Alambre

Everything chopped together on the griddle and the cheese melted over the heap, so nothing is served in one piece.

Pork, Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, cheese whose rennet the source does not name, pork.

Ingredients

• 600 g beef skirt or rib-eye, in small pieces
• 200 g streaky bacon, chopped
• 2 green peppers, in small dice
• 1 large onion, in small dice
• 300 g Oaxaca cheese, pulled into strands
• 2 tablespoons oil
• salt and pepper
• corn tortillas, as on their own page, to serve
• salsa verde, as on its own page, to serve

Method

1. EVERYTHING IS CHOPPED TOGETHER ON THE GRIDDLE AND THE CHEESE IS MELTED OVER THE HEAP, so nothing is served in one piece. That is what makes this different from the grilled beef dishes beside it. The beef is not a steak sliced after resting -- it goes on in small pieces and is chopped further with the edge of a spatula as it cooks, along with the bacon, pepper and onion, until the whole thing is one mixed heap of roughly equal-sized pieces. Then the cheese goes over the top of the heap and the whole lot is scooped straight into tortillas. There is no moment at which any ingredient is a distinct portion.
2. THE BACON GOES ON FIRST AND EVERYTHING ELSE COOKS IN ITS FAT. Chopped and rendered for five or six minutes on its own until it has given up its fat and gone crisp at the edges. That fat is the cooking medium for the beef and the vegetables and is most of why the dish tastes the way it does; added at the same time as the beef, it steams instead of rendering and stays flabby.
3. THE VEGETABLES ARE DICED TO THE SAME SIZE AS THE MEAT. About a centimetre, all of it. This is eaten by the spoonful into a tortilla, and a large piece of pepper in a taco of small pieces is a mouthful of pepper. Uniform dice is the whole texture of the dish.
4. THE CHEESE GOES ON IN A LAYER AND IS NOT STIRRED IN. Pulled into strands and laid over the surface of the heap, the heat turned low, and the lid or a tray put over for two minutes. It melts into a sheet that is then broken up as the dish is served. Stirred through while it melts, it coats everything in a uniform greasy film and the strands disappear.
5. IT IS SERVED FROM THE PAN AND NOT PLATED. The pan goes to the table on a mat with the tortillas beside it, and people build their own. Scooped onto plates it cools and the cheese sets within a couple of minutes.
6. The bacon chopped and put into a wide griddle pan or heavy frying pan over a medium-high heat.
7. Cooked 5 to 6 MINUTES on its own until the fat has run and the edges are crisp.
8. The heat turned UP and the beef added to the bacon fat in a single layer. Cooked 3 MINUTES without moving.
9. CHOPPED FURTHER on the griddle with the edge of a spatula while it cooks, and turned.
10. The onion and pepper DICE added and everything cooked together 6 MINUTES, chopped and turned, until the vegetables are soft and the meat is browned.
11. Seasoned with salt and pepper and the whole lot pushed into an even HEAP in the pan.
12. THE HEAT TURNED LOW.
13. The cheese pulled into strands and laid over the TOP of the heap in a layer. NOT stirred in.
14. Covered with a lid or a tray and left 2 MINUTES, until the cheese is molten.
15. The tortillas warmed and the pan taken straight to the table on a mat.
16. Served with salsa verde, each person scooping into their own tortillas.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes