Carne Asada Street Tacos: Sous Vide or Grilled

Carne Asada Street Tacos

I had a gorgeous hunk of flank steak in our freezer from our quarter cow we bought last year, and carne asada street tacos were calling my name! Typically skirt steak is used for these tacos, but I figured the leaner flank steak would work just as well provided it was marinated in a citrusy sauce for a spell.  I decided to cook this via the sous-vide method, but grilling the steak would work just as great.

Total thumbs up all the way around for the tacos! We had plenty of leftovers for another dinner even with my daughter eating three of them in one sitting. I made some fresh pico de gallo to serve these with along with the avocado, but you can use any condiments of choice for these tasty tacos.

Many of the delicious Carne Asada ingredients

Carne Asada Street Tacos: Sous Vide or Grilled
Adapted from Serious Eats

3 whole dried ancho chiles, stems and seeds removed
3 whole dried guajillo chiles, stems and seeds removed
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 whole chipotle peppers, canned in adobo sauce
3/4 cup fresh juice from 2 to 3 oranges (I used Cara Cara)
2 tablespoons fresh juice from 2 to 3 limes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
6 medium cloves garlic, peeled
1 small bunch cilantro, leaves and tender stems only
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
Sea salt, to taste
1.5 to 2 pounds flank or skirt steak
Warm corn or flour tortillas, lime wedges, diced onion, additional fresh cilantro (or Pico de Gallo), and avocado, for serving

Place dried ancho and guajillo chilies in a glass bowl and cover with boiling water. Let steep for 20 minutes until soft and pliable. Drain water, then transfer chiles to a food processor or blender.

Toasting the Cumin and Coriander

Toast the ground cumin and coriander in a hot dry skillet until fragrant and add to the chiles. (You could toast the seeds and grind yourself, but I’m not that fancy.)

Ready to Process the Marinade

Add the rest of the ingredients except steak and condiments. Blend until a smooth sauce has formed. Transfer half of the sauce to a gallon-sized zip-top bag and refrigerate or freeze the other half in a sealed container for future use.

BONUS! Here’s my quick recipe for homemade Pico de Gallo. Double or triple as needed:

Pico de Gallo

1 Roma tomato, chopped
1/4 cup diced onion
1/2 jalapeño or serrano chile, finely diced
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon lime juice
Salt and pepper, to taste

Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl, and let marinate for an hour or so. That’s it!

For cooking via sous-vide method:

Add steak to the marinade in the bag, squishing around to coat.

Steak in Marinade

Vacuum-seal the bag using the water immersion method. Set temperature on the sous vide to 131 F, then place the bag in the pot and cover with plastic wrap to prevent evaporation. Cook for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, preheat a cast-iron pan on high. Remove the bag from the sous-vide pot, then remove the steak from the marinade and wipe off excess. Discard marinade. Char the steak in the hot pan for a minute or two on each side until well-browned. Transfer to a cutting board and slice thinly against the grain.

Serve immediately with warmed tortillas and garnishes.

Sliced Carne Asada Flank Steak

For cooking on a grill:

Add steak to the marinade in the bag, squishing around to coat. Squeeze the air out of the bag, seal, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When ready to cook, preheat your grill on one side to the highest temperature. Clean and oil the grilling grate.

Remove steak from marinade and wipe off excess. Place directly over the hot side of the grill. If using a gas grill, cover; if using a charcoal grill, leave open. Cook, turning occasionally, until steak is well charred on outside and center registers 110°F on an instant-read thermometer, 5 to 10 minutes total. Transfer to a cutting board and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Slice thinly against the grain.

Serve immediately warmed tortillas and garnishes.

 

Download and Print this Yummy Recipe!

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Food52 Community Pick: Fire-Roasted Hatch Chile and Serrano Pepper Salsa

Hatch Chile Fire-Roasted Salsa

I’m happy to announce I have made it to the Community Pick level in the Food52 contest again for one of my recipes! No need to vote at this time as that doesn’t happen unless it makes it to the final two.

You can head over there to read it here ———-> Fire-Roasted Hatch Chile and Serrano Pepper Salsa

I have hopes to post a new recipe for you later today before I head out tomorrow to visit some wonderful friends at their new ocean-view house they built on the coast of Yachats, Oregon. But if not, I have not left you high and dry for the week.

 

Spicy Canned Tuna Ceviche

Spicy Canned Tuna Ceviche

I planned on making this for my Saturday lunch, but all sorts of errands got in the way. After a two and a half hour shopping binge trip at three stores, it was time to pick up my 16-year-old daughter from her 4-hour SkidCar course at noon (which I begrudgingly got up at 7:30 am on a weekend to take her to it). I had bought all the ingredients for this recipe, in addition to restocking our refrigerator with staples. Our freezer in the fridge went KAPUT a couple of weeks ago, and then the refrigerator side slowly went downhill until it barely kept milk cold enough to drink. We’d been “cooler camping” at our house for the last few days until our new fridge arrived and had to toss out a bunch of stuff. Thank goodness we have a chest freezer in the garage, as I would have been heartbroken to lose the rest of our quarter cow we bought last fall. Nonetheless, after all that shopping I didn’t have time to make this, let alone get the groceries out of the car before I had to pick her up! So we stopped at a local fresh Mexican food joint on the way home and I had a taco and she had a burrito.

For dinner last night, I made my staple summer-time grilled tortilla pizza! I marinated then grilled the chicken, tossed the tortilla on the grill, added pesto, artichoke hearts, the chicken, mozzarella and fresh basil from my herb garden.

Fresh Basil in Herb Garden

I made this and other tortillas pizzas all last summer. If you want the recipes, click here —> Grilled Tortilla Pizzas.

Fresh Grilled Chicken, Artichoke and Pesto Tortilla Pizza

p.s. You are asking yourself, what is a SkidCar course? It’s an amazing driving course using a special car and hydraulics to teach someone how to drive on ice and snow (or how to get out of a skid on any surface), even if there is no snow on the ground! My daughter will get a 30% discount on insurance now, we checked with our company. Win-win, and I’ll feel more secure now when the snow flies again in the winter with her driving skills. I arrived about 5 minutes early and got to see my daughter go into several “skids” and safely recover from them! For information on that course (not available in all areas) click here —> SkidCar course).

And yes, I made this great lunch today, finally. It was every bit as delicious as I expected it to be, and my husband said he really like it a lot! Now on to the recipe!

Spicy Canned Tuna Ceviche
Credit for this goes to Gina for Canned Tuna Ceviche at Skinnytaste.com

2 tablespoons minced red onion
1 to 1 1/2 limes, juiced (about 1/8 cup)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 can chunk white albacore tuna packed in water, drained
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (or parsley)
1/2 to 1 jalapeño, deseeded and minced
1 medium seeded plum tomato, finely diced
Dash of Sriracha sauce (optional)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Romaine lettuce leaves, for serving
Sliced avocado, for garnish
Tortilla chips, for garnish

Fresh Ceviche Ingredients

In a medium bowl, combine the red onion, lime juice, and olive oil. To that, add the tuna, cilantro, jalapeño, tomato, and Sriracha, if using. Taste and add salt, pepper, and more lime juice, if needed.

Ceviche Ready to Chill

Gosh I’m a messy cook! Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 20 minutes. Serve on a bed of romaine lettuce leaves garnished with slices of avocado and tortilla chips. A wonderful light summer lunch salad!

Spicy Canned Tuna Ceviche

Download and Print this Yummy Recipe!

Simple Pad Thai with Chicken

Pad Thai with Chicken

This was seriously easy to make. If you skip the chicken and eat it as a side dish, you can have this done in about a half hour. I have been craving Asian food lately, and came across this post on Pinterest. The blogger of that post, by the way, has received over 100,000 repins for it! However, the original recipe came out of Every Day Food magazine by Martha Stewart, which to my dismay announced a month or so ago it was discontinuing its print version of the magazine. They will be sending me her Living magazine instead until my scrip runs out. Bah-Humbug! I love my print foodie mags! Anyhoot, I enlisted my husband to par-boil the chicken earlier in the day for this, which was a great help. You could use a rotisserie chicken too, or leave it out altogether.

Simple Pad Thai with Chicken
(Adapted from Brownies for Dinner and Every Day Living)

8 ounces dried vermicelli noodles, or Pad Thai noodles
4 tablespoons lime juice, plus wedges for serving
5 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of Sriracha sauce, depending on your spice-level tolerance
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 green onions, white parts chopped small and green parts chopped large
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups cooked chicken, sliced thin
1/2 cup to 1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts, chopped

Vermicelli Noodle Coils

I have never bought any Pad Thai noodles, so used vermicelli noodles as a substitute. Actually they were vermicelli coils, which were sure pretty to look at but a pain to cook because they clumped together. I would use just straight noodles next time.  But if you have Pad Thai noodles, they will have to be soaked or something beforehand. Anyways, if using vermicelli, or angel hair, or even spaghetti noodles, get those a-cooking to start right off the bat. It won’t matter if they are done ahead of time, as they get tossed into a skillet and reheated later. I actually didn’t start the water for my noodles early enough and had to wait on them until everything else was ready. While the noodles are cooking, get your other ingredients together, like chopping the onion, squeezing the limes, beating the eggs, etc. Whisk the lime juice, soy sauce, Sriracha, and brown sugar in a small bowl until sugar dissolves and set aside. In a large skillet, heat the oil to medium-high heat and add the green onion whites and garlic and cook for about one minute, stirring constantly. Next add the beaten eggs, and cook unstirred until the eggs are almost all the way set, about another minute or so. Flip the eggs, over, then add the chicken, the rest of the green onion, and sauce to the skillet and turn down to medium. Stir and chop up the eggs into little bits, then add the noodles. Toss around and cook until everything is mixed together  and heated through. Serve with lime wedges, cilantro, and peanuts. Don’t forget the peanuts! (Unless of course you are allergic.) Family rating? Hubby went back for seconds, and daughter went back for thirds! This made a ton of food, and we ate leftovers for a couple of days, so feel free to halve.

Pad Thai Sauce and Garnishes