Steffen's Dinners - Recipes and Photos

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Mexican-inspired and very good: Thin slices of real beef steak served in
freshly made corn tortillas together with a mix of onions, bell peppers, mild poblano ("pasilla") chillis and tomatoes.

The poblano peppers add a rather mild but distinctive spicy flavor to the dish.

Ingredients

Corn Tortillas

• 2 cups / 300g Masa harina
• 1 1/3 cup water

Steak and Vegetables

• 7 oz / 200g beef steak (e.g. 1 New York Strip steak)
• ¼ tsp dried ground cumin
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 fresh poblano peppers (often sold as pasilla peppers), cut into ½ in / 1cm pieces
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into ½ in / 1cm pieces
• 2 plum tomatoes, cut into ½ in / 1cm pieces
• 1/8 tsp cumin
• ¼ tsp salt or to taste
• ¼ cup / 60ml white wine
• ½ cup / handful cilantro, coarsely chopped
• a few cilantro leaves as garnish

Preparation

Corn Tortillas

1. Combine masa harina with water. Mix well until you get a smooth dough. Add water in tablespoon increments if necessary.
2. Divide dough into 6 equal parts. Shape each part into a ball.
3. Use a tortilla press to make tortillas. I find it works best to press the tortillas between two sheets of parchment paper (most instructions seem to recommend plastic foil but I find that too flimsy).
4. Carefully peel each tortilla off the parchment paper.
5. Place on ungreased hot cast iron griddle (or in a cast iron pan).
6. Cook ca. 30s from one side, flip over, cook for 60s, flip back and cook for another 30s.
7. Keep tortillas warm (in oven set to low temperature or wrapped in a clean kitchen towel)
8. Repeat until all tortillas have been made

Steak, Vegetables and Assembling the Tortillas

1. Sprinkle steak with freshly ground pepper and cumin.
2. Place heavy fry pan over medium-high heat. Add olive oil. Cook steak until done, ca. 6 minutes per side for medium-rare. Remove steak from pan and set aside.
3. Place heave saute pan over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and brown sugar. Cook until the sugar starts to darken.
4. Add onion, cook until onion starts to brown. Add poblano and bell peppers, chopped tomato and ground cumin. Cook until the peppers start to soften, stir frequently.
5. Add salt and white wine. Cook until liquid has mostly evaporated. Adjust seasoning with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
6. Stir in chopped cilantro.
7. Cut steak into thin slices. For all six tortillas, place steak and vegetable mix on one half of a tortilla. Fold over. Garnish with a few cilantro leaves. Serve.

I find freshly prepared corn tortillas to be a real treat. They are most easily shaped with a tortilla press. I have an 8in (ca. 20cm) press which is available from many sources for less than $20.

Yields 6 tortillas

Preparation time ca. 1 hour