I'm sorry for my 2-week hiatus. It was due to a combination of spring break and allergy season in the 'Springs. But alas, I start my return back to the blogging world with your good 'ol traditional fajitas.
Fajita. The fajita originally comes from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where during roundups, cowboys would butcher the cows to feed all the workers. The throw-away meat (e.g. hide, stomach, entrails, and skirt steak) was given to the vaqueros or "Mexican cowboys", who unfortunately, given the sentiments of the time, were not seen as equals to the white cowboys. But alas, they managed to make something delicious out of it, including the popular menudo you see in many street tacos, tripe, fajitas, and other such popular Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine.
So if it's just leftover meat, why do we pay $18 for fajitas at Jose Muldoon's when we can make better one's at home! They are simple and easy to put together on the spot, and great for big crowds. Not to mention that they are delicious!
To start, I made guacamole. Now this is not a necessary item to make for fajitas, but homemade guacamole is always a treat. For the guac I used these ingredients:
- 4 avocados (this made enough guacamole for two people's dinners, and 6 friends to "taste", i.e. inhale, and there was still some leftover)
- 1 small white onion (by small I mean touch your pointer finger to your thumb and its the size of the circle that makes)
- 1 lime
- A small heap of cilantro (I would say about 2 cups in total, but I edge on the larger portion of cilantro)
- 3 roma tomatoes
- Salt (to taste)
- Pepper
- 1 large spoonful of Cumin (remember our friend cumin from my first blog entry?)
- Paprika (mainly for a nice decoration on top)
Now blend the avocados, 2 of the tomatoes, some of the cilantro and cumin in a blender. This will give your guacamole a creamy, milky texture. Now this step is not necessary, but I found that smashing the avocado took a lot of time and left the guacamole chunkier than I like.
Here is a visual comparison: the one on top was not made with a blender, and the one on the bottom was. They are both delicious, it's just a matter of preference--but they will definitely taste different!
After blending, mix in the last tomato diced into small pieces, the rest of the cilantro, the diced onion, a squeeze of lime, salt, pepper, and paprika on top. Mixing in these last ingredients as diced rather than blended will give your guacamole a nice appearance of red, white, and green colors (yay Mexican flag). They also add some firmer texture to the smooth creamy blend you have just prepared. Alright now guacamole done! Either snack on it with Tostitos while you make the fajitas, or put in the fridge for later consumption.
Now to the fajitas. I had two more of the small white onions so I chopped those up, along with one red bell pepper. I threw them in a pan along with about 3-4 tablespoons of butter. I start with these first because they take the longest to cook. Make sure to keep stirring, as the onions and bell peppers will burn easily and need to be moved around every minute or so. These cooked for about 15-20 minutes on medium heat. You'll know its ready when the onions turn a tan color and have a sweet taste to them (and they'll smell fantastic).
In between stirring the onions and bell pepper, I took the tortillas and placed them on a plate in the oven, set at 250 degrees F. Next, I began cooking the meat in a separate pan.
I first started cooking already chopped up beef I bought at the grocery store. The beef was labeled for stirfry, so I figured that would work for fajitas as well. WRONG. This beef was rubbery and tasteless. It tasted like day-old cheap Chinese beef, the kind that has a grayish color and takes forever to chew. No matter what spices I put in this beef, the texture and taste were awful. So, for the future, do NOT buy stirfry beef at the grocery store! Try to find skirt steak, beef labeled for fajitas, or just get thinly sliced cuts of beef, cook, and dice 'em yourself.
But! Do not fret about my fajitas. I had a package of already diced grilled chicken that I threw in the pan once discarding the beef. This chicken was already cooked and thus only took 4 minutes to heat up. I threw in a few tablespoons of butter, some pieces of cilantro, and some Mexican chile seasoning that included oregano, cumin, salt, chile pepper, and onion, and lastly a squeeze of lime. Stir, and it's ready!
Now each person takes out a warm tortilla from the oven, throws on some of that fabulous guacamole you made, a dollop of sour cream, the bell peppers and onions, a couple pieces of chicken, and Buen provecho (meaning to enjoy your meal)!
In total, the onions, bell peppers, and chicken made four well-stuffed fajitas. You also have the option of adding in shredded cheese, salsa, and rice and beans. I also considered making a corn-mango-cilantro-lime salsa that would have added an interesting sweet taste to the mix, but my mangos were frozen and would have taken too long to unfreeze. But, it's an idea for the future!
All-in-all, the guacamole took about 30-40 minutes to make (the chopping and the picking of the cilantro took the most time). Making the bell peppers and onions took about 20 minutes. And the meat, if already cooked, only takes 5 minutes, and if uncooked only takes about 10. If you're trying to use uncooked skirt steak (which I would suggest in honor of the original vaqueros who ate them) it will cook faster than if you were cooking a T-bone or rib-eye. In total, that gives us an upper estimate of 1 hour 15 minutes in total to prepare and cook guacamole and fajitas. Not too bad, right?
No go and try fajitas my little vaqueritos/as. You'll be surprised how easy and delicious they'll be!
As always,
Love & Churros
No comments:
Post a Comment