Well, here it is, Cinco de Mayo, a good time to eat some food inspired by Mexican food traditions. In this case, the lesser know member of the enchilada family, Sonoran enchiladas, which are stacked Sonoran tortillas instead of rolled tortillas. Sonoran corn tortillas are noted for the fact that they are a little thicker and fluffier than their better know Mexican corn tortillas. Here are the skirt steaks from Pacific Pastures.
I marinated some skirt steaks in a mixture of:
1/4 cup lime juice, fresh squeezed
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3 garlic cloves grated
1 teaspoon chile powder
1 Tablespoon Lucky Dog Hot Sauce
1 Tablespoon BBQ rub
1 teaspoon kosher salt and black pepper
I then placed the meat into a vacuum marination to aid in getting the meat marinaded in a short time, This was due to, ta daaaa, bad planning.
The meat took the marinade very nicely in two hours. The grill was fired up to almost as hot as I would have liked it. Fortunately it did not really affect the taste and texture of the meat. I would have liked it to cook faster and hotter and to get a little char on it. Oh well, it looked like this.
Meat was sliced across the grain and at an angle to the board to create as much bias cut as possible, this makes the skirt steak much easier to eat, a very tender texture when cooked to a medium rare temperature. The stacking process is to dip some griddled tortillas into sauce, the place meat, then cheese, repeat as often as you want. I find 4 layers works nicely. A couple of in process shots...
Four layers finishing with a final layer of meat and cheese, then into the kettle or oven for 15 minutes to heat the whole assembly up and melt the cheese. A little more sauce on top, some salsa cruda, sour cream and there you have it. I added some of my families Tsunemono-style cabbage slaw.
This meal would have gone great with a nice Mexican-style lager or even a nice crisp summer cream ale.
This looks awesome...what sauce are you dipping the tortillas into?
ReplyDeleteWow Bob, That looks so much more festive than my paella. I'm so in the trenches with our newborn that I forgot that it was Cinco de Mayo and I missed a great excuse to drink that 6 pack of Negra Modelo in the basement. If I had remembered I would have fried up some carnitas.
ReplyDeleteThat skirt steak - both before and after looks amazing. I'll have to find a market near me that has PP beef.
The sauce is a mix of 35% each Williamson Bros. BBQ sauce (sort of a red sauce) 15% Frontera chipotle taco sauce, 40% tomato sauce and 10% cider vinegar with some added chile sauce and spices.
ReplyDeletePacific Pastures is the non-organic version of Eel River Organic Beef. But, any skirt steak will do.
Thanks! You're posts are great. Any recipe details you can include in them would rock. Much like smokejumper, I'm locked down with kid and am in dire need of some good recipes so I can escape to the pit. lol
ReplyDeletethanks!
Thanks Swill, that marinade recipe is the whole key to this dish. Everything else was just store bought or really simple. Here is the cabbage slaw recipe:
ReplyDelete4 cups thinly sliced cabbage
1 cup shredded carrot
4 tablespoons kosher salt (stick with me here)
Mix all three ingredients together lightly kneading the veggies with the salt to help 'cut' the veggies. Allow to sit for an hour (30 mins works okay). I leave it at room temp.... See More
1 cup rice wine vinegar, non-seasoned
2 tablespoons sugar (I use demerara)
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 or 3 drops sesame oil
Blend ingredients of dressing. Drain and rinse veggies thoroughly, spin or pat dry, add dressing and store in fridge for a couple hours for best results.