La Platicona Habla: Tastes, Passions and Pursuits

Recently celebrating my sister's graduation from college, I had the pleasure of playing assistant to the BBQ chef, my brother-in-law Joel. He is the master of Mexican grilling and put on a mean display of carne asada, corn tortillas, grilled green onions, and of course sides of salsa roja, refried beans, and rice. His technique is flawless, and thanks to the local Mexican butcher - "carniceria" - by the name of Leonela, we had enough meat for 60 people.

Here are some of my observations of the grilling techniques that stuck in mind the most.

The Grill - my father fabricated an excellent grill that can feed a party of 200 rather quickly. It was made from an old barrel and conducts a lot of heat. To prepare the grill, Joel scrubbed at it for a while with soap and water. He then put it over the heat and rubbed it down with a couple of limes. He then took a white onion, cut in half, and rubbed the grill end to end. After this process, the grill was ready for meat.

The Meat - at Leonela's, we ordered about 20 lbs of meat. The cuts we used were Ranchera flap meat and Diesmilla chuck roll. Ranchera is a very lean and very thin piece of meat while the Diesmilla has more fat, but is likewise sliced very thin. Both of these meats came in large rolls of butcher paper with a sack of marinade made from fresh squeezed limes, red chile powder, garlic, salt, onions, bell peppers and jalapenos. I poured the marinade on the meat and let it soak in for a while before Joel threw it on the grill. He began with the Diesmilla because of the high fat content.

The Onions - I've seen Joel do onions two ways now. He usually takes white onions, peels them, and cuts a cross into each of them. He then squeezes lime juice and a dash of salt on the onion before wrapping it in foil and placing it on the charcoals to cook for 20 minutes. This time, he procured a batch of bulb onions (basically green onions that are mature) and cooked them directly on the grill with lime and salt. He reminded me that in Mexico, people usually eat the white part of bulb onions and not the green parts like in the United States. The result was a sweet hand-held side that could be placed with a slice of meat inside a hot grilled tortilla with salsa. Mmmmm.

Putting it all together: You should always eat your carne asada with a corn tortilla and salsa. The beans and rice are an added luxury that made this BBQ even tastier.