The only time in my life I had enough money to dine out at least once a week was, oddly, in graduate school in Austin, Texas.
My fellow students and I were living either on fellowships or on teaching assistantships, neither of which paid much. Nevertheless, we didn’t pay a lot for rent or groceries. Our health insurance was dirt cheap. And we generally had scholarships to help with tuition.
We didn’t dine in fancy establishments, but we had a delightful time. We usually went out on Friday or Saturday evening to catch up on the news of the week, share anecdotes about taking and/or teaching classes, and of course, eat dishes we wouldn’t cook at home.
We ate a lot of Tex-Mex food. It was cheap, flavorful and plentiful. My favorite meal in that genre was fajitas. As readers probably know, fajitas are grilled strips of beef. In recent years, chicken, shrimp, fish and pork have emerged as alternatives to the beef.
The original fajitas, according to the “Austin Chronicle,” were invariably beef. The dish was first enjoyed by vaqueros (cowboys) in the 1930s and 1940s. During cattle drives, the hired help was fed what were perceived as the least desirable parts of the cow.
One of those parts was skirt steak: a thin, long cut of beef cut from the underside of the cow. It was, and still is of course, full of flavor but could be a little tough. The vaqueros cooked it over an open fire, sometimes with vegetables.
It’s not easy to get skirt steak these days. There aren’t a lot of skirt steaks in any one cow. People often use other cuts of beef for fajitas, including flank steak, flat iron or hanger steak. In general, the meat should be relatively lean.
I am not 100% sure what cut of meat I used to make fajitas last week. When I recently visited Hicks Family Farm in Charlemont, Tammy Hicks handed me a package of frozen beef and told me I might like it. It was labeled “Beef Fajita Meat.”
I didn’t think it was skirt steak because it was more of a square or a rectangle than a long strip. It doesn’t help that I have never actually encountered raw skirt steak in person. In any case, I took the packaging’s words to heart and decided to use it for fajitas.
I was surprised when I opened the defrosted package to discover that my square was actually several strips of meat. So perhaps I did get skirt steak. In any case, I got to work marinating.
The original vaqueros didn’t marinate or probably even rub their fajita meat. They had worked long days in a mobile environment. In the late 1960s, however, when fajitas started showing up in restaurant menus in Texas, chefs began to tenderize and flavor their fajitas with a rub or a marinade.
Fajitas are a dramatic and fun food at a restaurant. They are usually served on a sizzling platter, fresh from the stove or grill. Onions and peppers are quickly fried with the meat, in part to stretch the dish (not even skirt steak is cheap these days) and in part because they add texture and taste.
The result is a feast of color and texture.
The fajitas are usually accompanied by tortillas along with odds and ends of condiments, including salsa, guacamole, beans and rice. One stuffs meat and whatever else one likes into a warm tortilla and ends up with a ton of flavor.
I haven’t made fajitas recently so I looked in cookbooks and on websites to see whether I should slice the meat before or after cooking. Alas, there is no consensus on this.
Some people want the fajitas as hot as possible so slicing beforehand makes sense. Some people worry that pre-slicing will cause the meat to dry out and get tough.
In the end, I opted for slicing after cooking. I hate dried-out meat. And I added extra moisture by marinating the beef.
My friend Kathy in Texas gave me a fajita recipe when I was in graduate school. Unfortunately, I lost her recipe. I do recall that she started with lime juice so I started there too and added suitable flavors: garlic, spices, cilantro and a little heat.
The final product may have been authentically Tex-Mex, but it was delicious. Happy fajita-frying.
Tinky’s Fajitas
Ingredients:
approximately 1 pound beef (skirt steak, flank steak, hanger steak, or in my case “fajita beef”), cut into strips
2 teaspoons cumin (seeds or ground)
1 teaspoon granulated garlic (you may also chop a couple of garlic cloves very finely)
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle powder (cut this down or omit it if you do not care for spice)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt plus a little more salt later
2 tablespoons olive oil plus (possibly) a little more later
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 large onion, cut into rounds or strips
2 bell peppers (any color), cut into strips
several sprigs of cilantro
Instructions:
Place the strips of beef in a bowl that will hold them all in one flat layer. In a small bowl, combine the cumin, the garlic, the chipotle powder, the paprika, and the 1/2 teaspoon salt. Rub this combination over both sides of the meat, pressing it in as much as possible.
In the same bowl you used for the dry ingredients, combine the 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the lime juice, and the Worcestershire sauce. Pour this mixture over both sides of the meat.
Cover the meat and refrigerate it for 3 to 4 hours, turning it every hour or so.
When you are ready to cook, preheat a skillet. I used a cast-iron skillet that had an enamel finish so it held heat well but also didn’t need to be seasoned. If you’re using a regular cast-iron skillet or a stainless-steel one, you may want to splash a little oil into the pan as it preheats.
(Of course, if you are hardy, you may grill your fajitas. My grilling days are over for this year, however.)
Place the strips of meat in the pan, and cook as desired. I like my meat rare, and my strips were thin, so I cooked them for 3 minutes on each side.
Remove the meat from the pan, and toss in the onion and pepper pieces. Fry them for a couple of minutes, turning frequently. They shouldn’t be too soft when they are done. Toss a little salt in with them to add to their flavor.
While the vegetables are cooking, slice your pieces of beef against the grain, and warm a few tortillas, corn or flour (your choice).
Serve the fajitas and veggies with a garnish of cilantro and of course the tortillas. I was feeling like a carnivore when I ate my first serving so I didn’t add any other condiments. Feel free to serve guacamole, salsa, cheese, and any other flavor addition you choose with your fajitas.
Serves 4.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning food writer and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.