Marinated Skirt Steak, Asparagus and Tomato Bacon Stew, and Butter Poached Potatoes

It is Sunday night after a long Thanksgiving weekend.  After five days off, it's back to work tomorrow to a busy week so I wanted to fit in one last Ad Hoc meal.  I picked up a skirt steak for the marinated skirt steak recipe as well as the ingredients for asparagus and tomato bacon stew and butter poached potatoes.  I thought all of these dishes sounded like good comfort food to start the week back. 

The first step was making a marinade for the skirt steak.  Skirt steak can be a little tough after being cooked so I was extra careful to trim and cut the steak across the grain into pieces before marinating.  The marinade was a combination of herbs, garlic, peppercorns, and olive oil which you bring to a simmer over the stove.

The first step for the butter poached potatoes is to make emulsified butter which is basically just melted butter with a little water whisked in.  The recipe has you cut the marble potatoes in half and then cover them with the emulsified butter.  I had to melt a pound of butter to get enough to cover... no cholesterol tests this week for us.  Pouring that much butter over the potatoes scares me a little because this is a "heart attack waiting to happen" kind of dish if I ever have seen one.  You then bake the potatoes in the oven over a low temperature for two hours. With all of the butter, cream, and cheese in these recipes you may find me cooking the Weight Watchers cookbook for the next project!  Look at all of this butter...

I started the asparagus and tomato bacon stew by cooking bacon in a little water to render the fat.

I then sauteed chopped leeks, onions, and garlic in the bacon fat until tender and then added a can of whole tomatoes.  The mixture cooks down and half is pureed before adding the residual cooked bacon. The finished stew...

After marinating the skirt steak, I quickly browned the steaks on both sides with butter, thyme, and garlic. 

The steaks were then transferred to the oven until cooked to medium rare, the asparagus was cooked in oil and chicken stock, and the finished stew was drizzled over the cooked asparagus.  The butter poached potatoes were very good and surprise...buttery!  The asparagus with the tomato bacon stew was a very rustic dish and the bacon and tomato really complimented the asparagus.  I really liked this dish as I love asparagus and am always looking for new ways to prepare.  The skirt steak had a great flavor but was still a little tough even though it was cooked perfectly to medium rare.  The herbs, butter, and garlic really gave it a nice mellow flavor without overpowering the beef.  We enjoyed the marinade and will definitely use it again just maybe on a different cut of beef.  The finished dishes with the exception of the potatoes which didn't look all that different cooked than the picture above since all you can see is the butter...

 

In summary, a great Sunday night supper and we finished it off with leftover brownies from the previous post.  Thanks to all of you reading for all of the sweet comments on the blog.  It's been a fun project so far and the words of encouragement will definitely keep me going!