I am not a big fan of beef, but the few times I eat it is in the form of carne asada o cecina tacos. What is cecina? Don Cuevas of My Mexican Kitchen answers this question:
Cecina is thinly sliced, salted and partially dried sheets or strips of beef or pork. The technique for making it requires an extremely sharp knife and considerable skill and patience. A largish piece of boneless beef of beef is turned into a continuous roll of thin slices by deft cutting, back and forth, within the mass of muscle.
I don’t have the patience or the skills to make it, but when I am in the mood for some delicious cecina tacos I get it already prepared at the Mexican market. All I have to do is grill it and serve it with some delicious salsa. And my favorite salsa for cecina is made with nopales. I’ve posted a nopal salsa recipe before, but this time instead of boiling them I grilled them and the result was an amazing salsa that I will be making several times this summer.
Grilled nopal salsa
The ingredients:
- 2 nopales, cleaned
- 1/2 red onion, sliced
- 2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
- the juice of 2 limes
- bunch of cilantro, chopped
- salt to taste
The how-to:
Print this recipe
- Grill the nopales at high temperature for about 4 minutes each side or until they are cooked. They will change color from a bright green to a brownish green.
- Carefully cut them in bite size pieces and mix them with the rest of the ingredients.
- Refrigerate for a couple of hours before using.
- Serve over cecina, carne asada or any other kind of taco. Remember that real tacos are made with corn tortillas.
¡Buen provecho!
19 Replies
Thank you for this–I can't wait to try grilling nopales! Your salsa sounds fantastic. Pretty tacos too!
Posted on May 25th, 2010 at 7:51 am
I heard about how good the nopales are, but I have never tried them. I have a tree of nopal in my farm, I would take your word for it and cook some soon. The Carne Asada taco looks delicious.
Posted on May 25th, 2010 at 9:59 am
This looks so delicious, wish I can try some.
Posted on May 25th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Oh, I'll have to check & see if the Mexican butcher in town has this kind of beef.
Posted on May 25th, 2010 at 11:56 am
I wish I could just taste a bit….looks so tempting!
Posted on May 25th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
I will keep my eyes open Ben:D
Posted on May 25th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Great tacos. Mmmhhh, I love that food! a pity I can't find nopales here…
Cheers,
Rosa
Posted on May 25th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Ben this looks sensational. loving the shot!
Posted on May 25th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
I never heard the term "cecina". It sounds very interesting but I doubt I'd have the patience (and skill) required.
Posted on May 25th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
These tacos look great, Ben. I had never heard of cecina or nopales until this post, Love learning new food terminology!
Posted on May 25th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Will have to do a bit of research on the nopala, ut I knpw a good taco and this is definitely one!!
Posted on May 25th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
The tacos look great, although I am also not a fan of beef.
Posted on May 26th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Your tacos look delicious. We had nasty looking cactus that we pulled out years and years ago – because we hated the fine hairs that would stick into us. Now it seems as though they make really good salsas and other dishes.
Posted on May 29th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I haven’t seen prickly pears in Britain, but I am sure I can get canned nopales. So that is sorted. But I have no idea how I would get hold of this lovely beef. So I will have to stick to drooling over your photos.
Posted on May 30th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
I just tried making steak tacos for the first time last week and I'm hooked. These look fantastic and that salsa sounds delicious!
Posted on May 30th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
que rico! yo quiero 2 tacos para llevar por fis
- me encantan los tacos de nopales, son la especialidad de mi Papa, y no sabes cuanto tiempo llevo sonhando con ellos…….
Posted on June 2nd, 2010 at 4:30 pm
I love cecina – it is one of my favorite meats for tacos. I didn't realize it was salted and partially dried – very interesting.
Posted on July 20th, 2010 at 2:26 am
Haven't grilled them before. Sounds so amazing. I can imagine the wonderful roasted flavor right now
Posted on July 27th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Wow! yummy recipe with in real Mexican style. Though nopales is a new culinary term for me but the dish looks delicious.
Posted on July 28th, 2010 at 11:48 am
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