Carne Asada is traditionally made from skirt steak, a thin, long cut of beef from the diaphragm muscles of the cow. It is prized for flavor but it is not a tender cut of meat. So to compensate, the meat is marinated to tenderize it and sliced into very small pieces.
Serves 6
Ingredients:
For the marinade:
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1/2 cup olive oil
juice from 2 limes
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
1 1/2 pounds skirt steak
12 tortillas
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup cheese
Combine marinade ingredients. Place steak in a non reactive dish. Pour the marinade over skirt steak.
Turn each piece of steak to coat it evenly. Cover the dish and refrigerate the meat for one to four hours.
Set up a grill for high, direct heat on one side and low, indirect heat on the other. Remove any large pieces of garlic or jalapeño from the steak, and place steak on the hot part of the grill.
Sear the steak on both sides, and move it to the cool side of the grill. Cook it until it reaches 125 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit for rare steak, or 150 degrees Fahrenheit for medium steak. Tent the steak with foil, and let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing into very small bite size pieces.
Heat tortillas with cheese on grill. Place meat on tortillas and fold over. Serve sour cream and salsa.