[mojo]

Fajitas

Ingredients

4 garlic cloves, minced and mashed to a paste with 1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2-3 pounds skirt steak, trimmed and cut into large pieces to fit on a grill or in a ridged grill pan
3 assorted colored bell peppers, sliced thin
1 large red onion or sweet onion, sliced thin
1/4 cup fresh cilantro sprigs
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon tabasco

Options: 1/4 cup tequila,1 beer, 1 teaspoon dried, crushed Mexican oregano, 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1 minced jalapeno, 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce

Directions

In a large, heavy-duty freezer ziptop bag, combine garlic paste, lime juice, cumin, and olive oil. Seal and shake to combine. Place skirt steak, bell peppers, onion, and cilantro sprigs into the bag, squeeze out the air, and turn to coat the meat, distributing vegetables evenly. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight to allow marinade to penetrate.

When I make Fajitas, I usually do it on the grill. The meat I do not cut into strips until after it is cooked which prevents it from falling through the grill. The vegetables I slice up, put in a foil pouch, add a few tbs of water in it, then seal. I put the pouch on the grill and let it get warm enough for the water to turn to steam and cook the veggies. Be careful opening the pouch once cooked. The trapped steam will burn you if you aren't paying attention. I usually use a couple of forks to open the pouch so that my fingers are not close to it.

When it's all done, the meat is sliced into thin strips maybe a 1/4 inch wide and then put in a bowl. The cooked veggies are drained of any water and then put in a separate bowl. Lettuce is sliced and done the same way in another bowl. Tomatoes are diced fresh followed by it's own separate bowl. The idea here, is that each set of ingredients are separated into different containers.

When all done, warm flour tortillas by layering them in paper towels with just a touch of water on each towel. All you want here is damp, not wet. Warm in microwave. Put two on a plate, go by the separate containers to get what you wish on your tortilla. Normally you put a layer of lettuce, followed by the meat, followed by the veggies, and finish with sour cream dollop, salsa, or guacamole.

[Alexa]

Thank you for the good explanation! I will add 2 photos for these, who need more visual materials here.

A mixed platter of beef and chicken fajitas with onions and rice as served at a T.G.I. Friday's in the Altamira neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela: ^{By Elisa Arteaga from Caracas, Venezuela - Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2207963}.

Beef fajita in San Jose, Costa Rica: ^{By Eric T Gunther - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18705381}.

[MSL]

 To be frank, I only knew the word (fajitas) and I knew it's a kind of food, but I had no idea what is this exactly. Thank you for the info!

[Nadia]

Wowww... it is so super good!

[mojo]

One of the reasons besides taste for why I do fajitas on the grill, is that it eliminates the grease. So instead of having greasy meat, you have it pretty much without it. All the grease that comes out of any fat, goes into the coals, not on the plate.

[SEO]

And I think this is a very good and right, healthy way!

[mojo]

Most of the chicken has been cooked for the fajitas and there is now room on the grill for the marinaded veggies in the foil to steam cook. The chicken and the veggies were marinaded over night. Grabbed a picture while the lid was off.

[MSL]

Pretty good! Btw, what kind of coal do you use? Probably some coals are healthier than others (I read some articles about the coals and this kind of foot, so I think you know better and you can tell more about it?)

[mojo]

I use a commercial charcoal called Kingsford. I usually buy two bags of it in the spring and it lasts me to the next year. The grill in this image is about 5 years old. It stays outside in the weather with the lid on and the grill rack is removed, cleaned, and brought inside after every use.

I had thought one time about making my own lump charcoal. I have the wood to do so but the real issue is starting a fire here. After spring, everything dries up and fires become a real hazard along with winds to fan it. We get weather report warnings called 'red flag' days where any sort of burning is forbidden due to the fire hazard presented with that unless it is contained in some sort of fireplace made for that. Inside the city the only approved containers to burn in are BBQ grills or containers that food can be prepared in. I have a cast iron chimenia that qualifies for this but is also a sort of fireplace and I never use it for food preparation but rather for fires at night.

We have the choice in charcoal of either brickettes or lump charcoal. Lump charcoal is basically wood from lumber or limbs that have been cut up and then turned to charcoal. The lump charcoal is hard to gauge how much you need or how hot the fire will be due to irregularities in the source wood plus the pieces are random in size and thickness.

Normally for smoking wood, I cut, dry, and make my own. On rare occasion I will purchase a bag of lump smoking wood. You can't see it in the image but there is a chunk of pecan wood on the coals to flavor the meat with pecan smoke. You have to use the lid for this to occur.

[Alexa]

Wow, it's so useful even for the cold days, isn't it?

[mojo]

Yes it is useful for that. It has a flue dampener inside. Open the flue and the smoke goes up the chimney. Close the flue, the smoke goes out the grill area but the heat stays inside and heats the cast iron, creating a heater.

[MSL]

 Good.

[SEO]

Yes. Amazing and good thread! I wish we could have more like this one!