Marco – Beef Fajitas - Delicious

For the trip to Marco, I brought four things from the freezer: a pork tenderloin for Pork Diane, the salmon that I forgot to give to Lea Ann & Bob while in Denver for their Salmon Saturday, a pork loin roast, and a piece of flank steak for fajitas - after we got to Florida Bev advised we also had a piece of skirt steak in the freezer so I wish I’d told her what I was planning to cook before we left home. 

Before leaving for Florida, I had already decided to use Alton Brown’s recipe for the meat as adapted by Joshua Bousel over at Meatwave and shown below.  Check his site for some great shots of the process and final product, and his cooking directions.  I followed the marinade recipe as written.

Fajitas – Adapted from Meatwave and from Alton Brown

For the marinade:

1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup soy sauce

4 scallions, washed and cut in 1/2

2 large cloves garlic

1/4 cup lime juice

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar or Mexican brown sugar

2 pounds inside skirt steak (I used flank steak)

4 bell peppers, various colors, cut into grill size pieces

1/2 large purple onion, cut into slices

1/2 large white onion, cut into slices

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

Fajita size flour tortillas
Guacamole
Salsa
Pico de gallo

Directions:

1. Place all marinade ingredients in a blender and puree.

2. Trim the steak and cut into four equal pieces.

3. Put pieces of steak in a large ziplock bag and pour marinade all over. Seal the bag, removing as much air as possible and allow the steak to marinate for 1 hour flipping half way through (I did it on the counter so the meat could be coming to room temperature while marinating.

Time to go cook.

4. Since I had only access to a gas grill at the resort, I got is as hot as possible.

5. Brush the vegetables with olive oil season with S&P and grill over the cooler part of the grill until softened and lightly charred.  Remove and seal in a foil pouch to finish cooking with their own steam while the meat cooks.  I laid them on some grill grates after the heat was turned off.

6. Add the steak to the hottest part of the grill, season with S&P, and cook on each side 3-5 minutes. Remove the steak from the grill and wrap in foil and allow to rest 10-15 mins.

7. After removing the meat and vegetables, heat the tortillas on the grill until soft, wrap in foil and head back to the condo.

8. Unwrap the meat and veggies and slice as desired.  Thanks to the uneven heat on the grill, I was able to get meat that was medium-rare, medium, and in between from the same cooking time which was perfect for us.

9. Assemble fajitas with the vegetables, steak, and toppings of shredded cheddar, guacamole, salsa, and pico de gallo. I had three, each with one of the toppings – Bev made the pico and the other two came from the farmers market.  Can't believe I forgot the cheese on mine.

I thought all of mine were delicious, especially the one with the best guac I’ve ever eaten.  We haven't made fajitas in a while and all I could say was "what have I been thinking."  After eating a couple of slices of just meat, this will be the new go-to marinade for fajitas and since it was pretty thin, the flank steak worked just fine - but I will be looking in the freezer for that skirt steak.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

11/16/13 event date