Grilled steak with Cilantro pesto/sauce served over Arroz Rojo rice

As we all know, I am a loyal viewer of the television show, The Chew. After watching today's episode of Budget Friendly Mexican Meals, I automatically wanted to drive to the nearest Mexican restaurant and order my usual chicken burrito and margarita. However, I know I was ready for a home cooked meal, and I am pretty sure Jimmy was too. Soooo, why not make my own Mexican food from scratch?! How hard could it be? For the record, not very hard. :)

Mexican for me just hits the spot. I can eat it any day, hour, morning,  afternoon, or night. Even fourth meal. However, pulling off a scrumptions Mexican meal from scratch and not using canned refried beans or the Knorr spanish rice package is a big accomplishment in itself for me. So when I was roaming IGA for some inspiration, I decided to make the Arroz Rojo rice recipe I saw on TV today. They said on the show that you can pair any meat with the rice and it will be good. I decided to go with a skirt like steak (I forget the name of the meat honestly) but it was in a shape of a tri tip, but was thin. Come to think of it, I think the work Tri was in the name of the meat. Perhaps, Tri Steak? Who cares!!! You can pair this rice with chicken, pork, a scrumptious steak, buffalo testicals, WHATEVER, and I am sure it will be fantastic. The thing I loved about Chef Marcella's Arroz Rojo recipe, was that it contained cilantro. I felt that I can get most of my money by using it not only in the rice, but in a pesto/sauce as well. So besides following the Arroz Rojo recipe, I competley winged the rest. Just to let you know, it turned out UH-MAZING! Not to toot my own horn or anything....


Click here for Arroz Rojo recipe

The recipe called for a serrano chili, but I just used a jalapeno instead. Remember, its ok to "color outside the lines" when you are cooking. ;)


For my Cilantro Pesto, I did the following:

About 1 cup of cilantro
A little bit of olive oil
Two cloves of garlics-crushed
Roughly a tablespoon of lemon juice (can do lime instead)
Some parmesan cheese
A few canellini beans (pine nuts, walnuts, cashews are usually the norm)

A pesto is very versatile, and can be made several different ways. A typical pesto contains basil, olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese, and pine nuts. for mine, I changed it up  a bit and  did cilantro, and I did not have any kind of nuts in my pantry, so I went with beans. You just need something to bind the liquid so it was be more pasty instead of liquidly. The beans also add some protein as well :) I do not own a a food processor so I made my pesto in a blender. I may have added a wee bit too much olive oil so it was on the fence between a pesto and sauce, but nonetheless, it was full of flavor and I cant believe I actually made it. You have got to try it!

With the steak, I did not feel like grilling on the grill, so I put the broiler on high, and cooked the steak about five minutes on eat side and seasoned with salt and pepper.


When the dinner was finished, and we had a chance to eat, it was amazing. The rice could have been cooked longer, but on my defense, the rice mixture was the same texture whenever you make the spanish rice out of the bag and/or when I make my risotto. So naturally, I thought it was done. The rice was spicy, but delicious. the cilantro sauce was full of flavor and amazing, and the steak was good, but probably would have been better on the grill.

Overall, I would rate this a 9/10. Jimmy rated the same way. I will definitely make this again, and next time, I will make margaritas :)