Tacos – South American Style

A friend recently challenged me to come up with a party menu with a Columbian theme – Cartagena to be exact. Ok, so she didn’t really challenge me, she mentioned it in passing but anyone that knows me knows that the mere mention of a cuisine or ingredient sends me scurrying off to my kitchen obsessed with a new creation ala Top Chef. So what comes to mind when thinking of the cuisine of Cartegena? Caribbean influences, South American influences, coffee, spices, chocolate, fruit, seafood, etc leap to mind for me. Something unusual including all these flavors would be suitable and no utensils required – it is a party after all. I came up with an idea for mini corn tortillas topped with coffee crusted flank steak and mango salsa and decided to put it to the test.

The first challenge of this dish was to find a corn tortilla recipe. Doesn’t sound like a huge challenge until you realize that most tortilla recipes call for two things that are impossible to find here – masa harina and a tortilla press. Plus, tortillas made with masa harina have a much more subtle corn flavor than I was after. So I tweeted my conundrum with spectacular results. Elizabeth Nyland from the awesome food blog; Guilty Kitchen, came to the rescue with the perfect recipe for my soft corn tortillas.

I used the recipe found here but made a few changes based upon my own experience. Ok, based upon royally screwing up the first two tortillas and setting off the smoke alarm in the process. Hey, practice makes perfect, right?

I mixed the batter exactly as directed. The recipe calls for a non-stick pan, which I do not own so I started by using a very hot All-Clad fry pan and adding a little safflower oil, then I added the batter – big mistake. The pan was so hot that the oil pooled in the center and the batter clung to it without spreading over the pan. I ended up with a fat corn pancake that was charred on the outside and runny on the inside. So after clearing the kitchen of smoke, and swapping to a larger saute pan, I began again. This time, I sprayed the pan with a bit of cooking spray and tried again. This time the batter spread as it should but it was still too thick. Finally, I added about 1/2 cup of water to the batter to thin it so that it was a bit thicker than a crepe batter and it worked like a charm. The trick:

Ladle the batter into a hot pan (hot but not smoking) and tilt the pan (off the heat) to coat to desired thickness. Set the pan back on the heat until it begins to bubble on top and the tortilla slides around the pan on its own – flip and cook for another 2 minutes or so and turn out onto a paper towel covered sheet pan. After the first couple, it is so easy you will feel like a short order cook at a taqueria!

The mango salsa was simply, diced mango, red onion, tomatillos, tomatoes, jalapeno, some chopped cilantro and a few dashes of lime juice. Season with salt and pepper and leave in the fridge for 20 minutes while you prepare the steak.

Next is the easy part – the flank steak.

I took a flank steak* and marinated it for 4 hours in 2 cups of strongly brewed coffee, 2 cinnamon sticks and a few dried Serrano chilies. remove the flank steak from the marinade and pat dry, discarding marinade. Next coarsely grind about 1/4 cup coffee beans with about half that much of peppercorns. Coat both sides of the flank steak with the ground mixture, pressing gently to adhere. Grill on an oiled BBQ grill or place under broiler about 6 inches from heat until desired doneness, turning once during cooking. I did about 3 minutes per side for medium rare though cooking time will vary greatly depending upon the thickness of your steak. Let the meat rest for at least tem minutes before slicing thinly on a bias against the grain.

Serve the tortillas, flank steak, salsa some shredded red cabbage an sour cream separately so everyone can build their own tacos at the table. For a party I would make mini-tortillas and fill them before serving.

**note, I chose flank steak for this recipe since the coffee crust can be overwhelming for some people. Flank steak, when sliced correctly will only have a bit of the crust on the top and bottom, which in my opinion, yields just the right amount of coffee and pepper crunch!