welcome friends welcome to the backyard
as you can see i've got the fire pit
going again
and today we're going to do some flank
steak tacos so i'm going to make a
marinade
for the flank steak and then we're going
to grill up some vegetables to make a
really good
tomato salsa so first the marinade for
the flank steak i'm going to put into
this bowl
some garlic some chopped jalapeno pepper
salt and pepper now
i just did some freshly squeezing
grapefruit juice so i'm going to put
that
in and i just squeezed some limes
so i'm going to put that juice in as
well
and some olive oil now i used
lime and grapefruit you could use any
citrus that you want you could use limes
lemons
grapefruit orange orange would be really
good the idea is that you just want that
bright citrus flavor
and you want the acidity to help to
start to break down
the fibers in the steak so just giving
that a quick
mix and i'm going to put the steak
it's still spring here there are maple
flowers
everywhere so put the steak in the
bottom of this pan
and pour in
some of the marinade
stick the other steak on top
and pour in the rest of the marinade
now if you're someone who uses ziploc
bags that would probably be the best way
to do this or the easiest way to do this
i don't often use them i don't often
have them here in the house
so i will just flip these around four or
five times over the next couple of hours
i wouldn't let this marinade more than
say three hours
i'm just gonna let it marinade as i make
the salsa and get the fire ready
now while the steak is marinating i'm
going to start making the salsa and
grilling the vegetables
so i've got some onion tomato jalapeno
garlic and i just want to blacken them
on the grill if i can manage now
the toughest part about cooking outdoors
over an open flame or an open fire like
this campfire cooking
has got to be managing fire that is the
most difficult part and i'm getting
better at it
i used to do this quite a bit for a long
time
julie and i did a lot of camping and
there was a period of time where we
lived in a tent for five
six months while we were working in the
bush in northern ontario
did this all the time took a long break
though
and i'm getting back to it and the the
keys seem to be you're going to use a
lot more wood than you thought you were
going to use
um you've got to start the fire a lot
earlier than you thought you were going
to start it
or you wanted to start it and you have
to manage
putting new wood on and it has to be
super dry because you don't want to get
that really
bitter smoke sometimes you can get a
really really
bitter flavor into your food if your
smoke isn't clean
so just some tips and you got to watch
the fire so
i just want to grill these now until
they're blackened on the outside
and softened and mostly cooked through
keep your eye on them
so this is just a little pot with some
navy beans and jalapenos chopped up
inside
and i'm just going to cook that
alongside here
while i finish off these vegetables
now i'm going to say these are pretty
close to being done they're nice and
roasty and
soft so what i'm going to end up doing
is
i'm going to peel the tomatoes and the
outer skin off the jalapenos
and then squeeze the garlic just into a
food processor
give it a quick whiz just to bring it
together if i had a molcajete
if i had a nice big molcajete i would
just put it in that and
grind it together easy peasy
that would be the way to do it that's
the way i learned to do it
um but i don't have one so
food processor it's going to be looking
good
i'm gonna say that looks great so off
they come
now i put a lid over just to help it
steam out
some of the skin and you just want to
peel off
the really burny parts oh still hot
and the only thing i'm going to pull off
is the stem from
the jalapenos i'm going to put
everything else in
full okay last
onion peel off most of the
brown the blackened bits and i left the
little piece of root on
just pinch that off with your fingers it
comes off really easy
okay let's give this a taste pretty sure
that it'll need some salt
it needs some salt it also needs a
little bit of an acid
so i think what i'm going to do is
squeeze in some of these limes that i've
grilled
over the fire as well maple flowers
everywhere falling from the trees okay
so some salt it's quite a bit here so
good amount and then
little roasted limes that i did
stir that in and see what happens
so
now these flag sticks won't take long to
cook at all
and i'm shooting for medium rare let's
see if i can get there
this pot of beans is looking pretty good
too there we go
okay let's check the temperature
a little bit over 135
138 those are ready to come off
maple flowers everywhere
and i've also got some little limes on
here
toasting them up nicely
while the steak rests we'll just toast
up a couple of tortillas
okay
let's slice this across the grain this
has been resting for probably
15 minutes and i have overcooked it
but it's still gonna be fantastic to
fall apart
it is taco day taco time okay
so hey friends um flank steak marinated
cooked over an open wood fire tortilla
slightly roasted
maple flowers everywhere
what's going on um fire roasted
salsa so should i put a little
salsa um a little bit it was it was a
little bit hot
it was a little bit a little bit hot and
uh fire roasted
i'm excited about those beets there's
beans yeah i know the salsa is going to
be good
but i am super excited about the beans
that's something that's kind of new
i tried to get cheese the latin market
was closed
and it's been closed the last couple
times i've gone so i'm hoping that uh
that's not a long-term thing yeah
i might put another piece of steak on
there since there's no cheese
you think you need extra switch places
okay cilantro i'm gonna put some cabbage
because i really like cabbage on my
tacos
some salsa and
switching spots again look at that i
need
yours is working out i'm i'm still
working on mine
i still need little cabbage and stuff
okay let's switch again
cilantro it's windy apparently
that lime is really potent
those are all really good yeah so all
the flavors come together
it's just those tiny little limes that
was a little too much lime i think on
mine too a little
a little too much lime on mine i feel i
might have chinsed out on this i'm gonna
add a little extra
i was overly cautious based on your
warning
okay so you don't need to do this over
an open flame
although it's really fun
it's so much fun standing around an open
fire
hanging out there's something about that
that is just fantastic
but you could do this on a charcoal
grill you could do it on a gas grill
you could do this on a
hot frying pan or skillet on the
stovetop there's options
so many options top it how you like it
but that salsa is
really good thanks for stopping by see
you again soon
you