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To follow-up on last night’s post, here are the recipes you’ll need to make these fajitas.

Fajitas

Not to toot my own horn, or anything, but I was told that these were the BEST fajitas ever.

Grilled Flank Steak (recipe follows – best if you start to marinate the night before)

Salsa Verde (recipe follows)

1 red onion, sliced into strips

1 bell pepper, sliced into strips

1 avocado

8-12 shiitake mushrooms

1 package Artisan-style corn tortillas (I used blue corn tortillas here)

To assemble the fajitas:

1. Prepare the salsa.
2. While the salsa is cooking on the stove, grill the flank steak.
3. Prepare the mushrooms for grilling. Rinse them well and allow to drain a few moments. Then skewer them, drizzle with a little olive oil, and grill.
4. While the steak and mushrooms are grilling, slice the onions and peppers.
5. For medium rare steak, cook until about 130 degrees. It is very important that you allow the meat to rest about 10 minutes before slicing. If you slice it too soon, the juices will run out of the meat and it will be dry.
6. While the meat is resting, cook the onions and peppers in a hot cast iron skillet. You can cook them together, but since I cannot eat bell peppers, we had to cook them separately. You want the onions to caramelize a bit, but not get too soft. The peppers, you’ll want to get a little char on them, but be careful to not overcook them. They can very quickly go from bright, colorful, and tender-crisp to overcooked. Remove from the heat, cover and keep warm.
7. While the onions and peppers are cooking, cut the avocado into slices or bite-sized chunks.
8. Heat the tortillas either on the grill or in a cast iron pan.
9. Thinly slice the meat. Thinly slice the mushrooms.
10. To assemble your fajitas, place a corn tortilla on a plate, then top with a few slices of the steak, some onions and peppers, mushrooms, avocado, and a generous dollop of salsa.
11. Chew, savor, smile, swallow, smile, repeat.

Shiitake Mushrooms

Red Onions

Bell Peppers

Grilled Flank Steak with Lime, Cilantro, & Serrano Chili

Marinated Flank Steak

2 limes, freshly squeezed
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
1-2 tablespoons of agave nectar
1 large serrano chile pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 pound flank steak
salt and pepper to taste

1. Whisk together the lime juice, cilantro, agave nectar, and chile pepper in a bowl. If you want more heat, then leave all or part of the serrano seeds. I prefer to seed chiles.
2. Lightly salt and pepper the flank steak and place into a zipper bag. Pour in the marinade.
3. Refrigerate and marinade at least a few hours or up to about 24 hours.
4. Remove from the refrigerator no more than 30 minutes before grilling.
5. Grill to desired doneness (I like medium rare, at most), which for beef is about 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Remove from grill and let sit for about 10 minutes before slicing.
7. Thinly slice against the grain.

Roasting tomatillos, serranos, & onions.

Salsa Verde

1-1/2 pounds of fresh tomatillos
1 bunch green onion
4 (or more) large serrano chile peppers
A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro leaves
salt and pepper to taste

1. Husk the tomatillos, rinse well, and set to drain in a colander.
2. Trim off the root end and about half of the green stem of the onions.
3. Cut off the stem end of the chile, slice in half length-wise, and scrape out the seeds.
4. Rinse the cilantro well, drain, and strip the leaves off the stems. Place the leaves on a towel to drain well.
5. Place the tomatillos, green onions, and serranos in a roasting pan, and drizzle with a little olive oil.
6. You can roast the tomatillos, green onions, and serranos on a grill or under a broiler. You’ll want to get a bit of char on them for flavor, but not too much.
7. The tomatillos are ready when they’re softened and a little bit charred. Remove from the grill or oven and set aside to cool a bit. You don’t want to try to process them while they’re piping hot. I destroyed a blender one time by not waiting. It was a very sad and expensive culinary discovery that my KitchenAid blender was no match for piping hot tomatillos. It melted the base! Very sad, indeed.
8. For this amount of salsa, you’ll want to blend it in 3-4 batches. It doesn’t really have to be evenly distributed per batch at this point because it’s all going to end up in one skillet to cook.
9. Cook on medium-high heat until the mixture begins to bubble, then reduce the heat to low. You’ll want to stir frequently to avoid scorching the bottom. I cook it until it’s slightly thickened, but still a pretty green color. The color will vary a lot from batch to batch due to the natural variation in tomatillos, how much char you have on them, and how long you cook the sauce.
10. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

This salsa is really easy and incredibly good either hot or cold. I love it on grilled chicken, carnitas, with rice, with tortilla chips, on eggs … it is am incredibly versatile sauce.

My fajitas, no bell peppers!

The Final Product!

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Coming soon …Fajitas.

... with peppers ...

and without!

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There was some great riding to be had this holiday weekend. I rode all 4 days, varying distances. July 4th was pretty darn windy here, but we got 50 or so miles in. The 5th, I just did about 20 in the morning; it was still pretty windy and I felt pretty beat up from the day before. Yesterday and today were nice – we got about 55 miles in yesterday and 77 today.

We had some pretty good food at home this weekend, too. We treated ourselves to a marinated tri tip on July 4th and enjoyed this with lemony Caesar salad with homemade croutons, and some grilled potato. We were a little too ambitious with food and also grilled a couple of ears of corn, but that ended up being too much, so we saved them for the next day. With the leftovers, we made some upscale tacos.

Tri Tip Tacos

We had some leftover mango-papaya salsa and a really ripe avocado, so I made a pseudo-guacamole by mashing the avocado a bit with some fresh squeezed lime juice and the stirred in the salsa. I made a simple corn relish by slicing the corn off the cob, adding a healthy heaping of chopped fresh cilantro, the juice of one lime, about a teaspoon of agave nectar, and seasoned with salt and pepper. In hindsight, a thinly sliced or chopped serrano chile pepper would have been a great addition. I cut the leftover tri tip into small bite-sized chunks, and sauteed it a bit in a little olive oil over medium high heat. In a cast iron griddle, I heated some corn tortillas, and then assembled some simple tacos. If you can find a local, artisan corn tortilla, it is worth the extra money. I have just recently discovered Mi Abuelita Bonita Tortillas Sonora Style traditional corn tortillas and might never eat “regular” store bought corn tortillas again.

Espresso-Herb Marinated Leg of Lamb

I don’t eat much red meat, but for some reason I was craving it this weekend, so I picked up a boneless leg of lamb at Costco. A few years back I made a leg of lamb with an espresso marinade. I couldn’t remember exactly what I had done, so I did a quick Google search and found this recipe for an Espresso Marinated Lamb Roast. I modified this just a little bit. I happened to have a bit of fresh mint leftover from another recipe, and lamb with mint is a classic combination, so this is my twist on the recipe …

Espresso-Herb Marinated Leg of Lamb

Boneless leg of lamb (about 3 pounds)
2 shots of espresso, cooled
1/2 large red onion, cut into a small dice
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon fresh chopped mint
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper

1. Combine the espresso, onion, garlic, herbs, honey, and soy sauce in a medium bowl. Stir to mix well.
2. Trim excess fat from the meat and blot with paper towels.
3. Place the trimmed meat into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag. Add a few grinds of black pepper.
4. Pour the marinade into the bag, seal it, and work the marinade around so that it covers the meat as evenly as possible.
5. Place the bag in a bowl and then into the refrigerator.
   

   Medium Rare

6. Marinate at least 6 hours, but overnight is better.
7. Grill at about 325-degrees to your desired doneness. Let it rest about 10 minutes before slicing.

We served this with grilled eggplant and squash. It was fantastic, if I may say so myself! The mint stood out a bit more than I expected it to, but it was not overpowering at all. We enjoyed this with a Willamette Valley Vineyards Barrel Select Pinot Noir, 2010. The wine was fairly light, not too fruity, and just earthy enough to compliment the grilled lamb and vegetables.

And then, there was dessert …

Fresh Blueberries and Strawberries with Just a Touch of Salt Caramel Gelato and a Bit of Dark Chocolate

This was all great motivation to get a good ride in today. I hope you got a chance to get out and enjoy some fun and exercise this weekend. How did it go by so darn quickly?

Here’s to a super busy work week ahead. I am feeling reinvigorated and ready to go and will need to keep that motivation for this entire week. I scheduled a lot of appointments and have extra events going on this week. What was I thinking? 

The weather forecast is promising and I expect to get a ride in each day, maybe even a few evenings after work, too.