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?      

Once upon a time

in Mexico.

A dude named Roberto Rodriguez decided he wanted to make movies (okay, no, it wasn't Mexico, it was Texas, but that didn't work with the titles). And he made some awesome flicks. Low budget, strong characters, bizarre and yet entirely believable plotlines... including, in one, a scene in which one character kills another because he made his dinner too good.

I'm not kidding.

Killed him right there in the kitchen as he stood over the stove.

Brilliant.

Wanna know what he made?

Puerco Pibil

according to Roberto Rodruiguez (srsly, watch the video)

What you need:

• 5 tbsp annatto, aka achiote, seeds (or about 3 tbsp pre-ground, which is what I used)
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp peppercorns
• 8 whole allspice seeds
• 1/2 tsp whole cloves
• 2 hatch, anaheim, or poblano chiles (or habanero if you're feeling spicy)
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 c white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 cloves garlic
• juice of 4 limes (or lemons, or some combination thereof)
• 2 oz tequila (or jalapeno wine, or some other booze that you like to have with mexican food)
• 5 lb of pork butt (also known as shoulder)

What you gotta do:

Grind the spices in a coffee grinder, or do it old school in a mortar and pestle.

Combine everything else, except the pork, in the food processor and whiz until it's nice and liquidy. No chunks allowed!

Dump the ground up spices into the food processor and use it to mix them in. Annatto is one of those fabulous spices that's often used as a natural food colour. The Kashi granola bars I bought last week have "annatto colour" listed as the last ingredient. And holy crap, no kidding. This dish would just not be the same without it.

Okay, so, I left out the lime juice so I could get a nice pic of something being poured into something else. This recipe is apparently a little too easy. I had to add steps so I could make food porn.

Chop the butt into 1-2 inch chunks. You can trim some of the fat from the meat if you want to, but you don't have to.

Mix the pork butt into the fabulous saucey marinade.

Um, there wasn't room in the fridge for the giant bowl, so I transferred everything to a 9 x 13 pan. You're going to cook the whole thing, marinade and all, so you may as well let it marinate in that pan.

Let the pork marinate for at least a few hours or as much as a whole day. This is one of those dishes you can put together at night, and toss into the crock pot in the morning. In fact, I think next time I make it, I'll use the crock pot just to prove it.

If you really want to, you can line your baking dish with banana leaves first. If you can find them. Mine were in the frozen section, but if your regular grocery doesn't have them, try an Asian market. Apparently they can be plentiful in groceries that specialize in Thai food...

I didn't do the leaf thing. I just covered mine completely and tightly with a double layer of heavy duty foil. You want to keep as much moisture in as possible. You aren't roasting so much as you are stewing in the oven.

After about 4 hours at 250F it's absolutely fork tender. Falls apart when you try to stab it.

Now, if you can resist temptation, let this sit in the fridge overnight again.

Apparently, there are people in Recipe Guy's house who can't resist temptation.

Shred the meat with a couple forks and stir it into the fabulous spiced juices.

Serve over rice, and top with tomatoes and cilantro.

What movie recipe would you like to see made??