Bootleggers' Korean-style Skirt Steak tops menu

I have a confession - I'm a recovering non-beef eater. Through some of high school and most of college, I turned up my nose at pretty much any meal featuring beef, making late-night exceptions for Taco Bell soft tacos - don't ask. It wasn't until a couple years ago when one of my moo-meat-eating friends welcomed me back to the wonderful world of beef by way of an artery-clogging cheeseburger from the Squeeze Inn, a reputable hole-in-the-wall burger joint in Sacramento. It was the best culinary combination I've tasted to date. Since that fateful burger, beef has taken me back with open arms. I've incorporated burgers with blue cheese and mushrooms, grilled tri-tip, somewhat-bloody steaks and even mom's meatloaf back into my diet. What was I thinking all those years? Considering my rediscovered appreciation for red meat, I was quite excited to find out I'd be learning the preparation process for the Korean-style skirt steak, one of the most popular items at Bootleggers Old Town Tavern & Grill."It's the only thing that's been on the menu the whole time we've been open," said Ty Rowe, who owns and manages the restaurant. "I took it off the menu two weeks and I almost got killed for it."Rowe grew up in Auburn and went on to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York and then lived and worked in Europe before returning to California."I was tired of moving and I decided to sucker my family into backing me," he said. Rowe opened Bootleggers 13 years ago in the space that used to house a Straw Hat Pizza, with his parents and aunt acting as business partners. It was only fitting for Rowe to "rope" his family into the restaurant business - they're the ones who got him into food in the first place. "Every birth, death and wedding was food, food, food," Rowe said. "If you were happy, you ate. If you were sad, you ate."Rowe, one of four children, comes from larger families - his father is one of 11 brothers and sisters, and his mother is one of seven siblings."Sunday dinner on my dad's side was 60 people," Rowe said.Rowe's own version of those grand dinners is crafting up dishes like his skirt steak, which goes for $17.95. He said the skirt steak is marinaded in a house-made sauce for two days. Rowe started the meal with equal parts soy sauce and sugar - we used two cups each for demonstration purposes. Pouring the soy sauce into a pan, Rowe said he adds the sugar second to avoid burning sugar on the bottom of the pan. Bring the soy and the sugar to a boil after adding some minced garlic, chunks of ginger and flaming-red Sambal, a chili-garlic paste that adds fire to any dish."On all these proportions, it depends on what you like," Rowe said of the garlic, ginger and Sambal. The sweet, salty and somewhat sassy combination of ingredients cancels out any need for salt or pepper, Rowe said. Bring everything up to a boil, then down to a simmer until the sauce cooks down to a syrupy consistency. Final touches to the sauce are just a splash of sesame oil and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.Rowe said you should taste the sauce to ensure it's got the desired flavor, then chill it before pairing it with the raw meat."You want to have it stick to the meat," he said. Rowe said this marinade is also good for chicken, skewers, and the like. Flank steak has grown in popularity, and price, in recent years, Rowe told me after placing the meat on the grill. The steak can stand on its own as far as taste goes, but some colorful stir-fried vegetables pretty up the plate. Rowe arranged the veggies on a plate, laid the sizzling steak on top and I spooned extra sauce over the meat to complete the dish before we cut into the steak. After one bite I understood why Rowe hasn't been able to take the flank steak off the menu-the meat tastes great with the flavors of the marinade and the smoke of the grill. Since Auburn is a meat-and-potatoes kind of place, Rowe said he serves the skirt steak with a starch like jasmine rice or mashed potatoes. Rowe believes Bootleggers has been so successful because the restaurant caters to what diners want, not what the restaurant wants them to eat. "We've gone everywhere from French to very Southern, with fried chicken and macaroni and cheese," Rowe said.He said it is kind of like serving comfort food from all over the world. "Most people don't cook at home anymore and when they do it's '30-Minute Meals' with Rachael Ray," Rowe said. "For them to get stews that have been simmering all day, or a chicken pot pie that isn't frozen, it's just not there. That's what we try to do. It's comfort food."So far, the formula has been a successful one, Rowe said, knocking on the wooden desk in his office. "I just went around and asked everybody what they wanted to eat, and just stuck with that," he said. "Thankfully, that's worked for the past 13 years."The Journal's Loryll Nicolaisen can be reached at lorylln@goldcountrymedia.com.Korean-style Skirt Steak from Bootleggers Old Town Tavern & Grill8 oz. Skirt steak per personEqual parts soy sauce and sugar - 2 cups each makes a sizeable batchOne finger of ginger, sliced with skin attached1 ½ to 2 tbsp. minced garlic2 tbsp. Sambal chili-garlic paste1 tsp. sesame oil1 tsp. sesame seedsStart the marinade by combining soy sauce and sugar in a pan over medium/high heat. Add ginger, garlic and Sambal. Bring the mixture to a boil before lowering heat to simmer the sauce until it reached a syrup-like consistency. Add sesame oil and sesame seeds last before removing sauce from heat. Once sauce is cool, pour over skirt steak and marinade for preferred amount of time (Bootleggers marinades for two days.) Be sure to separate some sauce for seasoning the cooked steak. Fire up the grill and toss on the steak, flipping the meat after a few minutes, once it has developed a nice, distinct grill mark. Drizzle the meat with the reserved sauce. Serve with stir-fried seasonal vegetables and your starch of choice.