Roy Choi's Carne Asada

Roy Choi is the dharma bum of the Los Angeles food scene, a Zen lunatic bard of the city’s immigrant streets. He is a founder of Kogi BBQ, which used food trucks to introduce the city to Mexican mash-up cuisine, and the creative force behind a handful of Los Angeles restaurants that celebrate various iterations of big-flavor cooking at the intersection of skater, stoner, lowrider and Korean college-kid desire. He cooks poems, and they taste of Los Angeles. Choi's carne asada — grilled meat — might raise eyebrows in Puebla and Laredo alike. There is mirin in the marinade and a lot of garlic. But there is purity to its expression of urban Southern California. This is a recipe to expand minds, a delicious take on a venerable classic.

INGREDIENTS

2 jalapeños
1 medium tomato, cored and cut into quarters
1 small yellow onion or 1/4 large one, peeled and cut into quarters
5 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons white granulated sugar
¼ cup ancho chili powder
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon kosher salt
½ large bunch cilantro, leaves and stems, well rinsed
⅓ cup fresh-squeezed orange juice (about 1 orange)
3 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lime juice (1 or 2 limes)
¼ cup mirin
1 12-ounce can (1 1/2 cups) Budweiser or other lager beer
2 pounds skirt steak, cut into 10-inch sections
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat the broiler. Place the jalapeños on a cookie sheet or in a skillet with an ovenproof handle, and put them under the broiler until their skins begin to blacken and bubble. (You can also do this by putting the peppers directly over a burner on your stove or on a gas grill.) Pull the stems and seeds from the jalapeños and discard them; skin the peppers and put them into a food processor.

Add the tomato, onion, garlic, sugar, ancho chili powder, black pepper and salt to the bowl of the machine, and pulse to combine. Add the cilantro, the fruit juices, mirin and beer. Process again until smooth.

Transfer the marinade to a large, nonreactive bowl and submerge the steak in it. Cover and place in refrigerator for at least four hours or overnight.

Build a fire in your grill. If using a gas grill, turn all burners to high

When all coals are covered with gray ash and the fire is hot (you can hold your hand 6 inches over the grill for only a few seconds), remove steaks from marinade, drizzle with olive oil and placeon the grill directly over the coals and cook until deeply seared, turning a few times, approximately 10 minutes for medium-rare. Remove steaks from the grill and allow to rest a few minutes. Slice against the grain into thin strips and serve with warm corn tortillas, pico de gallo (see recipe), grilled scallions, whatever you like.