Bistec en Salsa Roja

Sometimes when I'm obsessively cooking, writing or talking about tacos, I feel like I'm such a faker to the world of Mexican food. After all, I am literally the WASP-iest Canadian who ever lived (sorry Anne Murray) and I don't even speak a lick of Spanish. Are my flavours that authentic? Would someone who grew up at the kitchen table of their Abuela scoff at my cooking attempts?

These are the thoughts that keep me up at night. Well, actually it's work stress. But taco stress is also no joke.

However, every once in a while I think I nail it. Like with this recipe for Salsa Roja, which I then stewed with flank steak. I used some dried peppers specially procured for the occasion and they made all the difference. This dish has some rich heat that's tempered by the crema and brings to mind all the Mexican food I've loved before.

So cook this up the next time you need to impress Rick Bayless (anybody? ...nobody)

Steak Arrachera

On today's episode of Learning By Doing, I'm going to teach you a little bit about how to make a tough steak into a melt in your mouth taco. Now, if you're a real cook who doesn't get their basic food prep instructions from the Food Network you might already know this. But for the rest of us, I've got a few tips to keep in mind when you want to prepare a cut of beef like the flank steak. 

Now, this recipe is pretty basic. It's just a classic technique for preparing a flank or skirt steak for maximum taco enjoyment - I've seen it called Tacos Nortenos (Northern Tacos) but it seems to be more commonly know as Arrachera. 

The key here is to not Charlie Chaplin it and end up eating shoe leather. It's super important to a) tenderize the steak, b) marinate it in something acidic and c) keep it nice and medium rare. Once it's all cooked and chopped, you can serve it with basically anything you want - salsa, cheese, guacamole, a marathon of Breaking Bad. The sky's the limit!

Chimichurri Beef

Welcome to a new year and a whole new chance to sample delicious tacos courtesy of Tee's Taqueria!

Over the holidays I spent almost two weeks visiting my hometown, hanging out with my mother and her big screen TV with cable. In my current abode I don't actually have a TV, so the chance to go full couch potato was embraced wholeheartedly. Shockingly, my favourite channel is the Food Network - especially Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. About 5 hours into a Triple D marathon, I caught an episode about Camille's on Wheels. This food truck serves up "global tacos" - including chimichurri beef. 

Intrigued, I did a little research into this method and found it is a traditional Argentinian pesto-type sauce. It tastes better the longer it marinates and pairs well with a fattier cut of beef, like short ribs. After a little testing (and some improvised butchering), I came up with my own taco take...then went back to watch at least 10 more hours of cooking shows. 

Slow Cooked Korean Beef

This is a really hard dish to make - in that it's basically impossible to stop yourself from eating it all in one sitting. Korean Beef is the whole package - sweet and sour, with crunchy and spicy toppings. My mouth is watering, and I just finished eating a couple. The best part about this recipe is how totally easy it is. Just whisk together the ingredients, throw it into a slow cooker and you're all set! Traditionally, Korean Beef is made with short ribs but I can never seem to find them at my local grocery store - so I substitute with beef chunk roast for a similarly delicious alternative.

I must give mad props to Confections of a Foodie Bride for the recipe inspiration. I made some alternations to my version, but the genius idea to make this dish happen in a slow cooker is all them. So throw it on, go watch the Star Wars trilogy (the only three Star Wars movies I will recognize) and you'll have a meal ready before you can say "Hayden Christiensen is the worst."

Carne Guisada

 

This one is going out to all my American friends (and foes). I know Thanksgiving is coming up for you guys sometime soon-ish, so I made these comfort food tacos just for you. No, they're not made of turkey - this is a traditional beef stew with potatoes added in for maximum starch enjoyment. It could easily be made in a slow cooker, but I expedited the process and cooked it in a pot for about 2 hours. You can cook it for longer - your beef will get nice and soft - but I think you get the same great taste with this method. So be thankful for tacos (and your family or whatever)

Beef Barbacoa

When I'm on vacation, I try not to be "that tourist" - you know the guy. Camera around the neck, sensible running shoes, shopping at souvenir stands and eating at McDonalds. I'm being a snob, but when I'm in a new place, I want to try new things. I do have one shameful exception though...I love Chipotle. We don't really have them in Canada (save for a few in Toronto) so I will hit them when I visit the US. But I'll also go to cool places and act like I'm above tourist traps, I swear! 

Anyway, my favourite dish at Chipotle is the beef barbacoa in a burrito - so I decided to see if I could make it work in a taco. Barbacoa is a beef that's simmered for hours, so naturally I took out my trusty slow cooker and put it to work. The results were pretty close to Chipotle, but I did find that the meat tastes better when it's PILED with toppings. So go nuts - cover it with guacamole, rice, beans, salsa, cheese and hot sauce. 

Carne Asada

Choosing which taco would grace my first post was hard - it was basically like Sophie's Choice in that it resulted in one of my children being murdered (real talk: does it bother anyone else when people throw that term around?). So in the end, I decided to go with a pretty simple recipe for grilled steak made with my special paste-y spice rub. It's a great summer option on the BBQ, but you can also make it in a cast iron skillet - I've got one with grill lines that I think was made for camping use, but I don't let Canadian Tire tell me how to live my life.

Once you grill and slice it for taco filling, this Carne Asada has a nice heat without being too overpowering. You can mellow it out even more by serving it with guacamole.