Cheap, Fast, and Tasty!: Escabeche

A dear friend gave me this steak recipe. He's a gourmet cook and never settles for cheap, sub par food. I was surprised he was promoting any recipe calling for chuck steak.

Escabeche Steaks are a great thing to serve a large crowd, and inexpensive as well.

You will need....

..... the liquid from several cans of jalepenos--also known as escabeche sauce. What I do is just save the juice from cans of jalepeno until I have enough for this recipe. And "enough" is defined by how many steaks you are making.

...... chuck steaks. These steaks will come out so delicious, tender, and flavorful that the people you are serving will never notice they are eating a cheap cut of meat.

...... corn oil

Marinate the steaks in equal parts escabeche and corn oil. Let them marinate for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.

They are best grilled, but searing them in a smoking hot (seriously, heat it on high for at least 7 minutes first) iron skillet is also good. All steak should be cooked over the hottest heat possible without actual flames licking at them. Chuck steak cooks fast so if you like your meat rare, you won't be standing over the heat long. And if you like your meat well done, there still won't be much of a wait.

A secret to retaining the wonderful flavors and moisture to your grilled or pan cooked steaks is to, the moment they're removed from the heat, put them in an airtight container. I usually keep a large plastic container (or two) with a tight lid handy for this when cooking a lot of these. Wrapping them in foil is just fine, also, but better to use foil only when cooking smaller portions. It's good to let them sit this way, wrapped in foil or inside an airtight container, for just a minute or two before serving (that's a Nigella Lawson tip and the girl was right!) --but it will also keep them nice and moist for a long while. The air tight container is easier to deal with than foil. If you are serving lots of folks, foil wrapped steaks are not going to stay foil wrapped for very long and then you'll have dried up pieces of uninteresting meat lying around that no one will eat.

Please note, these steaks will not be spicy hot. They will have wonderful jalapeno flavor without the jalapeno burn.

You will need a one gallon glass jar with lid. I've done this in quart jars but, for several reasons, I really don't like doing it that way. The gallon jug seems best, or half gallon jug if you're cutting down the recipe. Frankly, I just don't see the point of pickling less than two dozen eggs. Hardly worth all the trouble considering how fast they disappear.

Ingredients:

4 dozen eggs, hardboiled and peeled. This recipe assumes that not all the eggs are going to make it (too ugly, too cracked, yolk exposed). I just made a batch of these and 43 of 48 eggs made it to the jar, it was the perfect amount. The five that didn't make it, cracked and pathetic looking as they are, will make an ugly but tasty bunch of devilled eggs for lunch tomorrow.

3 1/4 cups beer vinegar. I make my own (it's too easy). Plain white vinegar or white wine vinegar will do just fine.

*(see important note regarding this ingredient at bottom of entry) 3 1/4 cups of HEB's "Salsa Picante/Hot Sauce"--HEB (a Texas chain of grocery stores) is about 32 miles from my little town so when I go there, I stock up on this product. It's their Hill Country Fare (store brand) version of Cholula and they sell it by the liter for a mere .99. It's a steal! It's every bit as good as Cholula (overpriced spicy salsa with the round wooden ball for a lid) and is made with the same kind of peppers (Arbol). You can also use Tabasco instead. It's sold in half gallon and probably gallon jugs as well. I just prefer the Cholula style hot sauces.

Optional: Canned jalepnos or fresh or dried peppers. If you use canned jalepenos you can substitute part of the vinegar for an equal portion of the jalepeno "juice, " which is also known as "escabeche." It's tasty enough to do this, but one gets tired of jalepenos in everything around here. The pickled eggs in the photo above were made using a handfull of dried chile petines and pequines that I had from last season. In fact, Cholula is made from not just Arbol peppers, but also from chile petines.

Directions:
As the eggs are nearing being done or as you start peeling them, put a pot on the stove and add the vinegar, water, salsa, and any peppers you've decided to use. Bring to boil and then let simmer for approximately 20 minutes. Make sure your jar and its lid are especially clean. You don't want to introduce any funkiness into your pickling eggs.

Add peeled eggs to jar and cover with the hot liquid. No eggs should be exposed although you may not be able to prevent a floater or two from peeking out. Place lid tightly, not crazy tight, on jar and once it's not too hot to move, set the whole mess somewhere cool and dim for at least one month. You can eat the eggs before the four weeks is up, but they won't be good and ready until the end of a month. Unless your home is not air conditioned, the eggs will keep just fine at room temperature. Once it's time to eat them, you still don't need to refrigerate them unless you are just paranoid. They will NOT smell good, they will smell like sulfur and peppers. This is normal. But they will taste marvelous. If storing for more than two months or so, you should go ahead and refrigerate them.

During the first month of picklation, you might want to give them a little shake here and there to be sure all the eggs are getting their fair share of contact with the pickling mixture. Be warned, these are not meant to be stored for long periods of time. Pickled eggs will begin to get rubbery after a few months. It's best to eat them up. And, yes, they're wonderful with cold beer.

*NOTE: After a month of waiting I finally got to try these eggs and I've decided they're much better pickled in Tabasco. I just knew they'd be better in the Salsa Picante but they weren't. Teach me to write a recipe based on an assumption. I don't like Tabasco, as a rule, but it's definitely better for this recipe. Made with the Salsa Picante they're just okay, not TASTY! Something about the Tabasco makes them infinitely better. If you use Tabasco, use the same amount as you would if using the suggested amount of Salsa Picante and feel free to add canned jalapeños (juice and all) to enhance the flavor and for added kick.