My in-laws are in town, so I used them as guinea pigs for a new take on quesadillas. They turned out AWESOME.
I'm sorry there isn't a picture of a whole quesadilla... we were eating them as soon as they were coming off the heat. There was almost no picture at all, but I remembered halfway through this last one.
Now, I'm a cheapskate. I don't believe in spending any more money than you have too. Most recipes for steak quesadillas call for sirloin steak, but I am just too, well, cheap to buy any. So I bought a couple pounds of top round steak for half the cost and researched ways to tenderize meat.
1. Put the meat in between wax paper or plastic and beat it with a meat hammer. Or, if, like me, you don't own a meat hammer, use a copper-bottom saucepan. Worked great.
2. Cut the meat against the grain. I cut the steaks into very thin strips.
Doesn't it just look tender?
3. Use a marinade that contains acid. Letting the meat marinate in acid helps break down the connective tissue found in tougher cuts of meat. This particular marinade was adapted from Taste of Home, but I made a couple of swaps.
Two pounds fed five adults nicely.
Marinade for Steak
Adapted from Taste of Home
You'll need:
1/4 c lime juice
6 garlic cloves, minced
4 t canola oil
4 t chili powder
1 t cumin
1 t salt
1 t pepper
2 lb sliced steak
Combine the first seven ingredients in a large Ziploc bag. Add the steak, seal, and knead to mix. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, turning every few hours.
To cook the meat, heat a skillet until a drop of water sizzles in it. Empty the bag into the skillet (in smaller batches, if necessary) and cook just a few minutes, stirring often, until meat is browned on all sides. Go a few extra minutes if you like your meat medium-well, but be warned, the longer you cook it, the more you run the risk of drying it out and losing that tenderness.
Now for the quesadillas.
You'll need:
the aforementioned steak
some sauteed onions and bell peppers
your choice of cheeses (I used cheddar and pepperjack)
anything else you want to put in them (this is pretty flexible)
medium-size flour tortillas
Load up half a tortilla, fold it over, and put it in your quesadilla maker. Or, if you don't have one, spray the tortilla lightly with Pam and put it in a hot skillet for a few minutes on each side until the tortilla is crisp and golden and the cheese is melted.
Serve with sour cream, guacamole, salsa, and anything else you like. Yum!
