It’s dusk and you’re sitting under a disco-blue sky glittering with stars. Earlier, the day was sweltering but now a cool breeze has kicked up and it rustles the citrus and Sweet Acacia trees that line the backyard, a tiny Texas square on the Southwest grid.
Someone picks up a guitar and strums a song while mesquite pops and crackles in the barrel of the grill that you built in brick with your own hands. In between songs, you can hear fragments of faraway conversations carried to you on the wind. From across the lawn, over the fence, or from the kitchen where someone who loves you is preparing a meal of fajitas and handmade tortillas.
But then you open your eyes and remember that you are in a city whose lights burn bright against a black sky at night. That your home on the range is a suburban bungalow beneath a canopy of evergreen trees. You flip a switch to light the grill, tune a radio to hear a song, and close your eyes again to see the place you’re from, the memory like a small child tugging at your sleeve.
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- 2 lbs skirt steak
- ½ cup of fresh-squeezed lime juice
- 2 cloves garlic
- ¼ cup of soy sauce (optional)
- 1:1 of instant corn tortilla flour (like Maseca) to water
- Mince the garlic and add to the lime juice and soy sauce.
- Marinate the meat for an hour or so.
- Heat the outdoor grill.
- Sear the meat and cook on each side for about 2½ minutes.
- Remove the meat and allow to cook for a minute or two.
- Cut strips of meat against the grain and serve.
- Mix equal parts maseca to water until you can form a ball of dough without it sticking to your hands.
- Adjust the amount of water if necessary.
- Once you have a ball of dough, take a smaller piece and form into another ball of dough.
- Between two pieces of plastic, flatten the dough.
- Slowly turn the disk as you pat it into a thin pancake.
- Heat the tortilla on each side until it puffs with air.
- Keep warm between two plates or in a tortilla warmer.
My amiga, Káti, making homemade corn tortillas
The tortillas are ready when they puff up with air
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