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Made fajitas for my first Father's Day bbq last night.

It's my favorite kind of recipe- delicious and criminally simple.

1: Take a big flank steak, trim off any fat & douse it with about 2 tbs of lime juice. Season well with salt and pepper. Let rest while building the fire.

2: Make a fire with plenty of charcoal and heat the grill.

3: Slap it on once the coals have a nice ashy coating, cook 5-7 minutes on each side for medium rare. Let it rest 10 minutes under a loose canopy of aluminum foil, slice thin across the grain and serve with whatever condiments you prefer.

I grilled some onions and made a couple of different salsas to go with, both really easy:

simple Tomatillo Salsa:

Husk and wash a bunch of tomatillos. Split a couple of chilis (serranos or jalapenos work great here) and remove the bulk of the seeds (unless you like it hot- I usually leave about 1/4 in place to give it some bite), and a couple of cloves of garlic if you like. Toss it all with a couple of tablespoons of oil, lay out on a rimmed baking sheet and broil until things start to char, 5-10 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through.

Dump it all in the food processor with about 1/4 cup of water or stock and puree. Salt to taste and serve.

Simple salsa roja:

Seed and dice a bunch of tomatoes.
Dice one small white (or yellow, whatevs) onion & garlic to taste (I like two or three cloves). Chop up a handful of cilantro & one or two seeded chilis. Combine it all in a bowl, add a couple of tablespoons of lime juice, 1/4 cup of water and salt to taste, then let sit for 30 minutes or so to marry the flavors.



It was my dream meal- all prep and almost no cooking.
Oddly that red salsa gets more rave reviews than anything else I make. For this I sincerely thank the tremendous reservoir of crap salsa out there.

When I need to cut corners and use store bought I recommend Trader Joe's Salsa Especial (in the deli case). It's fresh, well balanced and happily bereft of the chemical tang & over processed tomato-sauce texture that afflicts most commercial salsa.