Rick's Steak Tacos with Tomatillo Salsa and Grilled Corn Esquites

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Rick's steak tacos with tomatillo salsa and grilled corn esquites

Rick shares his favorite summer recipe!

Let each person make their own tacos from sliced steak, and salsa. Garnish with thinly sliced radishes, cheese, grilled onions and lime wedges. Serve with the corn, cooked Mexican street-style.

Steak Ingredients:
-Skirt steak or Flank steak. I plan on about 3 people per pound, but judge based on your appetites
-Tortillas (I prefer corn, but you can do flour as well)

For the Marinade:
-1 medium-sized onion
-2 garlic cloves
-2 limes
-1 t ground cumin 
-1 t salt
-Pepper
Some Options for the Toppings:
-Radishes thinly sliced
-Queso fresco or cotija cheese crumbled-or use monterrey jack if you can’t find the other cheese
-Lime wedges
-Grilled green onions, find ones with a bigger white bulb and grill them…they go great on tacos
Directions:
Coarsely chop onion and garlic and put them into the blender. Squeeze in the juice of two limes. Add salt and pepper and blend until smooth. Pour into a shallow pan or large zip lock bag and put the steak into the marinade. Make sure all sides of the steak are covered in the marinade. Let marinate for at least a couple hours.  

When ready to grill, remove steak from marinade and grill steak to preferred doneness. When done, let it rest for about 10 minutes and slice thinly against the grain. Add salt if needed.

Place each tortilla on the grill till they begin to soften and char a tiny bit. Flip and do the same on the other side. When they’re done, you can keep them warm by placing them in between a folded dishtowel.

Tomatillo Salsa Ingredients:
-8-10 Tomatillos 
-1 onion 
-5 garlic cloves (skin on)
-2 jalapeños
-1 big handful of cilantro
-Salt to taste (around 1t)

Directions:
Remove husk from the tomatillos and rinse. Quarter and remove outer skin from the onion and leave the end on that holds it together. 
Place tomatillos, onion, garlic (still in its skin) and jalapeños on the grill. Grill till they each get some char and burnt sides according to your liking. 

Throw the tomatillos into a blender. Remove the end of the onion, remove the skin from the garlic and put them into the blender. Remove seeds from jalapeños but don’t throw them out. (You can adjust your spice level with the seeds afterwords to taste). Add jalapeños to blender.

Throw in handful of cilantro (or to your desired cilantro liking—cilantro is a controversial herb, some people love it, some hate it. I love it so I throw in a lot). Add salt but be prepared to adjust after. It’s easier to add more salt, than to add more ingredients after if you’ve oversalted.

Blend till it hits your desired consistency. Adjust salt and spicy levels (from the jalapeño seeds) to your liking.

Alternate/Additional Salsa with Red Tomatoes:
If you can’t find or don’t like tomatillos you can make a regular tomato version.  Just substitute regular, ripe red tomatoes for the tomatillos. And instead of jalapeños, use a couple of chipotle peppers. They come in a can at the store in the Mexican food section. I usually add a couple, but start with one and add more till you get to your desired spicy level. The other ingredients are all the same, onion, garlic and cilantro, salt.

Grilled Corn Esquites Ingredients:
-1 ear of fresh corn per person
-1 serrano pepper, diced (about 2 tablespoons), Jalapeños work too
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-2 tablespoons mayonnaise (low fat is fine) or Mexican crema
-Dash of cayenne pepper
-1/4 teaspoon chili powder or paprika
-2 tablespoons queso fresco or cotija cheese, crumbled
-Juice of half a lime
-Lime wedges

Directions:
Pull husk back on corn and grill, rotating each ear to get some good char on the corn. You don’t need to get it all cooked, corn is delicious raw off the cob. Just get some good char. 

Put serrano pepper on grill for same purpose. Once ready, slice corn off of cob into bowl. Dice the pepper (again the heat is in the seeds, so use as much of the seeds as you like spice). Add rest of the ingredients (except for lime wedges) and mix.

Make any seasoning adjustments to taste. You could add a bit of cilantro to this too if desired. Serve in a small bowl with lime wedge.