Chimichurri, Condiment for Grilled Meat

Across America you can almost hear someone shouting "Start your engines grills!" In backyards everywhere men are hauling out their trusty gas and charcoal grills to begin the summer ritual of creating shoe leather out of perfectly good cuts of meat and charring beyond recognition others. Women stand by with the appropriate sandwich buns and multitude of condiments.

In Argentina grilling is a huge part of the culture. It is called "asado" and the predominant meat being grilled is beef. Of which they grill about every part and that could lead to some amount of squeamishness, but my policy is "don't ask, don't tell".

Here in the U.S. we grill beef, pork, chicken, fish... We have found that chimichurri, a typical and very delicious Argentine condiment for beef, compliments ANY MEAT. It's full of garlicky goodness and as one person online described it, "...it's like dragging your steak through the garden!"

Not hard to make, amazingly delicious. You can thank me later :-)

You can either put it right onto the meat (the preferred method at our house) or off to the side for dipping. Some like to marinate their meat in chimi before grilling. We don't but that's certainly an option.

The great thing about chimi (as we call it), is that you can make a big batch and it will keep in the fridge for weeks. Beause of the oil, you'll need to either get it out in time to come to room temperature, or if you're like us and never remember stuff like that, you can just warm it quickly in the microwave or set the container into a bowl of hot water for a while.

Once you've had chimi you'll never go back to A-1 steak sauce again!

Make sure you hop over to Dee's at It Coulda Been Worse for more wonderful recipes. What did we do before online recipe exchanges?! This is one of my favorite parts of blogging...good people, good times, good food. *insert contented sigh*

CHIMICHURRI

* 1 bunch flat leaf parsley
* 8 cloves garlic, minced
* 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
* 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
* 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
* 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
* 1 teaspoon black pepper
* 1 teaspoon salt

Finely chop entire bunch of parsley, add remaining ingredients and mix well.