What I Ate For Dinner

So I wanted to innovate. You know, church up something I've always adored. And I wanted to learn how to make cheap meat taste good. And I wanted to get in on the hanger steak fad. High hopes all around.

I figured I'd do some tacos with hanger steak, using the marinade in David Chang's Momofuku. Makes sense: carne asada is usually made from flank steak, and hanger is flank's anatomical neighbor down there on the belly of the beast. So it should have worked out great. And if only I had a snazzy retrofitted RV in which to cruise about, it would have been the sort of thing I could sell to hipsters for 12.99 at lunch. Thing is, I couldn't find any hanger steak in my postal code. I know it's out there. Lurking. Waiting. Yearning for my touch. Maybe I should make a posting under Craigslist's "Missed Connections" tab.

Basically, this preparation is a carne asada taco made from scratch. On that score, I've failed in my wondrous ambition to do anything original. Perhaps, though, I can comfort myself with the knowledge that this post has a higher calling than "innovation," that almost impossible goal for any epicure. I'll call it a preservationist labor of love. In light of Taco Bell's new "Cantina Tacos" (touted as "based upon authentic-style Mexican street tacos"), I figure it's only a matter of time before this titan of cheap gourmet fades to a distant cultural memory. Think that's a cheap shot, no more than an overprivileged, condescending fooidie's expression of self-importance? Well, consider this: SF Chronicle online readers were recently asked about their favorite bay area french fry. Turns out that more food wonks gave top billing to McDonald's french fries than to any other variety available in this supposedly sophisticated market. So maybe fast food does shape expectations about classic cuisine. I can only hope that this blog post will be displayed in the Smithsonian, next to Julia Child's kitchen, as a small reminder of the once-legible line between noble tacos and whatever the hell "authentic-style" means.

The meat is cheap and easy, but it takes a minute (actually a day). As I say, I'm sure hanger steak would be wondrous, but I'm using flank, a traditional carne asada cut. This is tough meat, so you must marinate it. I admire David Chang's recipe for hanger steak marinade for its simplicity and flavor, so here are the measurements he provides in Momofuku (for those who measure). As usual, ratios, not measurements, are the vital thing here:

2 cups apple juice (read the label and make sure you're buying apple juice with precisely one ingredient)

½ cup soy sauce

½ yellow onion, thinly sliced (I subbed two or three chopped shallots)

5-6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Four 8-oz. hanger or flank steaks (serves 2-4).

Mix up the above, seal in a freezer bag and place in a larger ceramic or plastic container to avoid leakage. Refrigerate for 24 hours.

To finish off the beef, all you need to do is grill it to rare. Flank and hanger steaks toughen up quite a bit if you cook them much past medium-rare. Cutting against the grain of the beef will help tenderize the final product, so identify the direction of the sinewy grains and cut either at a 45 degree angle against them, or go crazy and cut directly against them by moving the knife through the meat perpendicular to the grain.

Now for the pico de gallo. Combine chopped tomato (at least one roma-sized tom per person, but if you're like me, probably more than that), chopped shallot, chopped cilantro (lots!), lime juice, and a pinch of salt. Mix, taste, adjust.

Fresh tortillas really make this meal, so I highly recommend doing them if you have the time. Start with sifted flour (a few cups), add a pinch or two of baking powder, some knobs of butter, a little olive or peanut oil (optional) and mix with your hands. You want to have enough fat (oil/butter) in the mix to produce a flaky texture. Many recipes call for shortening, but I think it's gross, so I avoided it and used other fats. Once you have some good flakiness, add water a bit at a time and continue mixing the dough until it is firm and malleable enough to mold into a ball. Cover the ball of dough with plastic wrap and/or a towel and let rest for 20-30 minutes at room temperature.

Then, carve off a golf ball sized sliver and roll it out into a tortilla on a floured workspace. Thin is good. Then fry lightly (or "toast in oil") either on a cast iron skillet (ideal) or a nonstick pan until they get some color.

Assembly should be obvious. One embellishment that falls outside of the usual tacovian ambit is bean sprouts. They add a light crunch and some color, so I think they make the cut. Anyway, put your tacos together, pour a Tecate (one of the most underrated beers out there) and count your blessings.