Canadian Living featured this recipe from its new barbecue cookbook in the June issue of the magazine, so I thought I’d give it a try. While the end result was quite tasty, I would make a few changes to the original recipe. First, I don’t really understand why the recipe suggests cutting the steak into strip prior to grilling. To me, this is a recipe for dry meat, not to mention how tricky it would be to keep the strips from falling through the grill grate. So I left the steak whole and sliced it after letting it stand, tented with foil, for 10 minutes.

The second odd thing about the recipe is that the salsa is pureed in the blender. I did this and, while the result was flavourful, it was a strange pink colour and runny. A coarsely chopped salsa would have been much better. The barbecued vegetables turned out fine.

Finally, because the recipe calls for soft flour tortillas, these are more like fajitas than tacos. But maybe I’m just being picky; they did taste good!

Steak Tacos

Ingredients:

1 lb thin beef grilling steak, cut into 2-inch strips (I left the steak whole)
¼ cup lime juice
1 onion, sliced
2 sweet peppers, sliced
1 tsp minced garlic
½ tsp black pepper
6 flour tortillas

Serrano Salsa

4 tomatoes

2 serrano peppers, seeded (I used a jalapeno)
1 clove garlic
½ tsp salt
¼ cup chopped fresh coriander

Preparation:

Toss together beef, lime juice, onion, sweet peppers, garlic and pepper. Let stand for 30 minutes or, refrigerated, up to 4 hours.

Serrano Salsa: Core tomatoes and blanch for 1 minute; drain and peel. In blender (although I think it would be better roughly chopped), purée together tomatoes, serrano peppers, garlic and salt. Stir in coriander.

Grill steak, onion and peppers on greased grill over high heat, turning once, until onion and peppers are soft and grill-marked, and steak is rare to medium-rare, 3 to 4 minutes. Slice peppers. Serve steak, onion and peppers in tortillas with Serrano Salsa.

From the June 2010 issue of Canadian Living