Cafe Lula

This weekend I went a bit Mexican food crazy. I’ve made steak burritos, mushroom and chorizo quesadillas, barbecued steak and chilli mushroom sandwich, barbecued chicken adobado and a yummy caramel and pineapple cheesecake to finish. So, here is the first of many Mexican recipes to be posted over the next few days.

This burrito has pretty much everything you could possibly want to put in your face . Steak? Check. Salsa? Check. Avocado? Check. Cheese? Check. Tortilla? Check. Nom nom nom. Here it is next to a lovely mushroom and chorizo quesadilla:

Go, make, eat.

Steak burritos with tomato salsa

Adapted from Mexican food made simple by Thomasina Miers

Serves 2 (makes two large burritos)

Ingredients:

For the salsa:

4 plum tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic, unpeeled

3 slices jalapeno from a jar

2 shallots, peeled and quartered

juice of 1/2 lime

salt and black pepper, to season

For the burritos:

300g steak, cut into strips (I used fillet, which should upset quite a lot of you. You can use anything you like)

2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to brush the tortillas with

1 clove garlic, crushed

juice of 1/4 orange

1/2 dried chilli, chopped

salt and black pepper, to season

2 large tortilla wraps (I used flour tortillas)

1 avocado, peeled and mashed with the juice of a lime

40g grated cheese (I used cheddar)

First, put the steak in a bowl with the olive oil, garlic, orange, chilli, salt and black pepper and mix well. Leave to marinate while you make the salsa.

Now make the salsa. Heat a frying pan over a high heat and place the tomatoes, chilli, garlic and shallots in the dry frying pan. Dry roast until blackened and soft. The tomatoes will take the longest to reach this stage, so remove each ingredient as they get to this stage.

Discard the garlic skin and put the roasted ingredients plus the lime juice, salt and black pepper into a food processor. Pulse until this forms a chunky salsa. Set aside.

Heat a griddle or frying pan over high heat. Place the marinated meat strips on the griddle and fry until browned all over and cooked to your preference. I like mine medium-rare, which only took a few minutes.

Place the tortilla wraps on a plate. Put half of the steak in the middle of each wrap. Top with some salsa, mashed avocado and cheese. Fold the sides of the burrito inwards to cover the steak, and then fold down the top and fold up the bottom, to create a parcel. Brush lightly with some olive oil.

Give the griddle a wipe and set it back on a high heat. Place the burritos folded-side down on the griddle and press down. Lightly brush the side facing up with some olive oil. After the folded side has browned, turn the burritos over and brown the other side. Serve with extra salsa and avocado.