(Or perhaps I prefer tacos al carbon because when I was a waitress in college, I burned myself on the sizzling fajita skillet one too many times!) But no matter how you serve it, it’s hard to resist a fresh flour tortilla wrapped around succulent beef so flavorful you can eat the two together unadorned. Sure, fajitas are quite the spectacle, but sometimes you crave a more refined presentation. Small differences aside, I still prefer tacos al carbon to fajitas. While I believe this is the main difference, but even for me, it’s a bit of a semantic stretch. And unlike fajitas, the tacos are already made instead of being a do-it-yourself affair. Tacos al carbon, however, can be made with any type of meat, not just the traditional skirt steak. And yes, you can make fajitas, the dish, out of shrimp or chicken, but since the word itself refers to the cut of beef, technically those renditions should be called something else. The meat is often marinated and then grilled or griddled, and it’s served with a prescribed array of condiments such as guacamole, pico de gallo, sour cream, and a stack of flour tortillas, all used to roll your own tacos. Fajitas, which translates to little belts, are traditionally made with the tough diaphragm cut of beef known as skirt steak, which is long and narrow, indeed like a belt (though not so much like a skirt, strangely enough). As I understand it, the difference between fajitas and tacos al carbon is very little. But in Texas tacos al carbon came to mean one thing: cuts of grilled beef, nestled in a fluffy flour tortilla.īut wait, isn’t that a fajita? Now, this is where it gets confusing. If you have tacos al carbon in Mexico, you will indeed find a variety of meats wrapped in either corn or flour tortillas depending on where you are geographically. The term al carbon is the Spanish phrase for cooking over coal, so you should expect grilled meats inside a tortilla. Tacos al carbon became a defining characteristic of Houston Tex-Mex Ninfa Laurenzo-of the eponymous Ninfa’s-made them her signature dish and as with her green sauce, many Houston Mexican restaurants soon added these tacos to their menus as well. If you were in Houston in the 1980s, it was hard to escape the ubiquitous tacos al carbon. They are delicious! Here’s a link for those. I used the fresh made flour tortillas from my local HEB. You know like you’d get for a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich! Love those! Need to add those to my blog! Anyway, back to this recipe, they had a top round that was sliced super thin too. I used ribeye this time because I was at the store and they had ribeye steak cut paper thin. They also throw onions on the grill or wrap in foil and place that on the grill. Absolutely delicious! They then dice it into cubes! Perfection. It is not cooked medium rare like we cook beef in the states, but they cook to well done and a little charred. Just seasoned with salt and pepper, they throw it on the grill and it just takes a few minutes to cook. They buy steak or beef and have the butcher cut it very, very thin. I have friends that live in Cabo and this is how they make tacos. Taco Tuesday could not be any more simple than these Tacos Al Carbon! Paper thin strips of steak tossed on the grill that are ready in minutes! Throw some onions slices on, make a quick Pico de Gallo with avocado and you have a delicious taco!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |