Gluten Freebird

So my big summer news is that I joined a CSA. What is a CSA? It’s community supported agriculture. Buying a share gives me a weekly supply of fruits and vegetables through October. That’s a giant amount of produce.

My only responsibility is picking it up each Thursday in Glover Park, but as somebody who can’t remember to water plants it’s probably the single biggest commitment I’ve ever made in my entire life. Plus, to add insult to injury, they’ve given us live plants both weeks so far…which makes it doubly pressured.

So the fun of the CSA is figuring out how to use all the produce. Last week offered up strawberries, snow peas, butter lettuce, spring onions, asparagus and a micro-cilantro plant (RIP).

The strawberries were no problem at all. They go on ice cream, into pies, and are the best summer snack by themselves, but the rest of the produce was a different story, so we made fajitas.

We stopped by Let’s Meat on the Avenue in Del Ray to pick up a NY Strip and a breast of chicken. If you’re in the market for meat, there isn’t any fresher than Let’s Meat. Last time, we were assured that our lamb “was running in the fields two days ago.” And while that did drive me one step closer to veganism, it’s nice to know that the meat isn’t hanging out in coolers for weeks on end.

So, we marinated the meat in lime and cumin, picked up a rainbow of peppers and added jalapenos and white onions to the mix. We added asparagus toward the end of cooking to keep it crisp and the snow peas don’t need any cooking.

Fajitas hardly need step-by-step instructions, but the secret’s in the meat. You’ve gotta give it flavor if you want it to stand out in a boring tortilla with flaccid vegetables, which get a boost from wheat-free tamari. And leftovers go great on a CSA-butter-lettuce salad. So here goes:

Chicken and Steak Fajitas

For the filling:
12 oz steak (NY Strip or filet)
12 oz chicken (white or dark meat)
1 lime
2 tbs cumin
Salt
Pepper
Canola oil
1 onion, sliced
2 tbs wheat-free Tamari
3 mixed peppers, sliced
2 jalapenos, diced
½ lb asparagus, chopped into 1-inch pieces

For Fajitas:
Tortillas
2 tbs butter
¼ cup cilantro
Salsa
Guacamole

Slice ribeye into strips, squeeze ½ lime to coat, sprinkle with 1 tbs cumin (about a tbs per pound), salt, and pepper. Remove to a bowl to marinate and leave it at least 15 minutes.
Repeat with chicken.

Heat canola oil in wok until shimmering. Add onions and Tamari, cook until translucent (4 minutes), then add peppers and jalapenos and cook to soften (another 5 minutes). Add asparagus and cook until crisp-tender (4 min or so).

In a separate skillet, heat oil to coat pan. Add chicken and heat until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Chicken may release liquid, which can be drained into the sink.
Remove to a platter, add steak to the skillet and cook until desired doneness (4 minutes for medium-rare).

Meanwhile, heat a small pad of butter on low in a small skillet (we used my omelet pan) to warm the tortillas. Add tortillas one-by-one, flipping constantly to soften and moisten each tortilla. Don’t be afraid to keep adding butter between tortillas. You don’t want starchy, dry tortillas. (Post-gluten tortillas have been an interesting challenge for fajitas, so I’ll go into more detail in a later post.)

Hopefully you can figure out the rest from here…leave a comment if you can’t.