Meat and Potatoes with a Kick!

So apparently, Seeley and I were both thinking about Mexican meat this week.  The truth is, I had a flank steak in the freezer that I pulled out to thaw, and really had no clue what I was going to do with it.  Basically with flank, you have two options.  You can cook it hot and fast or low and slow.  Anything in the middle is going to be stringy shoe leather.  Well, as it happens, Elise and I recently went on a bit of a shopping spree at Penzeys. 

If you have a store near you and you’ve never been in.  Go.  Seriously.  You can smell every spice in the store, and it’s an amazing experience.  If you don’t have one nearby, you can order from their website, which is great, but not quite the same.  So obviously I won’t be using all of those spices for this one meal.  These are the ones I decided on. 

So here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 Tablespoon oil
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Flank steak (mine was probably .75 lb.)
• 1 Tablespoon oil (yes this makes two, but they’re used separately)
• 1 Tablespoon chili powder 
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• 2 Tablespoons dried minced onion
• Juice of a lime
• ½ cup water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 medium russet potatoes
• 1 medium tomato

The first step is to sear the meat.  Salt both sides well.  Then put it into a very hot pan with 1 Tablespoon of oil.  Ideally, you’d like it to be a bit darker than this, but I had a bit of a brain fart and used a nonstick pan rather than a stainless one.  Why is this a problem?  Well, Teflon gives off toxic stuff if it gets too hot, so I didn’t want to put it on high.  Just use stainless and you won’t have to worry about it. 

Once you’ve seared both sides, remove it from the pan and put it into your crock pot. 

See those tasty bits left in the pan?  That’s one of the reasons for searing the meat, so we can’t waste them.  Also, a bit of heat will really wake up your spices. 

Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan (I had already added it in that picture) and stir in your chili powder, cumin, and cayenne. 

Spices can burn really easily in this process, so give them only about 30 seconds or so, then quickly add your minced onion, oregano, garlic and onion powder, and pour in the lime juice and water. 

Add 1 teaspoon of salt.  Stir and simmer that for about a minute, then just turn off the heat.  It should look something like this:

Peel and dice your potatoes.

Stir them into the spice mixture as you go so that they don’t oxidize. 

Then pour the whole thing over the top of your waiting flank steak. 

This was about the time I looked over and saw the beautiful tomatoes that I had picked up at the farmers’ market.

So I diced one of them up and threw it in.  If you want to make it easier, just stir it in with the potatoes before adding them to the pot.  Otherwise, you can just stir them in afterward, like I did. 

I like to start my slow cooker on high for the first hour, just to get things going a bit, then turn it down to low for the duration.  This went for a total of about 5 hours.  Look at those potatoes.  Can you just imagine how much flavor they must have?

You’ll know it’s done when the potatoes are nice and soft, and the meat is fall apart tender.  No, I didn’t just put the meat on my countertop.  It just looks like that because it’s on a glass plate.

Now the tricky part, cutting the tender meat into chunks.  Sure, you could just shred it, but I think chunks are better for this particular dish.  Cut across the grain first. (see, glass plate)

Then it will be easy to cut the strips into small pieces.

Put the meat chunks back into the crock pot and stir so that everything is nicely coated. 

Spoon the mixture into tortillas, top with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of green onion, and you have serious taco goodness. 

You might not find carne y papas tacos at your local restaurante mexicano, but meat and potatoes cooked in a similar fashion to this are actually very traditional Mexican cuisine.

What’s on your list of spices to buy and/or use?      

Comments

[Seeley deBorn]

That is just the kind of thing I've ben craving lately.

I've actually moved entirely away from non-stick pans. Anodized aluminium pans have a lot of the non-stick properties, but none of the toxic chemicals. Easier to clean than stainless (though, I do have stainless steel pots).

[the recipe guy]

Teflon awareness, Mexican oregano, and reaffirmation of potatoes as an American (Southern continent) food.

My only complaint about this one is the chili powder. It's nearly always a blend of spices everyone already has in their cabinet (and in this case, likely a blend of the next four ingredients in the recipe). So, I prefer to list out the constituents so I can get the ratios just right.

[Taneasha]

Well, you're right about the chili powder thing. I figure everybody has a favorite blend and then I just like to up the amounts of the things I want to accentuate. I used Penzey's chili 3000. The ingredients are listed as such:
Ancho Chili Powder, Garlic, Cumin, Onion, Cilantro, Paprika, Cayenne Red Pepper, Lemon Peel, Mexican Oregano, Black Pepper, Citric Acid, Natural Smoke Flavor, Jalapeño Pepper.

I don't know what the ratios are, though. But the truth is, I figure you can use what tastes good to you.