Recipe for the Steak Fajitas (Fajitas de Res)
The Fajitas are a fantastic and fun meal to share with your friends or family, on a special occasion of course. To people from outside Mexico, the Fajitas are often understood as a typical mexican dish; but in reality this is not served very often in Mexico, except of course to tourists! The name 'Fajita' is derived from the diminutive of the word faja which means belt; this takes after the meat cut traditionally used in this recipe: the Skirt Steak, or 'Faja' in spanish..
The recipe for Fajitas I present here is with the traditional Skirt Steak beef cut, but nowadays you often also see chicken and even shrimp fajitas! Basically the Fajitas are a meal with vegetables and meat that arrive to your table sizzling, with tortillas and salsas on the side, placed in such a way so that all guests can help themselves and make their own tacos, to their taste.
Steak Fajitas recipe
Ingredients for 5-6 guests:
* 2 lb. Skirt Steak beef cut
* 1 big red onion
* 4 Jalapeno Chiles
* 1 Tablespoon paprika
* 1 Teaspoon cumin
* 1 Red Bell Pepper
* 1 Orange Bell Pepper
* 1 Green Bell Pepper
* One big bunch of Cilantro
* 1/4 cup Low-Salt Soy Sauce or Tamari Sauce
* 2 Lemons
* Salt
* a few bunches Cilantro, thoroughly cleaned
to accompany when serving:
- 24 tortillas
- limes
- Sour Cream
- chopped onions
Preparation:
1) Chop all the cilantro down very finely. Slice the Skirt Steak meat in strips, so your cuts follow the angle of the fiber of the meat. Put these meat strips in a container, into which you will press both lemons, pour the soy sauce, put in one third of the cilantro and 1/4 cup oil. Mix the meat with this marinade so it is well coated in it and let it marinate in the refrigerator for one hour.
2) Now, the most involving step: let's chop all the vegetables... it is important to shop them Fajita-style! Slice the Bell peppers and the jalapenos lenghtwise in strips; naturally the jalapeno strips must be very slim. Cut the onion in three parts, which you will place face down on your cutting board then cut again so you also get small strips of onions, but not the usual fine chop. Mix all vegetables together with cumin, the second third of the chopped cilantro, and paprika spices.
3) Now the crucial step where we will cook all our ingredients: first heat up some oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat setting; when it is hot put all vegetables first, and cook them for 5-10 minutes, depending how much you have: the important thing is that they must remain crisp so do not overcook them...
Once the vegetables are cooked, set them aside, make sure there are no liquids left in the skillet; we do not want the meat to boil in them! When the skillet is at the right temperature again,
put them meat in, it should sizzle on contact with the skillet which means the meat strips are searing and grilling not boiling. Cook the skirt steak strips until they are all cooked medium, scraping them off the skillet so they don't have time to stick.
4) Heat up the tortillas and place them in their proper tortilla warmer so they stay warm throughout the meal. Heat them up on a slightly oiled pan, or comal, at medium-high setting one by one.
5) Time to serve! Do not forget any item when setting the Steak Fajitas table: one plate with the meat, one plate with the vegetables, the tortillas, the sour cream, the chopped onions, the limes and the salsas.
