It is difficult to read a recipe title like “skirt steak with tequila, peppers, onion, and lime” and not think “fajitas.” It’s also not hard to think “this is one loong recipe title.”
Let’s get the obvious out of the way, shall we? Skirt steak with tequila and friends is not a fajita recipe.
Making authentic fajitas–and let us all wince at the word authentic–requires kitchen kit the insufficient kitchen lacks. Think barbecues, restaurant-quality ovens, adequate electrical systems, and dishwashers, human and otherwise.
Not up to fajita making.
There is also the minor issue of my being an Ashkenazi Jew from Detroit. Many would take sanctimonious umbrage at my preparing Tex-Mex cuisine. And this week has been annoying enough without contending with the Cancel Corps.
Metaphoric shot of me refusing to engage with the Cancel Corps. You laugh, or think me nuts, or both, but I worked in a University Art History department for four years. They went to town on this sort of interpretation. Actually, they still do.
Next prickly topic: meat.
Observant types will notice skirt steak with tequila, peppers, onion and lime isn’t plant-based fare.This is true. Then again, to turn an old saying on its head, the meat is hardly the matter here: less than one pound of it went into the dish. The real emphasis here, recipe title notwithstanding, is on the peppers and onions.
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Remember when you could just buy food and cook it, without worrying about wrecking the planet or your cardiovascular system? This golden era, a time when people drove without seatbelts and smoked like Morticia, existed not so long ago. I am not suggesting we return to it. Only that it existed.
Lacking illustrative photos, I give you an example of pareidolia, which is the tendency to find meaningful patterns where none exist. For example, seeing faces in muffin batters.
Anyway, skirt steak. With tequila, peppers, onion, and lime.
Now isn’t the time for your most expensive tequila. It should be drinkable, but save your finest Agave for sipping.
You want sweet bell peppers for this dish, not flamingly spicy varieties. Use whatever colors are available. Sadly, all those lovely colors tend to fade with cooking, but this doesn’t affect the taste or nutritional value of the finished dish.
White onion is mild, meaning it won’t overpower the pepper. It’s also pretty.
Just as you don’t want to use your finest tequila, neither is this the place for aged prime rib. Skirt steak with tequila, pepper, onions and lime is casual food. If you can’t find or dislike skirt, flap or flank steak are good cuts for this dish. Lacking shots of raw steak, I give you cooked black beans.
Serve skirt steak with tequila, pepper, onions and lime with beans, rice, soft tortillas, and lime wedges. Lettuce and tomato go nicely, too.
Any leftover pepper/onion mixture is delicious folded into a sandwich with mild cheese like Fontina, added to an omelet, mixed into pasta, or stirred into rice. It’s also good eaten cold, as shown below.
Skirt Steak with Tequila, Peppers, Onion, and Lime
prep time: 30-45 minutes
serves: 2-3, easily scaled upward
See notes, below, for discussion of steak cuts and how to prepare them.
scant 1 pound/454 grams skirt steak
2 tablespoons sunflower or other mild oil
2 1/2 tablespoons tequila
2 teaspoons Worcestshire sauce
salt and pepper, to taste
fresh lime juice, to taste
For the pepper and onion mixture:
3 medium-sized bell peppers; mine weighed
6.5 ounces/187 grams, but don’t worry about precision here
1 small or medium white onion: mine weighed 3.8 ounces/108 grams
Sunflower or other mild oil, for the pan
1 garlic clove (optional)
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons tequila (you may want to add more)
Juice of 1 lime
Skirt Steak with peppers, onion, and lime may be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated up to three days. The steak may be frozen up to two months. The pepper/onion mixture will turn to mush if frozen. I don’t recommend it.
Beans and rice go well with this dish. A recipe for beans from scratch would make for a long post, so I’ll save that for another day.
If you are planning to eat now, and your beans are coming from a can, go for it. Start the rice now, too.
Bring the steak to room temperature before cooking. In a perfect world, the steak would be presalted, but the world has been highly imperfect lately. So we’re salting it now, and calling it good.
Skirt steak may be broiled, sauteed, stir-fried, barbecued, or pan fried. I broiled mine.
To broil, place steak in a broiler-safe dish, pour a scant tablespoon sunflower oil over it, add the tequila, worcestshire sauce, salt, pepper, and lime. With the meat about 5 inches/12 cm from the broiler element, broil on high about 2 minutes a side. Remove from oven, cover loosely with foil, and set aside.
To cook the peppers and onion:
Core the and seed peppers as best you can–I find extricating every little seed impossible-and slice peppers lengthwise.
Peel onion and slice as you did the peppers.
Heat the sunflower oil in a heavy frying pan. I used a 10 inch/25 cm Calphalon pan. You want the pepper/onion mixture to melt, as Elizabeth David would say, rather than brown, so keep the heat low. Add the garlic, if using and the onion. Salt and pepper.
Cook for onions for about five minutes, stirring frequently.
Now add the peppers, tequila, and lime juice. Stir.
If the pan begins going dry, you can add a little more tequila or do as I did and add water.
Put a lid on the pan–or, lacking a lid, some tinfoil-and allow the pepper/onion mixture to cook gently, stirring occasionally, for about twenty minutes, until vegetables are soft. You don’t want complete collapse, but they shouldn’t be al dente, either.
Taste mixture for seasoning, adding more salt or lime as you see fit.
Serve skirt steak with tequila, peppers, onion, and lime with beans, rice, and a fresh vegetable platter. Flatbreads or tortillas make a delicious accompaniment. The pepper/onion mixture may be served atop the steak or separately, as you and your diners wish.
Leftovers will keep, refrigerated, up to five days.
Leftover skirt steak may be frozen up to two months. As noted above, I don’t recommend freezing the vegetable mixture, as it will become mushy.
Notes:
You can use other steak cuts, like flank or flap. This is meant to be casual food, so this isn’t the place for prime rib.
As noted in the post, the steak can be barbecued, stir-fried, broiled, pan-fried, or sauteed–whatever is easiest for you. Just take care not to overcook the meat.
This recipe works with pork and chicken, too. Or go vegetarian and serve the pepper/onion mix over pasta or polenta. It’s also useful in omelets, sandwiches (it’s especially good with cheese), or stirred through rice.
Spice fiends may add a hot pepper or sprinkle hot pepper flakes over the vegetable mixture.
