Fahjitas

Featherl

How do you make Fahjitas, there are so many different words for these and different ways to make them..

I usually buy the Old El Paso dinner kits..

Minder

Have a look on the ingredients list on the Old El Paso kit for a clue to the spices - I would guess chilli, cumin,salt & pepper, with herbs, probably oregano.

I fry strips of chicken, large slices of onion and red & green peppers. Six or seven minutes in a large pan, then add the spices. A couple of splashes of water, cover and cook it until dry. Warm some floury tortilla in the oven wrapped in foil.

Make a salsa of chopped onion, tomato, chilli and coriander with some lime juice. I like mango in this for a sweet note.

Build the Fajita by putting some of the filling in the centre of the wrap. Add cheese, salsa and sour cream. Start to roll the wrap up. After the first roll, fold in one end and continue rolling. That will stop the filling falling out when it is picked up.

Mellor

I ate these occasionally while I was travelling about america. The mexican take-aways were really good (well not all obviously)

Before going I thought that burrittos were spicy beef wraps and fajitas were chicken. Not so, they have nothing to do with the meant (both were originally beef). There is no real defination of either, they vary greatly with locality. The term Fajita is only about 30 years old.

In general, a fajita is any meat fired on a skillet, with onions and peppers. Then sauces added and put on a wrap. Minder above has a good set on ingredients, but I'd also add guacamole, along with the sour cream its makes a great contrast with the spicy meant and salsa.

For interest, the main difference between burrittos and fajitass is that burrittos don't have peppers and have beans instead, and the meat is ground more.

A very popular variation on both burritos and fajitas, is the San Fran Mission Style, in these extra is added to create a "full meal", for example, as well as meat onions peppers and sauces, a scoop of rice is added to the wrap first. Try that out for a change,

vibe666

i started out with the old el paso dinner kits, but it's really not hard to make your own and it's 10 times better.

smoked paprika is a good one for any spicy dish without being too strong and gives a great flavour. ideally you'll want to experiment with what suits your palette, but the last time I made them (iirc) I used some cold oil in the pan with a teaspoon of smoked paprika, sweet chili powder and I also freshly ground (grinded?) some cumin, salt & pepper in a pestle and mortar and put that in before it got hot, then roasted it all in the pan to bring out the flavours.

meat wise, I took some steak, chicken and chorizo and cut them all into long thin strips and seared them all nicely on the george foreman. while they were cooking, I threw a large (cut into strips) onion in with the spices in the pan and cooked them off, adding a red & green pepper and some nice mushrooms halfway through.

after that, some tomato paste (I like the sun dried tomato paste personally, but whatever floats your boat) to stop it getting too dry and maybe a little passata if you feel the need and mix in the meats.

give it a bit of a taste and decide if you want more spice. it might be a good idea (if you're the delicate sort) to set aside half the spices after you've heated them through before you add anything to them, just in case it blows your head off. it's a lot easier to add spice than it is to take it away!

then lob everything in a nice big roasting dish and sprinkle with a nice robust cheese like monteray jack, or my personal favourite smoked applewood cheddar. a mix of cheddar and mozzarella will do if you're stuck too.

while that's browning off under the grill, make your tomato salsa (tomatoes, spring onion, a bit of chilli, lime, salt & pepper some fresh coriander and probably one or two other bits I can't quite remember off the top of my head) and guacamole (mashed avacado, tomato, salt, pepper, cumin, chilli & garlic) and heat your flour tortilla's in the oven. it's also nice to have some sour cream to go with it too and lots of beer.

as always with anything I do, it's a hodge podge of various recipes i've picked up over the years and is subject to change on a regular basis depending on my mood and availability of ingredients, or if i see somethign new on a cooking program.

olaola

I find fresh coriander & lime juice essential flavours.

vibe666

olaola wrote: »

I find fresh coriander & lime juice essential flavours.

definitely, but I find that too much coriander can mask other flavours too much, so I tend to keep it to a reasonable amount just in the salsa so it doesn't overpower the whole thing.

MrJoeSoap

Last year, we had Fajita night every Tuesday in our house. Anywhere from 4 or 5 people to 10 or 12!

Dozens of chicken breasts, a whole cow worth of steak and enough cheese to keep a dairy farm in operation. Peppers, salsa and all that jazz.

Nobody ever left hungry.

Sparks

Rule one with fajhitas is the meat - find yourself a butcher and order skirt steak. Marinade it for as long as you can think ahead for, sear it in a very hot pan, leave it rest, slice it against the grain, toss in the juices that collected as it rested, and assemble into the fajhita.

Oh, and mission-style fajhitas rock, so after you smear the tortilla with sour cream, add a few tablespoons of cooked rice to it before you add the meat and peppers and onions.

But mostly, start with the meat, or it'll be lipstick on a pig.
And without the awesomeness of bacon.