Mexican Alambre

Start by marinating your beef. I like to do this overnight, but 4 or more hours should be sufficient.

To a small sauce pan, add water, garlic, and the chili pods. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook for about 20 minutes or until pods have softened. Let cool. Take pods, garlic, and about 1 cup of the water and blend until you have a fine puree. Pour this mixture into a sealable bag, throw in a generous pinch or two of salt, and add the beef. Seal and give the beef a nice massage to ensure the marinade penetrates the beef. Place in the refrigerator until you are ready to grill.

When you are ready to start making this, you have a couple of options. You can either grill the vegetables and beef (which is what I prefer), or you can cook everything in one big wok or skillet. (Hint: Choose the grill.)

Heat up your grill. I like to use a combination of charcoal and cherry wood, as the smokiness really adds to the great flavor of the beef.

While grill heats up, add bacon to a large skillet and cook on low heat, adding about 1/4 cup of water during the cooking process. You don’t want the bacon to be fully crisp as you normally might have for breakfast, but somewhere between soft and crisp. Continue cooking the bacon on low heat, reserving some of the fat.

Next, add the whole bell peppers, onion, and jalapeno peppers to the grill, cooking over the coals. Your goal here is to get a nice char while not fully cooking the peppers. Once you get a bit of the char, remove them from the grill, and take them inside to slice. Remove any of the seeds from the jalapenos if you don’t want this to be spicy.

Once you slice the peppers and onion, add them to the cooked bacon along with the sliced tomatoes and cilantro. Give this a good stir, and season with a pinch or two of salt.

Return to the grill and cook beef until it is about medium. Don’t overcook your beef! Take the beef inside, let it rest briefly, and slice into 1-inch strips. Add beef strips to the bacon mixture, stir well. Top the mixture with Oaxaca cheese, then cover and remove from the heat. You want the cheese to melt into the mixture.

Now you are ready to serve. Uncover, and place the skillet on some heat resistant pads on the table. Top with fresh limes and sliced avocados, along with a plate of warmed flour tortillas.

Take your tortilla, take some of the alambre, and fold it into the tortilla. Give a squeeze of fresh lime juice, lay on some avocado, and some sour cream if you prefer, and dig in.