The College Kritter and I spent the spring break week in Mexico. It took some time to organize and plan all the activities in order to cram as much as possible into a measly seven days, but it was worth it.
We are both laid back, uncomplicated (the best compliment from my German brother-in-law, Thomas*), and interested in the same things. I knew that food would be as important to my eldest as it is to me, and I researched for weeks the best and the most authentic, off-the-beaten-path places to kick back and enjoy the real Yucatecan cuisine. Wherever we went we were enveloped in the smell of freshly made corn tortillas, barely four inches in diameter, warm, pliable, and usually made on the spot by huipil-wearing Mayan women. We trusted our Spanish-speaking meseros’ suggestions when ordering, and indulged in Grilled Conch, Queso Relleno, Pollo Pibil, Sopa di Lima, Relleno Negro, Longaniza di Valladolid, and Poc Chuc. We bought spices and pastes from the market at Valladolid, hoping to capture the magic of Yucatan in our California home.
For a while we did not crave Mexican food. Our senses were satisfied. I cooked Mediterranean, and Indian, and Serbian for weeks. The Beasties whined for enchiladas. Husband wanted a taste of our Mexican vacation. But I was still not ready. I have been transformed. I watched teenage girls put the thin tortillas on the comal, flip them with their hands, and move them to a plate. I tasted thin slices of arrachera grilled for a second and served with roasted onion, avocado, and lime. I encountered achiote paste and habanero salsa. Mexican cuisine would never be the same in our house.
And then, just for fun, I entered Rick Bayless’ Twitter contest: for four weeks he tweeted a recipe from his new book, , under 140 characters, challenging his followers to decipher it, cook it, and photograph it. He chose one overall winner a week, and another nine runners-up. All of them received a copy of his book.
Each week I gathered all the necessary ingredients, followed the recipe, cooked it, and served to the family (after I tried to take the best photo my camera would muster). And each week I heard only the grunts of satisfied bellies. The final week featured grilled pork ribs. I prepared the rub and Husband tended to grilling. Our photo was chosen as the overall winner and I was beyond excited!
Some time later, the book arrived, signed by Rick Bayless. I spent a couple of minutes getting high from the new-book-smell. After I glanced through it, I knew that we would not be disappointed: the glossy pages revealed dozens of recipes that appealed to me immediately. And some of them threw me right back to Yucatan for a moment. Remembering the accolades I received from the family upon serving Rick’s dishes, I decided to cook from his book, one or two recipes at the time.
Tipped off by our Mexican neighbors, we visited a near-by Mexican store, Tula Market, and left with some queso fresco, Yucatecan habanero salsa, nopales (cactus fruit), and freshly made, warm from the comal, corn tortillas, which we attacked as soon as we entered the car. Our Persian market had some thinly sliced beef, knob onions, and tomatillos. We were good to go!
While the beef was getting happy with the marinade, I roasted the tomatillos with some onions, garlic, and jalapeños for salsa verde. Nopales were bought cleaned of thorns and they met the Weber grill accompanied by halved onions. In no time we sat the table, placed a bowl of home-made guacamole on the “lazy susan”, flanked by some sour cream, lime wedges, and habanero salsa. When the beef finally hit the grill, sizzling, we started piling our plates with the nopales, onions, and salsa. After a couple of minutes, I cut the striped steak into ribbons and passed around still-warm tortillas. Ice-cold Pacifico put the final touch on this Mexican feast.
The flavors were light, bold, and clean. Everything merged together to bring about a simple meal bursting with fresh taste. If only I could have summoned the sound of waves breaking on the shore, I would have been transported back to Yucatan.
*it is his birthday today – Glückwünsche für dein Geburtstag, mein Bruder!
GRILLED SKIRT STEAK TACOS WITH KNOB ONIONS AND CACTUS – TACOS DE ARRACHERA AL CARBÓN CON CEBOLLITAS ASADAS Y NOPALES (adapted slightly from by Rick Bayless)
Ingredients:
Marinade:
- 6 unpeeled cloves of garlic
- 3 Tbsp sunflower or olive oil
- 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- ½ tsp freshly ground pepper
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch of ground cloves
- 1 tsp Mexican oregano
Roasted Tomatillo Salsa:
- 1 lb (6-8 medium) tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and halved
- fresh hot chiles, stemmed (jalapenos, serranos), 2-3
- 1 small onion, chopped
- a bunch of cilantro
- 1 tsp salt
The Rest:
- 1 lb skirt steak
- 3 medium cactus paddles (we bought ours already cleaned of thorns – to clean them yourself, wear the gloves, trim a thin layer around the cactus and cut out the spines)
- 1 big bunch of knob onions (or spring onions – the bulbs are bigger than scallions), cut in half
Directions:
MARINADE:
Place the garlic in a skillet and cook on medium heat until softened, 10-15 minutes. Cool, peel, and process in a food processor along with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, cloves and oregano. Place the beef in a Ziploc bag and pour the marinade over it. Close the bag and rub the marinade with your fingers over the enclosed steak. Let it rest for at least 30 minutes (or as long as 6 hours) in the refrigerator.
SALSA:
Roast the tomatillos and peppers under the broiler, for about 5 minutes. Turn and roast the other side. Place into a blender together with cilantro and all the juices and puree until coarsely ground. Add the onions and salt.
GRILL:
Heat the grill to medium-high and grill the cactus and the onions, previously brushed with oil and seasoned with salt (put the cactus on the hotter side, the onions on the cooler side of the grill, with the round part of the bulb down). Flip the cactus after about 3 minutes, cook on the other side and leave on the cool side of the grill. After 10 minutes, onions should be soft. Scrape both onto the dish.
Place the beef over the hottest part of the grill and cook for about 2 minutes per side. Take it off and let it rest for several minutes.
Cut the steak into long ribbons, slice the cactus into strips, and sprinkle both with some salt. Serve with warm corn tortillas, onions, salsa verde, a squeeze of lime and some avocado.
MARINADE:
Place the garlic in a skillet and cook on medium heat until softened, 10-15 minutes. Cool, peel, and process in a food processor along with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, cloves and oregano. Place the beef in a Ziploc bag and pour the marinade over it. Close the bag and rub the marinade with your fingers over the enclosed steak. Let it rest for at least 30 minutes (or as long as 6 hours) in the refrigerator.
SALSA:
Roast the tomatillos and peppers under the broiler, for about 5 minutes. Turn and roast the other side. Place into a blender together with cilantro and all the juices and puree until coarsely ground. Add the onions and salt.
Heat the grill to medium-high and grill the cactus and the onions, previously brushed with oil and seasoned with salt (put the cactus on the hotter side, the onions on the cooler side of the grill, with the round part of the bulb down). Flip the cactus after about 3 minutes, cook on the other side and leave on the cool side of the grill. After 10 minutes, onions should be soft. Scrape both onto the dish.
Place the beef over the hottest part of the grill and cook for about 2 minutes per side. Take it off and let it rest for several minutes.
Cut the steak into long ribbons, slice the cactus into strips, and sprinkle both with some salt. Serve with warm corn tortillas, onions, salsa verde, a squeeze of lime and some avocado.
I am linking this post to Hearth ‘n Soul, hosted, among the others, by Alex of A Moderate Life.
This blog post is my contribution to 12 Days of Bloggi-Mas, hosted by A Moderate Life and Alternative Health and Nutrition News.
Brenda of Brenda’s Canadian Kitchen has a really neat blog event called Cookbooks Sunday. She encourages her readers to dig up the cookbooks, make a recipe or two, and link to her site on the first Sunday every month. I am excited to be a part of this group.
Great job with this dish! Looks delicious.
I saw that you used to make a lot of Serbian food? What are those dishes like? You should feature some of those recipes! I’d love to try them out.
That was such a fun contest that Mr. B put on, always one step ahead of the game, isn’t he? But how exciting that you won and got a signed book!!!! But seriously, I find the pictures of the finished dish to be even more exciting. I so wish I could have a plate right now. Thanks for sharing with the Hearth and Soul hop. I always love hearing how your dishes evolve.
All of my favorite things wrapped into one post…fabulous! I love every single thing about this post, Lana. Thank you for sharing it with the hearth and soul hop (from an other
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@Roxan, thanks for coming over:) I have some Serbian recipes on my earlier posts, but I will continue to post them. But a lot of them are the best when the weather cools off, and as you know, we are not there yet, he, he.
@ Butterpoweredbike, I know, I love Rick! Even more since I found out he did his PhD in Anthropological Linguistics at U of M! And his dishes rock! This one did not disappoint.
@Heather, thanks! I am trying to get my wind back after visiting my daughter in Berkeley and getting seduced, again, by the Bay area.
I LOVE nopales! We ate them for breakfast with eggs – usually in a taco. And, as here, they are frequently served as a side dish, much like green beans.
Andrea, this was my first encounter with nopales. But we are adventurous and I am happy the family liked them. There is so much out there that falls out of our comfort zone, but is so rewarding when experienced. Now I am thinking of incorporating some into egg dishes:)
Ja obožavam meksičku hranu , tj. ideju koju imam o meksičkoj hrani
). U Zagrebu ima nekoliko restorana, ali nekako sam najzadovoljnija kad si ju doma napravimo.
Velika mi je želja otisnuti se u Meksiko i probati oriđiđi enchilade, fajite, … ma sve..
Tvoj receptić bilježim za isprobavanje
Andrea, I meni je meksikanska hrana slaba tačka, posebno sad kad sam u Kaliforniji. Ovo može kod nas da se zgotovi za čas (kaktus nije neophodan, stvarno!) Bitno je samo da kupiš tanko, tanko isečenu junetinu (mada može i piletina – to je pisalo u receptu, ali ja sam ignorisala; ono, pileća belina, pa na grilu ili u rerni ispečena i isečena tanko). Ne mora ni ovaj luk, može bilo koji. A recept za domaće kukuruzne tortilje ću da napišem uskoro, jer ih često pravim.
Slažem se sa tobom, i ja najviše volim meksikansku hranu koju sama napravim.
Pozdrav iz Kalifornije!
Oh this all looks so delicious. I don’t do much Mexican cooking around here because The Belly has his favorite restaurant haunts that I can’t seem to measure up to (I just can’t be that liberal with the lard I guess). But I do few salsas. Your nopales remind me that I need to get some of those again to play with. (The local haunts don’t do those.
)
I visited the yucatan area with an adventurous friend 8 years ago – I fell in love with the people, the place and especially the food! Your meal sends me back in my mind – oh how I want to be there! Great post for the hearth and soul hop – thanks!!!
@Pamela, I have managed to seduce Husband away from his favorite joints:) Wasn’t hard, though, his tastes were not that sophisticated. And I DO use lard (home-rendered, not from the supermarket), he, he.
@Christy, I felt the same way in Yucatan…cannot wait to go back! There is so much more to experience, and a week was not enough. A month would have been short!
Hello Lana my love and thanks so much for sharing with us at the hearth and soul hop this week. I do hope your hunger challenge went well last month! I adore the cuisine of Quintana Roo as well! Arachara tacos are one of my favorites EVER and we love to spend time in mexico whenever we can, especially in the Yucatan! Lucky girl to be able to spend time with your lovely daughter and eat all that amazing, simple and oh so satisfying food! I also made some of these just a few weeks back. Divine! Hugs! Alex
Alex, thanks! The Hunger Challenge went great (if it is not a contradiction in terms:), and I am trying to connect to local organizations like Slow Food, etc. to get involved more actively. I want to go back to Yucatan soon! Yes, the food was divine! But for now I have to settle with home-made concoctions to take me there…
OMG, does this ever look and sound good. My husband would be so happy if I made this for him, lol. Congrats on winning the cookbook too – that is very cool. Thank you so much for sharing this delicious meal with Cookbook Sundays. I hope you’ll be back next month. Have a lovely week!
Stopping by from Cookbook Sundays, to say hello and let you know this looks delicious! This looks so good, I love seeing how you pared the cactus pads. thanks for sharing.