TWO SALSAS ONE MARINADE
After the three recipes that follow, some tips on successful marinating of especially beef and how to char and roast fresh chiles.
Flap Beef Marinade
Ingredients
3/4-1 pound skirt, flank or flap beef steak
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons any red adobo or spice or steak rub (see note)
Juice of 1 orange
Juice of 1 lime
2 cloves garlic, minced or thinly sliced
Directions
Make a marinade of the olive oil, the rub, citrus juices and garlic, and marinate the meat for 1-3 hours (no longer or the citrus acidity will make the meat mushy). On an outdoor grill, with wood coals (preferred) or other high heat, or inside on a very hot cast-iron skillet or grill pan, grill the meat for 3-4 minutes on each side, letting it rest for 5 minutes before cutting it against the grain into thin “fingers” and then into 1/2-inch cubed pieces for taco filling.
Note: Make your own simple rub by blending together 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon hot or sweet paprika, 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper and 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro.
Sweet and Sour Roasted Pepper Salsa
Adapted from garlicandzest.com. Makes 4 cups.
Ingredients
2 cups charred, roasted hot or medium-hot green chiles (such as Hatch or Mirasol Mosco Pueblo), stemmed, veined and seeded, with 1/2 cup held back 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large yellow or white onion, peeled and chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled and slivered or minced
1 cup cilantro, leaves and tender stems only, chopped
Zest and juice of 1 large or 2 medium limes, flesh discarded
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon salt
Directions
Over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed skillet or Dutch oven and toss in the onions, cooking them and stirring a bit until they become translucent, anywhere from 6-8 minutes. Don’t brown or caramelize them. Add the garlic and cook some more, stirring, until the garlic is fragrant, about 90 seconds. Don’t brown the garlic.
Cool off the pan a little and transfer the contents to a food processor. Add 1 and 1/2 cups of the chiles and short-pulse everything 8-10 times. Add the remaining ingredients (still holding back the 1/2 cup of reserved chiles) and purée until smooth enough to your liking.
Chop up the 1/2 cup chiles and fold them into the purée. Store in refrigerator in closed container for up to 1 week. (It’s best to assemble the salsa at least a day ahead of service in order for the flavors to blend and mature.)
Salsa Santa
This is so-named because, as adapted, it pairs the Christmas colors red and green, is named after its adaptor and is a “sacred sauce” because all food eaten in communion with the like-minded is holy. Adapted from “The Fort Restaurant Cookbook,” by Holly Arnold Kinney (Globe Pequot, 2021). Makes 1-2 cups.
Ingredients
6 large green chiles (such as Anaheim or Hatch)
6 jalapeño chiles
6 red chiles (such as Fresno)
1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
Directions
In turn, roast, sweat, peel and seed all the chiles. Chop into fine dice and mix with the salt, garlic and oregano. Drizzle with the oil. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week and serve as topping or salsa. (It’s best to assemble the salsa at least a day ahead of service in order for the flavors to blend and mature.)
Salsa Santa, left, and Sweet & Sour Roasted Pepper Salsa.
Both of the salsas ask for “roasted chiles.” You’re able to buy these, from roadside stands late in autumn each year, or from freezer units at many grocery stores year-round, but charring the chiles yourself brings out the best homemade flavor, aroma and texture.
To char chiles, lay them on the burner covers or grates of a gas-fired stovetop with medium fire, or on a sheet pan under a broiler unit (electric preferred), or in a hot seasoned cast iron skillet or griddle or thick-bottomed non-stick skillet.
Blister the chiles, turning them around with tongs until all sides sport bubbled, blackened skin (3-5 minutes a side for most charring methods). Then place them in a large, thick-walled plastic bag for 10 minutes to “sweat” them. (OK to have batches.) When they’ve cooled down, run them under cool running water both to peel off the blackened skin and, in some cases, rinse out the seeds.
If the seeds remain in an unopened chile, slice it open longways, lay it skin side down and scrape against the flesh with the dull side of a kitchen knife to move away the seeds.
The point of most marinades is to add flavor to the meat (or other protein or vegetation) being used, not to tenderize. This, despite what you’ve been taught or heard how soaking muscle in marinade “softens or tenderizes” it before it hits the heat.
In truth, it’s error here to apply the proto-American adage that “if a little of something is good, then a lot of it must be better.” To soak meat too long in the acidity of many a marinade merely makes mush of it. Acid (such as citrus or wine or especially vinegar) doesn’t soften; it disassembles. Marinate with caution and detachment.
If using beef, most traditional tacos take one of a few possible thin, fibrous, but deliciously beefy-flavored “flaps” from low on the animal such as skirt steak or flank steak (or even a cut simply called “flap steak”). If you shop the butchery at a Latinx carniceria, look for “falda” (“skirt”) or “arrachera” meat.