Steak Taco Salad with Grilled Corn Pico de gallo

 Living in central Iowa, I am blessed with many fresh, local resources for my cooking adventures.  Everything from farm fresh veggies, eggs and milk, to locally grown and processed meats, is at the most, a 15 minute drive from my kitchen.  It is because of this amazing access to fresh produce, that most Iowans will tell you their favorite time of year is July-September.  What's so special about these 3 months, you ask??  Two words: Sweet Corn.  

To anyone who has ever hand-picked corn straight from the stalk, or spent their summer days gravel traveling through endless fields of corn taller than their car, those little yellow and white kernels of deliciousness are like pure gold.  Come to pretty much any town in Iowa during the summer and you can buy fresh sweet corn from the beds of pick-up trucks on street corners...  I even remember my dad coming home one day when I was a teenager (he is a custom contractor) with the back of his van packed full of fresh ears of corn from a farmer client of his.  I could go on all day about this stuff...
My second favorite part of this recipe, is another special local product - the skirt steak.  If you are an Iowa resident and you have not purchased locally grown and processed beef, or pork, you are missing out on one of our state's finest resources.  The great people at the Story City Locker are doing wonderful things for central Iowa, providing our community with a source for meat that is grown and raised on small-production, local farms.  
As Iowa's first new meat locker to open in 12 years, SCL and it's staff strives to practice sustainable living and sustainable butchery to the best of their ability and that care and sensitivity is visible in their product.  As stated on their website, "Knowing our food and knowing where our food comes from is good for us"... and it is!!  If you are looking for fresh cuts of meat, so cleanly raised and processed that you can taste it, seek out a local butcher like the Story City Locker, or at the least, stop by your local farmers' market and find a family farm tent selling their product - you won't be sorry!
About the recipe... this dish can be a bit time-consuming, but it also has many components that can be prepared ahead of time.  I recommend prepping and marinating your steak anywhere from 6-24 hours ahead of time.  The Pico de gallo can also be made up to 24 hours ahead and the salad shells can be baked several days in advance as long as you store them in an air-tight container until you're ready to use them.  Enjoy!

What You Need:

(For the Marinade)

one 2 lb skirt steak, trimmed of fat

sea salt

black pepper

red pepper flakes

2 large garlic cloves, crushed

juice of 1 large orange

juice of 1 lime

(For the Pico de gallo)

4-5 ears fresh sweet corn, still in husks

1 large Anaheim pepper

1 large, ripe avocado

juice and zest of 1 lime

2 large, ripe tomatoes

handful of fresh cilantro, about 1/3 cup

1/2 red onion

(For the Salad Shells)

store-bought large flour tortillas, as many as needed to serve your family

1 shallow bowl, or rimmed platter, large enough so that you can lay tortillas flat inside one at a time

1 tbsp vegetable or olive oil

1 empty 10-15oz food can

aluminum foil

cooking spray

(For the Salads)

sour cream

queso fresco

washed and torn lettuce

sauteed sweet peppers, other desired veggies

To prepare the skirt steak, trim any large pieces of fat and place the steak in a baking dish, or shallow bowl.

Rub with red pepper flakes (1-2 tsp), lime zest, and a generous amount of freshly cracked sea salt and black pepper.  After seasoning both sides, break apart the crushed garlic and rub on the top side of the steak.  Pour orange and lime juice over the top, cover baking dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate until 30 minutes before grilling.

Begin the Pico by roughly chopping a peeled avocado.  Toss in a medium bowl with lime juice, zest and finely chopped cilantro, cover with plastic wrap and set aside.  To grill the corn, peel back the husks, leaving them attached to the ear so that they can be folded back over the corn.  Remove the silk, rub the corn with butter and salt.  Then fold the husks back up over the corn to "wrap" it.  Place wrapped ears onto a hot grill for about 10 minutes, turning them every 2-3 minutes.  Don't worry if the husks begin to blacken, or if some kernels are exposed.   At the same time, place the Anaheim pepper on the grill, and rotate to roast evenly.  After 10 minutes, carefully remove the corn from grill and allow to cool on a plate or baking sheet.  When the pepper has blackened a bit on all sides, remove from grill and immediately wrap in aluminum foil.  Turn off grill.  Set wrapped pepper aside for 30-40 minutes.

While corn is cooling and pepper is steaming, roughly chop the tomatoes and add to the avocado bowl.  The onion can be prepared as desired - I prefer raw onion to be finely minced, so I placed mine in the food processor after peeling, but if you don't mind bigger pieces, you can chop it by hand.  Either way, once prepped, add the onion to the avocado mixture.  When corn is cool enough to handle, remove the husks and carefully use a sharp knife to slice the corn off of the cob.  Add kernels to the bowl of fresh veggies.  Lastly, remove the pepper from it's foil, peel off the skin and pull out seeds.  *See my previous post on making your own roasted peppers!  Finely chop the pepper and gently toss it in with the rest of your Pico de gallo.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

For the salad shells, heat oven to 400 degrees.  While oven is heating, pour 1 tbsp oil into large bowl/platter, then add roughly 1/2 inch of cold water.  Completely remove the lid from the empty tin can, rinse out the inside and peel off any labels from the outside.  Place the can upside down on a cookie sheet.  Tear off a square piece of aluminum foil and use it to cover the can.  Do not cover tightly, or press foil around the bottom of the can.  You just

want to loosely pull the foil down around the can, making a mold for you tortillas.  Spray the foil "mold" with cooking spray.  Working with one at a time, place a tortilla in the oil/water mixture, pressing down gently to momentarily submerge the tortilla.  Flip the tortilla over and submerge again.  Remove tortilla from water, allowing excess water to drip off, then center the tortilla on top of your can/foil mold.  Gently fold down the sides of the tortilla, making 4-5 "waves" around the sides.  Place the tortilla, mold and cookie sheet in the oven for 5-7 minutes, until it begins to feel fairly stiff.  Remove everything from the oven, take the
tortilla shell off of the mold and flip the tortilla over.  Then place it back into the oven (tortilla only, directly on oven rack) for another 5 minutes.  When edges begin to turn golden, remove shells from oven and cool on a rack.  During that last 5 minutes, prep another tortilla using the water/oil and get it fitted onto the mold to begin baking.  Continue until you have enough salad shells baked to feed your family, or guests.

When you are actually ready to make your taco salads, bring your

grill to medium-high heat (around 500 degrees) and spray the grate with grill-style cooking spray.  Remove the skirt steak from the baking dish and marinade and place steak on the hot grill.  Cook the steak for about 10 minutes per side.  After the first 15 minutes, begin testing the inside temperature every 5 minutes with a meat thermometer.  Do so by inserting the thermometer into the center of the thickest part of the steak.  You will want the interior temperature to be medium-medium well, so when the steak registers between 155-165 degrees, remove it from the grill.  Place on a heat-proof cutting board/serving plate and allow to sit for 10 minutes before cutting.

Allow people to make their own taco salads by having everything laid out and ready to serve.  Everyone can start with a salad shell and build their salad, adding lettuce, sliced steak, crumbled queso, Pico, sour cream, etc... Everything can be saved for leftovers - extra steak can be chopped for nacho topping and the Pico is great as a fresh salsa for dipping chips!