Chicken Fried Carne Asada Steak Torta

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A torta is basically a Mexican sandwich. This is similar to a pork cutlet "Milanese" torta, but I'm using a flattened piece of steak tip that's marinated then breaded and fried. It is very tasty. You can make your own roll if you'd like or you can use a piece of french bread, portuguese roll, or any sandwich roll. You want it to have a crunchy exterior.

Torta Rolls (Telera Rolls)

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If you want to make a day of cooking all your torta ingredients from scratch (and who doesn't) then you can make your own rolls. It has a crunchy exterior and a semi-soft interior. Perfect for a torta sandwich.

Pickled Red Onions

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This is a quick and simple recipe for pickled red onions. We mostly use the onions on tortas, but they're great in burritos and tacos as well. The onions will last up to a month in the fridge.

Garlic Shrimp Enchiladas with Poblano Cream Sauce

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There's a lot of garlic in this recipe. I'm not kidding. A lot. But it works. The tasty poblano cream sauce helps to keep the tortillas from drying out. Nothing worse than dry enchiladas. We use a fairly thick corn tortilla. You can use thin ones if that's all you can find. The thinner the tortilla, the tougher it is to keep it from falling apart during assembly. We've made a lot of different enchilada recipes over the years. This is by far the best.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

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We've been making this salsa for years.  You can make a salsa verde by boiling everything, but by roasting you get a great rustic flavor. We grow all the ingredients in our garden and bottle it. We use it on everything. It's a wonderful recipe from Rick Bayless. I use 5 serranos here. It makes it very spicy. Use less if you don't want to burn your mouth.

Rolled Tacos (Taco Shop Style)

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Rolled tacos with guacamole are a quick cheap staple of taco shops in San Diego. A tight rolled corn tortilla with a small amount of shredded beef. A surprisingly small amount of beef actually. The star of the show is the crunchy tortilla, melted cheese, and guacamole. This is my version. Slightly fancier with shredded pork. Thin corn tortillas from the grocery store work fine.  We use a pork recipe we found in our favorite cookbook, Mexico: the Beautiful. They call it "Chilorio". It's awesome and adds a wonderful flavor to these rolled tacos.

Carne Asada Pizza

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We've been making a lot of pizza lately. I found an easy recipe for the dough online. You use a kitchen aid mixer to knead the dough. Simple ingredients and the dough is easy to shape. We've been trying a variety of toppings. Adding carne asada meat along with a chipotle flavored tomato base came out wonderful. Here's the recipe.

Guajillo Tamarind Glaze

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This is a really tasty glaze that I put on just about everything. It pours easily out of a kitchen squirt bottle. This recipe makes enough for 1 bottle + a little extra. I put it on omelets, tacos, enchiladas, burritos, pizza, whatever. You should be able to find the tamarind concentrate at any asian grocery or specialty food store. The dried guajilo peppers can be found online or sometimes in the produce section of your grocery store.

California Burrito

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Another San Diego specialty is the California Burrito. It's basically a carne asada burrito with crispy french fries and sour cream. It's awesome.

Carne Asada Burrito (San Diego Taco Shop Style)

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San Diego has a unique brand of Mexican Food. You can get traditional Mexican like you'll find anywhere else in the states. But, the the unique thing about San Diego is the taco shop. They are everywhere. They're not all great, but most are above average. The menu is similar whether you go to Roberto's, Rigobertos, Albertos, or Lolitas. Rolled tacos, burritos, tortas, tacos, and such. Everyone has their preference. I grew up next to a Lolitas. Still my favorite. Served fast and at all hours. It's what you miss most about San Diego besides the weather when you leave. It's the first place you go when you get back. For me, it's the carne asada burrito or torta. I've been trying to recreate it for years now that we live on the east coast. I've gotten pretty close here with this recipe. I've made it slightly more elaborate than you'd get in a taco shop, but not much. Carne asada translates to "grilled steak." I'm not grilling it here. I'm cooking it in a cast iron pan. In a taco shop, they'd cook it on the flat top. You can use a variety of cuts. I always use steak tips or "flap steak" It's a nice tender, marbled steak. You need a bit of fat in the steak.

Homemade Refried Beans

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There is a profound difference between refried beans from a can and making them from scratch. It takes time, but it's not difficult. We use them in bean and cheese burritos, as a spread on tortas, or just as a side. We've tried many recipes over the years. You can get by with less ingredients than we use, but I like the complex flavor of this recipe. Beans can be boring otherwise. We cook these in a bean pot we got from mexgrocer.com. You can use any large pot.

Mexican Red Rice (Arroz Rojo)

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We've tried different Mexican rice recipes over the years. This is the best we've found. Tastes as good as any rice you'll get at a Mexican restaurant. You'll want to cook it in a heavy-bottom dutch oven. You'll get a wonderful caramelized burnt rice crust on the bottom. I like to eat my rice with a spoonful of pico de gallo on top.