almost goes gray,

but then it comes back to being a lot red.

So don't worry, let it sit.

I'm gonna give this a taste.

Again, real time, it's only been maybe five minutes,

and the flavors have just...

They really have gone together a lot better now.

I think in the beginning, you get that sherry vinegar.

Now, you get the garlic has mellowed out,

you get the sweetness from the peppers,

some acidity from both the vinegar and the tomato,

and a wonderful, smoky flavor.

All right.

We're gonna slice up the steak.

Mm.

A little bit of lemon zest,

juice,

salt.

There you have it, steak with romesco, romesco with steak,

and with a little bit of parsley on top, zest.

A little bit of a maybe somewhat deconstructed romesco,

but I love this look.

I love how red it is.

I love how loose it is rather than a lot

of romescos you see are a little bit on the thicker side.

[man speaks indistinctly] Chris, you want some steak?

Yeah, yeah, I'll try some steak.

Is this your romesco that's all loose?

It's Andy's dream of romesco?

Yeah, saucy, saucy romesco.

[Chris] Saucy romesco?

What did you do to the tomato here?

Just cut it in half crosswise, removed the seeds,

and then put under the broiler.

I just wanted that flesh to soften

and to cut down some of its acidity.

I want my romesco with cooked peppers, cooked tomatoes.

I was just smiling because it's so good,

and everything stays so pungent,

just that brightness of the fresh oil.

It was just enough vinegar. Yeah.

I hope you guys make this recipe.

You don't have to serve it with steak.

You don't have to use a mortar and pestle, I promise.

Don't wear a white shirt like I did,

and yeah, I hope you guys make it; let me know.

[water spraying and hissing against pan]

I'm good.

[man laughs]

Salted peanuts left--

Salted peanuts?

Salty [speaks indistinctly] in the bottom of the thing.

Very upsetting.

For, what is this? [Chris speaks indistinctly]

Kung pao, kung pao.

[Andy] Dried chilies, peanuts.

I'm gonna do some fresh bell pepper, too.

Got me in a bell pepper zone right now.

Okay. It's September,

fresh pepper, hot chili.

[Andy] You're not gonna chop the pepper, are you?

The dried pepper or the fresh pepper?

[Andy] Fresh pepper.

Are you gonna do big chopped pieces like that?

Yeah, like big daggers of pepper, why?

Daggers are good. Daggers of pepper.

Daggers of pepper, but not squares of pepper.

[rapid whooshing]

Ice picks of pepper. Okay, that's better.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, a la

Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct. Yeah, exactly.