A spicy, citrusy steak product wrapped in tortilla is good news all day long. Now, one of my earliest posts (I think?) was actually a carne asada product. I’ll link it right here: Carne Asada 1 – but today’s post (for me) was actually less about the meat and more about the tortilla. It’s kind of fascinating that people decry the corn tortilla. When done right, it actually is the taco. I’ve never done it, so lets do it.
The Prep Table
Couldn’t pack it all in here, but you should know we’re going big for this one. My idea going in was to make a carne asada and have a bean, rice, guac side. But then I thought I could make a street dish – carne asada fries – with a queso blanco .. so this whole cook kept expanding the more I kept thinking. What didn’t change – I wanted to make homemade corn tortillas.
MrsForensicBBQ was getting home in 2 hours, so I had to be quick with the asada prep. We gotta rehydrate the peppers, and blend the goods. I came up about 30min short and she wasn’t pleased with the kitchen aromatics. Half a decade later, she (or maybe me?) hasn’t learned.
So we’re going to add that guajillo, the seasonings, some beer – garlic.. mix it all up and then add the citrus bath. This thing was so very fragrant, I don’t know who anyone would object.
Flank steak was on the verge of expiration. I had the one bought for a bit, and opted to buy the second because my recipe ideas expanded. Once we did the blend, the dust, the juice – we gotta let this thing sit for a little bit. Admittingly, I let it set for too long. We only need a few hours, but work got in the way and I ended up letting this go overnight (not a big deal) – but then a full day’s work.. we stretched that citrus-meets-beef- time limit.
The meat is in the fridge, we’re onto cook day.
The Process
I’m way too excited for what could be done a dozen different ways. I wanted a tortilla press, I got a tortilla press and we’re going to make corn tortillas. No apologies here. I gotta see if masa harina normally expires within a week of purchase or if I got supermarket duped. Either way, it’s still good, so we’re using it. Mix it with some hot water and salt until it’s a Play-doh ball, let it set for 20min, and then portion them out.
Try one, we’re using a ziploc bag sized out to prevent sticking. I pressed one and it worked pretty okay. MrsForensicBBQ was curious about it and tried and it failed miserably. Then I developed a rhythm and we actually got tortillas working – pressed, on the Blackstone, in the bowl – we can do this mainstream if you got the funding (hint).
Carne Asada, let’s go. Ol boy (the RecTeq) was laboring a little bit. Took an usually long time to heat up, the probe gauge was shockingly off – I gotta re-evaluate things, but that’s why we have redundancy. I use the probes for a estimate and the thermapen for accuracy. We’re cooking this to medium.
If your taco shop as tortillas that look like this – you’re at a legit taco shop. (taquiera whatever). We had one locally in the midwest that did this – their tacos were crazy expensive – and they went out of business. The taco isn’t expensive. Had I used up the entire bag of masa harina – it’s the labor that’s expensive, not the ingredients. All my life I haven’t tried to be a millionaire, just to get by and be happy. I’ve succeeded on the latter, and that’s why I’d make the best damn affordable asada corn tortilla taco of all time.
The Result
I wanted to make separate guacamole post, but didn’t take enough photos to qualify it as a separate post. But this was your usual: Avocado, Salt, Lime, Tomato, Cilantro, Serrano – and Habanero. While everything was doing their thing, I mixed this up. I told you, I wanted this Mexi-meal to be legit. We went hard to open up spring (I know, posting way later)
Pulled off the asada and chopped it up. I left some strips (cut against the grain) chopped, diced some up and we’re going to make some tacos. Now, every authentic taco I’ve had doesn’t include cheese. I’m okay with it, but doesn’t mean I agree with it. What I do agree with: cilantro/onion. If I did the asada good enough to be hot, juicy, and flavorful (I did) – then all you need is the C&O.
And that was a fantastic taco. I ate one of ’em and then threw some hot sauce on the other two. And then I built another taco and ate it the same way and then I woke up at 3:00am and ate Tums. All worth it because this was delicious. And I got a lot of leftovers for other ideas, stay tuned!