Korean-style barbecued skirt steak with gochujang mayo

I say steak and you think expensive, right? Most people do. Steak is much more that fillet, sirloin, ribeye and rump. There are many types of steak stretched along a variety of price points. One of the better ones, and cheapest too, is skirt steak. An inexpensive and undervalued cut of beef that with a little bit of understanding and care is as good as any cut.

When it comes to steak, we are obsessed tenderness and texture and think that expensive steak is tender and cheap steak is tough. Not so. Also, texture in steak and a bit of chew is a good thing. Most steak aficionados turn their nose up at fillet steak (not me, I think it has its place and I quite enjoy it in the right dish), but all agree that skirt steak is terrific.

Skirt steak is a long flat steak with long fibres from the under belly of the cow. The secret to cooking it well is to cut it against the grain (or ask your butcher to), if you cut with the long fibres they will just tighten as it cooks and make the steak tough. By cutting against the grain you create a steak with short fibres, and this steak will stay juicy as it cooks. A skirt steak is best cooked rare or medium rare but never more than medium, after medium it will just be tough and missing the juices that give it that great flavour.

I love Korean flavours. The Korean love of fermentation gifts the world with brilliant ingredients like gochujang, a hot paste made from gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes), glutinous rice, fermented soy bean powder, barley malt powder and salt. As the gochujang ferments, the breakdown of the glutinous rice releases a slight sweetness. Gochujang is an essential store cupboard ingredient for me, it gives most things that little something that you didn’t know it needed. Bright, hot and deep, gochujang like most fermented foods gifts quick-cooked dishes the gift of time, or the idea that it was cooked longer with deeper flavour.

Skirt steak loves a marinade and benefits enormously from it. Marinade overnight if you can, or at a minimum 2–4 hours. This recipe for skirt steak in Korean marinade when cooked rare or medium rare results in a juicy and tender steak with wonderful flavours. Hot but not too much so, deep and rich.

Enjoy!