Roger Mooking’s Wavy Skirt Skewers

Read Bianca Coleman’s interview with Roger Mooking here

(Makes 12 skewers)

2 skirt steaks (about 1kg)

1/2 cup finely diced shallots

20 leaves of fresh basil, roughly chopped

16 leaves of fresh sage, roughly chopped

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp freshly cracked black peppercorns

1 tsp large crystal sea salt (Maldon)

2 limes cut in half

Kosher salt for seasoning

* You’ll need 16 x 30cm metal skewers for this recipe

Trim the skirt steak to remove any silver skin (silvery-white membrane), using a sharp thin filet knife that bends. Keep the fat but remove the silver skin as much as possible. Cut each piece of skirt steak in half so you have 4 pieces of skirt steak that are all roughly 25cm long.

Cut the skirt steak into half cm wide lengths, against the grain. You should end up with about 24 strips of meat.

Transfer meat to a clean dry bowl and add shallots.

In a mortar and pestle, puree basil, sage, 2 tbsp of olive oil, pepper and sea salt. The salt will act as sandpaper to help puree everything till smooth. Add this puree to the meat and shallots and combine well.

Place covered in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so.

Preheat indoor or outdoor grill. Start skewering the meat.

Take a single strip of skirt meat and skewer the end top of meat onto the pointy end of the skewer, and repeat this every 2.5cm or so until the entire strip of meat is on the skewer securely and in an accordion-like folded manner.

Take another strip of meat and repeat, with two total strips of meat for each skewer. Repeat the process for the remaining skewers until all the meat is finished.

With the remaining four skewers, take two skewers and double skewer the half-cut limes so the cut side is on the same side. Repeat again for the last two skewers. Double skewering will make sure that the limes don’t spin around on the pit while cooking, and cook evenly. Place the meat on a grill, season gently with Kosher salt and turn frequently to prevent burning and remove once desired doneness; I like mine medium-rare.

Cook the limes in the same manner, flat side closest to the fire and let it char a bit and get really juicy.

Serve these hot straight off the grill, drizzled with the warm lime, as a snack for your guests or serve it all up as part of a meal. Keep everything warm by tenting with foil for up to 20 minutes. DM

Recipe copyright Roger Mooking 2018