Here I go with my inaugural post.  I am pretty excited about sharing some of my recipes and creating heaps more.  I have been thinking about starting a food blog for the past few months and have bee beavering away making preparations.  So it’s great to actually post something.  But now as I sit down behind my keyboard it is not anywhere near as easy as I thought.  I guess I should jump in the deep end and just type whatever comes to mind.

I start thinking about dinner pretty much as soon as I finish lunch each day.  However after the long drive home from work I really don’t feel like cooking.  I am still thinking about eating but anything involving effort is just too much.  I think that may be why the frozen TV dinner market has exploded over the last decade.  To my first few posts are going to be easy meals that you can cook on a week night that taste good and are relatively easy.

Steak tacos are great for the family as everyone can put in as many chillies as they desire.  The kids also love them as they can ad handfuls of cheese and avoid the vegies they don’t like.  Mexican food has been popularised in Australia by ready made kits such as Old Elpaso.  These are great however over time I have got bored of them and every flavour tastes the same (Can anyone taste the difference between the Chilli con Carne, taco or burrito seasoning?).  This recipe uses some basic spices from the pantry that you marinade the steak with.

I have also included recipe for Pica de Gallo which is a tomato salsa.  It is a little more labour intensive so you may want to use bottled salsa instead.  Wikipedia reliably informs me that the literal translation from Spanish of Pica de Gallo is “rooster’s beak”, this may be due to the resemblance of a chilli to a beak.  The salsa has a really fresh flavour and the coriander and lime really cut through.

I hope you all enjoy my first post and welcome to Cafe Campana.

What is your favourite Mexican treat?

Steak Tacos with Pica de Gallo
Serves 4

Ingredients
800 gm Skirt steak, trimmed
2 Limes,  juiced
1 tsp Coriander Seeds
2 tsp Cumin Seeds
2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 Avocados, flesh coarsely chopped
½ Long red chilli, finely chopped
2 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
½ Spanish red onion, finely chopped
2 Vine ripened tomatoes, finely chopped
½ cup Coriander (firmly packed), finely chopped, plus extra leaves to serve
10 Flour tortillas
To Serve: Jalapenos, grated cheese, sour cream and shredded iceberg lettuce

Method
  1. Lightly toast coriander and cumin seeds over a low heat in a dry frypan until fragrant.  Grind in a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle.
  2. Place steak in a non-reactive dish, cover with half the lime juice, ground spices and chopped garlic and stand to marinate for 15 minutes, turning occasionally.
  3. Meanwhile, combine avocado, chilli and half the oil in a bowl, season to taste and set aside.
  4. Combine onion, tomato, coriander, remaining oil and remaining lime juice (or to taste), season to taste and set aside.
  5. Preheat a BBQ grill. Remove steak from juice and pat dry with absorbent paper. Grill steak until cooked to your liking, turning occasionally (4-5 minutes each side for rare), transfer to a plate, cover loosely with foil and set aside to rest (10 minutes).
  6. Heat tortillas in a microwave for 1 minutes on high.
  7. Thinly slice steak, season to taste
  8. Assemble tacos.
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