Recipes Skirt Steak with Roasted Tomato Chimichurri and Potatoes 5.0 (3,625) Add your rating & review Chef Jose Enrique often pumps up a classic chimichurri by adding sweet roasted tomatoes. The condiment is great with steak, as well as grilled fish or poultry. Slideshow: F&W's Summer Grilling Guide By Jose Enrique Jose Enrique Won Best New Chef At Jose Enrique, San Juan, Puerto Rico Why He’s Amazing Because he’s elevating Puerto Rican cooking, using ingredients from the vast market across the street from his restaurant. The chalkboard menu changes frequently during the evening, based on what the purveyors might bring in during dinner service. Born 1977; San Juan, Puerto Rico Culinary School The Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, NY) Background Riche (New Orleans), Bili (Vieques, Puerto Rico), San Juan Water Beach Club (San Juan, Puerto Rico), Café Centro (New York City) Quintessential Dish Crispy fried yellowtail snapper with mashed batata (sweet potato) and papaya-avocado salsa How He Got Into Cooking “A lot of people cook in my family. My grandmothers, my dad, my mom; everyone does a couple of great dishes. My uncle would make Thanksgiving—huge turkeys stuffed with blood sausage. It was always fun.” Beloved Cooking Equipment “My dad made his own Caja China. Picture a metal square oven with the heat coming from the top. He’d cook pork. The first few hours the pork is belly up, so all the fat drips down and confits the belly. Then he flips it over and the skin gets blown up and crispy. Kids fight over it. My dad’s Caja China is on wheels, it’s portable, he’ll set it up anywhere.” Bringing It Home Enrique cooked around the world, in Belgium, France and the US, before returning to the neighborhood where he was born, to open his flagship restaurant. Other Projects In San Juan, Enrique also runs Capital, a popular brasserie, and the coffeehouse Miel. In late 2013, he’ll open a restaurant in the eco-minded El Blok hotel in Vieques.Story of Discovery “Until recently, I’d never been blown away by Puerto Rican food; the dishes I’d tried were always a little heavy and a little bland. But Jose Enrique and his bright, sharp, fresh flavors have changed my mind. At his restaurant—a casual place in an old house where weekend parties erupt on the street outside—he writes his menu on white boards, which allows him to add dishes in the middle of service. When I was there, he listed grilled thin swordfish steaks, from a fish that had been delivered just hours before, pairing it with his outstanding hot sauce made from chiles that he confits in oil for hours with garlic and tomatoes. Blood sausage also appeared on the menu. It was deep black and porky, speckled with chunks of delicious fat. Even better were the blood sausage spring rolls I had another night, baked in crisp spring roll wrappers with a serious swath of cream cheese, which melts into a rich sauce. That’s what a Best New Chef does: takes a cuisine you don’t think you like and turns you into a convert.”—Kate Krader Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on September 1, 2014 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: © Con Poulos Active Time: 45 mins Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins Yield: 4 Ingredients Chimichurri 4 medium tomatoes (1 1/2 pounds), quartered 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil Kosher salt 1 cup lightly packed parsley leaves 1 1/2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper Potatoes and Steak 1 pound fingerling potatoes Kosher salt 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 onion, very thinly sliced 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley 2 pounds skirt steak, cut into 5-inch-long pieces Pepper Directions Make the Chimichurri Preheat the oven to 400°. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the tomatoes with 1/4 cup of the olive oil and season with salt. Roast for about 20 minutes, until softened and browned in spots; let cool slightly. Transfer the tomatoes to a food processor. Add the parsley, vinegar, crushed pepper and the remaining 1/4 cup of oil. Pulse until almost smooth. Season with salt and transfer to a bowl. Make the Potatoes and Steak In a saucepan, cover the potatoes with water and bring to a boil. Add a generous pinch of salt and simmer over moderate heat until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes and let cool, then halve lengthwise. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil until shimmering. Add the onion and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, until just softened, about 3 minutes. Add the potatoes cut side down and cook until browned on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Flip the potatoes and onion and cook, stirring, until well browned, about 4 minutes. Stir in the butter and parsley and season with salt. Transfer to a platter and keep warm. Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. Season the steaks with salt and black pepper. Grill over high heat, turning once, until medium-rare, about 7 minutes total. Transfer to a carving board and let rest for 10 minutes. Thinly slice the steak across the grain and transfer to the platter with the potatoes. Serve with the tomato chimichurri. Notes The chimichurri can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. Suggested Pairing Serve this steak with a slightly chilled, medium-bodied red. Rate it Print