Serenade me a marinate!

First I must say I Googled marinate just too get some ideas and the GOOGLE INSTANT SEARCH WAS MARINATED CAT... WTF GOOGLE?!

Anyways...

Marinate
So if brine is salt based, marinated is what? Acid... but it's not what you think it does.  A marinate does not decompose meat to a gooey mess and makes it tender, that's heat and moisture's job.  A marinate does inject a lot of flavor and makes a better texture of meat, and vegetables more color and better cooked texture.  Brine is more understood than marinate and you can Google marinate and find 100 different opinions.  But if you understand why you would USE marinate, then you're better off.

Marinate it baby~

A basic marinate contains mostly the same ingredients.  Acid with the citrus in this one, oil, with our olive oil and this is a GREAT time to break out the extra virgin! flavorings and spices, and of course... SALT! Nothing is cooking without some kind of salt! :D

The proportions should be mostly acid, and acid can be fruit or vinegar, or BOTH!  I used for my marinate 1 and a half cups total of acid with 1 cup OJ and 1/2 lime.

Why oil? Well, oil is a lubricant and when cooked will help what your making it less sticky but it will still stick if you aren't doing it right! But more on that later, also, I feel the BEST marinate is thickened slightly with a small emulsion.  Emulsions are two opposite molecules held together at opposite ends.  So in this case our oil and water/acid will be held together with a bridge in the middle.  Also fat is flavor, so let's add more flavor!

I am making fajitas so I am going to add Southwest Tex-Mex flavors.  I have cumin which I toasted then ground, and please folks, if you are cooking use whole spices and toast until fragment! Powdered and ground spices are useless.  This photo has the ground kind only as a stage hand, I had a packet of seeds that didn't photo well.  To add to the heat, CHIPOTLES and adobo sauce.  This is my favorite Mexican item.  Adobo sauce is so hot but doesn't feel like it because of the strong earth flavors, and the smoked jalapeños add a sweet and smokey flavor I haven't tasted anywhere else! Since this is South of the border, I'm hitting this with cilantro yo!  Garlic goes in EVERY marinate I make.  Garlic is culturally universal.  From Europe, to Asia, to South America and the Moon, garlic is all used. And a nice sea salt to season this up! :D I skipped the pepper since we had enough POW!

A special treat
Who has had GREAT AMAZING HOMG Mexican food? And who has made it at home and just felt robbed? This is why!!!

The AMAZING power of flavor that comes from CHARRED PEPPERS! This technique is applied to ANY pepper or rather capsicum and add a whole dimension of flavor.  I start with a whole poblano this time, fresh, and this can be done with ANY pepper.  I spritz mine with a bit of pam oil and put it straight on the flame! And just let it burn baby burn! Once every possible green/red/yellow is charred black, put it in a bowl and cover and let sit for a half our.

Then the next step is simple, the seed pod will want to come out all its own, and then with your fingers sweep any small seeds left and lay it flat, take your knife at a 45 degree angle and scrap towards you with the blade away from you.  Get off ALL the skin because that is now too bitter to taste good. DO NOT RUN UNDER WATER or you'll wash away all your flavor!

Back to our original program
Now combine all our stuff and we get this

Blend

Now TASTE! :D Why? well, if it doesn't taste good now, it won't taste good at the end! So expect it to be strong, flavorful, and acidic.  If you think it's NASTY HOMG well maybe rethink, but if you think it tastes good but way to strong, then you're good!
Here is a trick I developed on my own when it comes to marinating meat. PLACE THE MEAT IN ITS PACKAGE IN YOUR CONTAINER! Because now you are POSITIVE it'll all fit!

If at this point you are worried, GOOD FOR YOU! Yes I am using an acid and a metal. BUT this is non reactive stainless steal, which will not reach, ALUMINUM IS BAD NEWS with acid.  So make sure you are using SS or non metal containers when acid baths.

Cover and place in the MOST BOTTOM PART OF THE FRIDGE! and the tin foil isn't touching the meat

 AND COOK!

 I like to cook my fajitas on the grill, but it's 20 degrees outside so I'm using a cast iron grill pan over high heat and it does a bang up job!

So remember make your marinate with acid, add a bit of oil, flavor it, season it, and blend it!  AND TASTE IT! Make sure it's good before you cook it!