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Here is a very complex recipe from Ninfa's that they gave out in the 70's. As noted below, I doubt if they actually did this in their restaurants.
Tex-Mex 101
Fajitas and the Magic of the Combo Plate
Restaurant Secrets for the Home Cook
When I was working on the recipes for The Tex-Mex Cookbook and the question would come up, “What are those wonderful spices that make Tex-Mex taste so good?”, I would reply, “Salt and garlic”. And this wasn’t a flippant response. Demystified, Tex-Mex is really based on very simple spicing, easily duplicated in the home. There are some techniques, true, but for the most part, you’ll be amazed at how easily good quality Tex-Mex can be done in your home.
For example, the recipe for fajitas that we will be doing today is pretty complicated. It’s based on a recipe given by Ninfa’s to the Houston Chronicle in the 70’s. But I promise you, neither Ninfa’s nor any other Tex-Mex restaurant goes to this much trouble for their fajitas. The majority marinade their fajitas in a blend of pineapple juice and soy sauce. That’s it. I would recommend you start with a cup of pineapple juice and a ¼ cup of soy sauce. Taste it, and then decide whether you want to add more soy sauce or more pineapple juice to your own particular taste.
In addition to The Tex-Mex Cookbook, I can direct you to another excellent but hard to find book, The Official Fajita Cookbook, by Richard Miller and T.L. Bush.
There are many ways to cook your fajitas. Directly over coals, in a cast iron skillet, oven broiled under the broiler, etc. We’ll see which method is chosen for the cooking class.
Fajita Recipe in the Style of Ninfa’s Restaurant
Serves 6 to 8
Ingredients:
Zest of one large orange, about 1 tablespoon
¼ cup of water
Juice of 2 lemons (about ¼ cup), plus 2 teaspoons of lemon zest
¼ cup pineapple juice
¼ cup sherry or white Zinfandel wine or ruby port or tawny port
¼ cup soy sauce (Kikkoman is a good choice, either regular or low sodium)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried whole chile de arbol, crushed (or, grab some of those packs of red chile that come free with your pizza and use those, rather than run out and buy chiles)
3 tablespoons clarified butter or olive oil or peanut oil
2 skirt steaks (known as fajita or arrachera), cleaned (if you buy your fajita steaks at a Mexican meat market such as Matamoros, or, my favorite on North Main, xxx at xxx, they will weigh them and then clean them of the fat layer that covers the fajita….a little fat left on is okay)
Instructions:
Grate the orange and lemon zests. Combine the zest with ¼ cup of water, and all the other ingredients and pour into a large plastic or Pyrex dish. I like to use this Tupperware 8.5” x 11” marinade container that I’ve had for years that seals really well and lets you flip the container to evenly coat the meat, so, if you own one of these, use it).
If your meat market hasn’t cleaned the meat for you, use a sharp knife to remove any membrane or skin from the meat. In the early days, I suspect that the skin was left on, the meat was thrown on a charcoal fire, charred, and then the skin was peeled off before eating.
Marinade for at least two hours. Grill over high heat for 3-5 minutes per side, careful not to overcook, either in a very hot cast iron skillet, under the broiler in your oven, or a gas grill or charcoal grill heat source.
Serve with tortillas and a ‘melange” of onions and bell peppers that have been sautee’ed in oil.
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