Tamarind-Marinated Bavette Steak

Skirt or flank steak is eaten a lot in America, and in France, but hardly at all here in the UK. This is madness, as it is so much cheaper than any other sort of steak and so rich in flavor. I think what has put people off in the past is that, in Britain, it has been cooked in low and slow braises, which turns it into shoe leather. Bavette is the external part of the skirt (onglet being the internal connecting tissue) and all you need to do to cook it is, as my butcher puts it, "sear the hell out of it and serve it rare." I find 2 minutes a side on a very hot, ridged griddle optimum, but this does mean it's only for those who like their steak blue. The other key point is how you carve it: it must be sliced against the grain. That holds true with all steak, but with a cut like bavette, it will be inedibly chewy if you disobey. Luckily, the grain is very so it's very easy to identify and then cut across it. You don't have to get the whole piece. I don't like cooking individually cut steaks, as it's all in the fine slicing as far as I'm concerned, but a 500-gram (1-pound) piece will be plenty to feed 4, and is the size I often go for, cooking it for exactly the same amount of time as indicated below. The tamarind and soy marinade tenderizes the meat, but also gives such a glorious tanginess (I have a sour tooth). I keep Thai tamarind paste, which is condensed almost into a brick, in my fridge, and that's why I proceed as below. But if you are using tamarind paste out of a jar (and which tends to be runny), then use 75 milliliters (2.6 ounces) and simply add it to the rest of the marinade ingredients, without cooking it or adding water. Either is fine, but it just so happens that the genuine article is better, and less expensive. I serve this thinly sliced, as if it were a joint of beef, but it would also make for fantastic beef tacos, and is wonderful cold, stuffed into a baguette or tossed into a salad, so leftovers are a real boon.