Lime and Chilli Steak Fajitas

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Randomly picked from an old cooking magazine this turned out to be the perfect mid week supper.  At the same time, it’s so tasty I think we’ll definitely be dragging it out for summer BBQs.

This time it’s Australian Gourmet Traveller, December 2009 and the “Gourmet Fast” section provides our dinner.  I skipped over the fried quails and headed to the lime and chilli steak fajitas.  This meal is just ridiculously easy.  It’s in three components, so you can mix and match and it’s structured perfectly so you can do it all with a minimum of fuss.

There’s also not a big list of hard to procure ingredients – everything you need you probably have in the fridge or can buy easily from your local shops.

The first part is the steak.  The recipe used skirt, I used rump.  Take your steak and squeeze over the juice of a couple of limes (I actually had half a lemon hanging around so I used that and one lime).  Ensure you cover both sides and then leave to marinate while you put together the two salads.  Turn the steak at least once while it’s marinating.

The salads are really two basic salsas:  avocado and tomato.

For the avocado, peel and coarsely chop one avocado.  Mix it with some lime juice, some finely chopped red chilli and some extra virgin olive oil.

For the tomato, coarsely chop a tomato and mix it with some chopped coriander, some lime juice and some extra virgin olive oil.  Andy decided we definitely needed onion in our tomato salsa so I added about a quarter of a finely chopped onion.

Heat a griddle pan (or the BBQ) and cook the steak according to personal preference.  When the steak is cooked allow it to rest for 10 minutes or so (pop it on a plate and cover it in tin foil) and then slice finely.

You’re all done!  Assemble the fajitas by grabbing some tortillas and adding what you will.  We included some jalapeños. Some finely sliced iceberg lettuce or a dab of sour cream would also work well.

My tip for this recipe: don’t be tempted to substitute lemon for ALL the lime juice. For the salads in particular you definitely need lime juice and you should ensure that you have at least some lime juice in the marinade.

Sapporo Beer Launch

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Disclaimer: I was a guest at the launch party.

Last Thursday night, Coopers held the Adelaide launch of its new beer, Sapporo.  Wait, nothing new about Sapporo, right?  It’s a Japanese beer first brewed in 1876 so why the launch?  Because Sapporo is now being brewed, under licence, right here in South Australia by Coopers.

To celebrate this, beer lovers from across Adelaide gathered at the Robin Hood in Norwood to sample the ‘new’ beer and snack on some very tasty Japanese inspired treats.  The pub’s beer garden was decked out with a Sapporo theme, including a wall made up of Sapporo maneki neko (the Japanese beckoning cats).  Unsurprisingly there was no shortage of Sapporo, but there were other drinks on offer – even to the extent of beer themed cocktails!  The finger food was all Japanese – including huge newspaper cones of tempura, crab and noodle cakes and prawns served with a coconut rice.

Dr Tim Cooper welcomed us all and, in launching the beer, told us a little about how it all came about.  If you’re keen on beer you’ll know that one of the most important factors in a beer’s taste is the water used in brewing it.  This is one of the reasons that, very often, a beer brewed under licence doesn’t taste quite as good as the ‘real thing’.  Dr Cooper said that a lot of research (and no doubt beer tasting!) had gone into ensuring that the locally brewed Sapporo tastes as good as the Japanese original.  Mr Owata, from Sapporo Breweries, also spoke, encouraging us all to have a good time and “drink lots of Sapporo beer”.

And I’m sure with the hot Australian summer being just around the corner that won’t be a problem!

Morphett Arms Hotel

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date of visit:  Thursday 29 September 2011

Sorry – no picture of my schnitzel this time – I am self-conscious taking photos when out with friends!

A quick mid-week visit to a pub with a couple of friends.  I don’t know what made me do it, but I actually rang up and booked a table at the Morphett Arms.  I thought I was a bit silly, booking a table for 6pm on a Thursday night – after all, the pub dining room (sorry, it’s always a bistro these days!) will be empty.

It turns out it was extremely lucky that I booked a table, because even at that early hour the pub was busy.  And I don’t mean ticking over nicely, I mean really busy.  I suspect had we not had a reservation we might not have been eating.

The pub is reasonably basic – the dining room is dominated at one end by the salad bar, and everything is done out in various shades of neutral.  The clientele seems to fall into two distinct groups:  those who are somewhat older and family groups with children.  One of my friends commented we were far too young to be there – but we did have the baby in tow, so we sort of fitted in.

Not knowing how things worked, the first mistake we made was one of our party wandering off to find the bar and buy drinks.  At the Morphett Arms, drinks are table service, but when it comes to ordering food you have to order at the counter.  What most patrons do (that would be those familiar with the system) is arrive, order their food immediately and then sit down and have their drinks order taken. We were flapping around like complete novices – not sure where to get menus, not sure how to order our food, and having to turn away waiting staff who wanted to take a drinks order …

Menus in hand we were next completely flummoxed by the array of schnitzel toppings on offer. I know I only ever order a parmi, but Galaxiian? Princess? No explanation at all on the very basic printed, but laminated, menu. When we did go up to order, all was made clear: all the necessary details and the specials are all at the counter.

So we ended with beef schnitzels with gravy and the Galaxiian topping (a combination of onions and capsicums), and chicken schnitzels with Hawaiian and American toppings. Yes – I departed from the standard parmigiana because, at the Morphett Arms, a parmi is tomato sauce and cheese, but American adds the ham.

The food arrived promptly and the beef schnitzels were huge. The plates were decorated with a very token lettuce leaf – but all main courses do include the salad bar. By the time we’d all ploughed our way through schnitzels and chips there was no space for salad – but there was a generous selection of the pub standards: rice salad, pasta salad, green salad, beetroot, and so on.

The schnitzels themselves were good but I did think that the topping (on mine, at least) could have been a little more generous and extended the entire length and breadth of the schnitzel. The chips were pretty disappointing (even by the low standard I set for pub chips).

However, the real sting in the tail is that the schnitties at the Morphett Arms don’t fall into the cheap category – by the time you add your sauce you are looking at over $20 (most sauces are $2.50) which I think is too much for what is really a stock standard meal. While the Morphett Arms doesn’t appear to have a cheap schnitzel night, the pub does take the Entertainment Card (there’s a voucher in this year’s book for 25% off your entire bill, including drinks) and it also looks like it runs the occasional shop-a-docket promotion but if you’re paying full tote odds, I think it’s too expensive.

Service wise – things were definitely above average. Despite the busy dining room there were plenty of staff on and we had no problems sorting out drinks (once we’d worked out what we were doing!), organising a high chair or having any other needs attended to.

While this is definitely a venue I’d consider if I needed somewhere family friendly for a group, it won’t be my first stop for a schnitzel.