Ever since our days in San Antonio we’ve been suckers for street tacos, no matter if fish, pork or beef. Cinco de Mayo week always makes us miss San Antonio.
We grew spoiled back in that day (1980-84); there were taco stands and shacks that sold freshly made carne asada or guisada tacos for a buck apiece, and they were open around the clock. We had friends – a couple working on PhDs in psychology and french interestingly – who would randomly call after 1100 at night and simply say ‘tacos, 20 minutes’ and hang up.
We’d pick the loose change out of the couch, scrounge She Who Must Be Obeyed’s purse for a dollar or two, then dash to the edge of downtown to our favorite taco shack. Damn that was fun and well worth the tinge of heartburn that occasionally followed on early morning rounds the next day.
Making tacos just as good or better at home is shamefully simple actually once you get the hang of making an adobo in which to marinate the meat.
Adobos are typically based around dried chiles, soaked and blended with an acidic liquid (vinegar here), some aromatic vegetables (onion and garlic) and a handful of spices. You won’t use all of this recipe on the skirt steak, save it in the fridge (a week or so) or in the freezer and use on chicken or pork – it’s incredible on both.
Some folks (and restaurants) will serve a piece of skirt steak intact with tortillas and taco trimmings on the side; we prefer to slice it after resting for five minutes or so from the grill and go right to the taco show.
This makes an incredible summer river lunch too, pack the taco ingredients in the cooler and go to it when the mood strikes you.
Adobo
10 dried pasilla chiles, stemmed and seeded
10 guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
4-6 chipotle chiles, stemmed and seeded
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup cerveza
1 cup rough chopped onion
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1 generous tbsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. Mexican dried oregano
1 scant tsp. cumin seeds
8 whole cloves3 lb. skirt steak, cut into 8 to 10 inch sections
1 tbsp. kosher salt
1 and 1/2 cups (more or less) of your magic adobo
Work the chile magic. Toast the chiles in a hot skillet until fragrant (1-2 minutes) then soak in cold water to cover until soft (35-45 minutes). Drain.
Blend the chiles and the remainder of the adobo ingredients until smooth (sometimes up to three minutes for us to make sure the spices are pulverized.) Add a bit more beer (or water) if you need to loosen it blend well; there’s a bit of leeway here depending on the size of your peppers and onion.
Marinate. Trim the skirt steaks, pat dry, then salt lightly. Coat all sides of the meat generously with the adobo and marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours, more is better.
Grill it up. Fire the grill 30 minutes ahead of cook time and set the steaks out to come to room temperature. Grill 4 to 5 minutes per side to cook to medium rare (pending thickness); rest for 5 minutes before thin slicing for those carne adobada tacos.
Serve. Build a plateful of tacos using fresh corn tortillas, drizzle with a bit of lime, a sprinkle of chopped onions and cilantro and finish with a plop of tacqueria guacamole. And don’t forget the cold cerveza.
Enjoy.
