Friday, December 12, 2008

Steak Flautas, Cabana style..


In my teen aged years, and then while was in culinary school, I worked at the coziest, friendliest, warmest, yummiest little family run Mexican restaurant you could ever hope to come across...

One of the things about "tex mex" style cooking, different places call random things by familiar names... The "Flauta" was a specialty of the house at that place, but it wasn't a flauta at all, really.


Last night I got a hankering for one and so I raided the "ethnic" (are they kidding with that) foods isle at the grocery and got cooking....


-I chopped up a large flank steak into 1/2 cubes, and maranaded in a can of cola mixed with chopped jalepenos, garlic, and plenty of cumin - while that swam around in the mixture, I thawed out the rest of my zesty enchilada sauce and put a can of good old Stokes green chili with pork on the stove to heat...


-Then I browned the steak cubes in a screaming hot skillet, sprayed a roasting pan with Crisco spray and rolled two big burritos full of the steak.


-I smothered the burritos in the enchilada sauce and placed them under the broiler to crisp up a bit...


-while those broiled, I added shredded cheddar and motzarella cheeses to the green chili for a quick chili con queso and mashed an avacado with some tomato, shallot, and garlic salt for a fast guac....


After the burritos were nicely broiled, I transfered them to plates before smothering them again, this time in the queso sauce, adding some store bought (gasp) refried beans and a generous amount of the guac (but NOT for The Hub, he is anti-guac)....


That double smothered, baked burrito was what we fondly refered to as a "flauta" in that little restaurant... strange but true...


It was goooood... granted, it was not the same as if I had made every single thing from scratch, but it hit the spot and H loved it... (and besides, I have trouble making green chili in anything smaller than 1 gallon batches.... hazards of learning your recipes in a restaurant kitch, I guess...)

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