Skirt Steak with peppers, onion, and lime may be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated up to three days. The steak may be frozen up to two months. The pepper/onion mixture will turn to mush if frozen. I don’t recommend it.

Beans and rice go well with this dish. A recipe for beans from scratch would make for a long post, so I’ll save that for another day.

If you are planning to eat now, and your beans are coming from a can, go for it. Start the rice now, too.

Bring the steak to room temperature before cooking. In a perfect world, the steak would be presalted, but the world has been highly imperfect lately. So we’re salting it now, and calling it good.

Skirt steak may be broiled, sauteed, stir-fried, barbecued, or pan fried. I broiled mine.

To broil, place steak in a broiler-safe dish, pour a scant tablespoon sunflower oil over it, add the tequila, worcestshire sauce, salt, pepper, and lime. With the meat about 5 inches/12 cm from the broiler element, broil on high about 2 minutes a side. Remove from oven, cover loosely with foil, and set aside.

To cook the peppers and onion:

Core the and seed peppers as best you can–I find extricating every little seed impossible-and slice peppers lengthwise.

Peel onion and slice as you did the peppers.

Heat the sunflower oil in a heavy frying pan. I used a 10 inch/25 cm Calphalon pan. You want the pepper/onion mixture to melt, as Elizabeth David would say, rather than brown, so keep the heat low. Add the garlic, if using and the onion. Salt and pepper.

Cook for onions for about five minutes, stirring frequently.

Now add the peppers, tequila, and lime juice. Stir.

If the pan begins going dry, you can add a little more tequila or do as I did and add water.

Put a lid on the pan–or, lacking a lid, some tinfoil-and allow the pepper/onion mixture to cook gently, stirring occasionally, for about twenty minutes, until vegetables are soft. You don’t want complete collapse, but they shouldn’t be al dente, either.

Taste mixture for seasoning, adding more salt or lime as you see fit.

Serve skirt steak with tequila, peppers, onion, and lime with beans, rice, and a fresh vegetable platter. Flatbreads or tortillas make a delicious accompaniment. The pepper/onion mixture may be served atop the steak or separately, as you and your diners wish.

Leftovers will keep, refrigerated, up to five days.

Leftover skirt steak may be frozen up to two months. As noted above, I don’t recommend freezing the vegetable mixture, as it will become mushy.

Notes:

You can use other steak cuts, like flank or flap. This is meant to be casual food, so this isn’t the place for prime rib.

As noted in the post, the steak can be barbecued, stir-fried, broiled, pan-fried, or sauteed–whatever is easiest for you. Just take care not to overcook the meat.

This recipe works with pork and chicken, too. Or go vegetarian and serve the pepper/onion mix over   pasta or polenta. It’s also useful in omelets, sandwiches (it’s especially good with cheese), or stirred through rice.

Spice fiends may add a hot pepper or sprinkle hot pepper flakes over the vegetable mixture.