Beef Fajitas - what do you put in them?

We are trying to improve ours, so when you make them:-

What goes into the marinade?
What vegetables/flavourings (onions? bell peppers? Garlic?)
What sauces and accompaniments (frijoles refritos? Salsa pico de gallo? Guacamole? Salad leaves? Cheese?)

Thanks very much in advance

Ian,
Since you're not being overwhelmed with responses, let me weigh in here. First of all, I maintain (rightly or wrongly) that fajitas are a Tex-Mex "adaptation" of the traditional Sonoran tacos al carbon. The "al carbon" refers to a charcoal grilling process of the beef. The traditional beef cut used is a skirt steak, which (since beef cuts vary so widely from culture to culture) is taken from the diaphragm and is quite tough and fatty (and flavorful). For a marinade, use lime juice and olive oil seasoned with cilantro, garlic, chopped Jalapeño or Serrano pepper and a touch of cumin. Marinate overnight, then grill over a wood fire if feasible (or broil, if not), slice thinly across the grain and serve in warm corn tortillas. Traditional accompaniments would be grilled green onion, pico de gallo and guacamole. As with all tacos, they are dressed with lime juice and chopped cilantro.

The Tex-Mex version would include -- in addition to the beef -- grated cheese, sour cream*, salsa, guacamole, chopped tomato and sauteed, thinly sliced bell pepper and onion and be served on flour tortillas. I'm partisan to the Mexican version, but the Tex-Mex version does have its charms.

Mark Lipton

* I know how much you love American sour cream, Ian. What is really called for here is Mexican crema, which is more akin to crème fraiche than American sour cream.

I'm with Mark on the ingredients, except that I use flank steak, and marinate in lime juice, OO, cumin and garlic. I like to sauté my onions, orange, and red bell peppers until they start to soften, but retain a slight crunch to them. We slice our flank steak very thin, across the grain. I have also made a soy sauce, sherry wine, tad of vinegar, and a little oil, with garlic marinade and let the flank steak sit overnight in the refer for a different twist.

[Jenise]

I'm with Mark on the ingredients, except that I use flank steak, and marinate in lime juice, OO, cumin and garlic. I like to sauté my onions, orange, and red bell peppers until they start to soften, but retain a slight crunch to them. We slice our flank steak very thin, across the grain. I have also made a soy sauce, sherry wine, tad of vinegar, and a little oil, with garlic marinade and let the flank steak sit overnight in the refer for a different twist.

Ditto re sauteeing the onions and bell peppers in the same pan the meat just cooked in. That's pretty much the California style, I'd say. Cheese would typically be the only condiment offered, though I consider it unnecessary and don't offer cheese at home. This thread is making me really hungry.

My own personal twist on the standard is to use a blender-mash of EVOO, garlic and fresh jalapeno to which I add cumin and ground red chile--that paste gets slathered all over the skirt steak and pushed into every wonderful little crevice and the meat sits in that overnight. The lime element gets added as a fresh squeeze over the iron skillet full of meat, onions and peppers which goes directly to the table for service.

I marinate mine (skirt steak) in grapefruit juice, EVOO and diced papaya…or sometimes I use a bottle of italian dressing. Slow grill (lid down) over mesquite, slice across the grain. I top the sliced meat with a heaping spoonful of “Pico de Gallo” and a bit of kosher salt. Flour tortillas in the side. Tear off a piece now and then to push around the plate, soak up the juices then eat.

Rolling or folding them up in tortillas has never been traditional…just an easy fix for restaurants and street vendors to make it finger food. But it works either way.

Richard

The grapefruit juice is interesting ,Richard. I've never used it in cooking. I've used pineapple juice in many marinades, however. I will have to give that a try.

Thanks very much all of you, for answering, especially Mark for settng the ball rolling. It was particularly kind since I detected the tolerant mild disapproval of my wanting to do these instead of the Sonoran Tacos dish .

Although I know a bit about, and cook some - but not enough - Mexican food, especially things from the Yucatan peninsular, I know practically nothing about Tex-Mex food, and would like to know it a bit better. My niece did Fajitas for her children when they stayed with us in the summer, and I have to say, we liked them very much. But with the children being young, and her recipe originating in the UK, I was curious - nay interested to see what you all would do with them.

I found the grapefuit suggestion very interesting indeed. "Mind tasting" it, I could see it's well worth trying. Please don't yell at me too much, but this is what we'll be doing - it sort of follows a recipe but as I wanted to marinate the meat, I started things up before coming back this morning when all your answers were here.

Didn't have flank (skirt) steak, so used entrecote - cut very thinly across the grain. The marinade was lime juice, olive oil, garlic, red jalapenos, cilantro, cumin and worcestershire sauce all whizzed up with a stick blender. We'll be frying thinly sliced red onion and green and red bell peppers in some oil in a wok before tossing in and stir frying the meat for about 1 minute. That'll be served with a sort of salsa (tomato, avocado, green chile, red onion) dressed with lime juice, and accompanied by & probably wrapped in, because I enjoy being a messy eater some flour tortillas and shredded lettuce. I'll pass on the sour cream, though I'll see what Jacquie says when I suggest making some whipped cream (unsweetened).

We'll have to see how we get on with them. I was particularly interested to see what Richard said about rolling up in tortillas. It's true that when we were served food, the dishes, salsa etc were served in serving dishes with a pile of tortillas, but nearly everyone (locals, I mean, not visitors) did eat the food wrapped in them with their fingers. Fascinating.

Well..
Supper's well over and my 12 litres of pumpkin soup is sterilizing, so I can think about giving some feedback

It wasn't bad, the marinade was fine. However, we decided to cut some red onion and red & green peppers into bits, as I said, and I cut them much too fine, and Jacquie cooked them too long - and before the meat. I was looking for vegetables that are more like the texture you get in chinese stir fries and these were too soggy. The salsa was lovely. However, we will have to start making our own tortillas, as the ones we buy are not very good, in that the break when you try to fold them, Perhaps we should start a trend by serving carne al carbon with pittas, which Jacquie makes exceptionally well.

Sorry to hear about the mishaps, Ian, but I'm sure that subsequent efforts will reward you for your earlier trials. Flour tortillas aren't at all tough to make, but the corn ones would require a good corn meal that might be difficult to find in France. Mexican "masa harina" is de rigueur (to mix argots) and substitutions are perilous indeed. For real authenticity, lard is a must, also, but that won't present you with any difficulties. I regret my use of "thinly sliced" in describing the prep of the onions and peppers. In retrospect I should have written slice peppers and onions into 5 mm thick slices, pretty much as you would for stir frying. Oh, well...

Mark Lipton