2.196

20 (Wed) July 2011

My Take on Mom’s Salsa Beef

3.0

by me

at home

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with W

I tried to improve on the basic idea of my mother’s quick-fix salsa beef (see 1.317 Mom’s Salsa Beef).  Instead of stewing pieces of beef in the salsa, I seasoned a whole steak, pan-grilled it to medium-rare, and then sliced it into bite-sized pieces, both to control the doneness of the meat and to provide a contrasting texture from the crust.  Instead of heating salsa from a jar along with some green beans, I sautéed the green beans with garlic and onions and bell peppers and corn and rice and various spices, including cumin and coriander and paprika and chipotle powders, and then added a bit of salsa at the end, both to increase the substance of the topping and to augment the Mexican flavors.  Ultimately, it turned out to be something of a cross between a fajita and a burrito.  Dare I say, it was an improvement.

Incidentally, I ended up getting a new iPhone to replace the one that I’d left out in the rain over the weekend.   The internet-sourced solutions for saving water-damaged phones – rice, silica pellets, hair-dryers, toaster ovens – all seemed plausible, but I couldn’t afford waiting around for the requisite days/weeks on the off-chance that one of them might eventually work.   And carrying around my DSLR camera to take food photos is a hassle.  The 2-day vacation in mobile communication limbo was liberating.

(See also FOODS.)

(See also PLACES.)