Fajitas de Camarones

Fajitas are a nice quick appetizer or snack to share!

   
     Fajitas were very popular when it was a new restaurant item.  Chain restaurants really burnt out the popularity of fajitas in a big way!  Franchise chain restaurants can "burn out" any good recipe that they get their hands on.  Chain restaurants are notorious for poor quality cooking and over advertising.   Chain restaurants tone down their food to suit the middle of the road clientele that they aim for.
     Fajitas are supposed to be carried to the table on a hot metal sizzler plate.  The fajita ingredients should still be sizzling and cooking on the hot metal plate long after they are sat a table!  Fajitas are meant to be sat down on a table and then eaten quickly by all of the guests at a table, before the sizzler plate has a chance to cool down.  Fajitas are a quick Mexican style stir fry appetizer that is meant to be shared!
     Cold limp fajitas are no fun!  Fajitas are meant to be served piping hot.  The vegetables should have a crisp stir fry bite to them.
     If you do not want to use a hot sizzler plate for the presentation, then you must cook the fajitas over high heat, till they are nearly done and then they must be immediately brought to the table while steaming hot.
     If you use a sizzler plate, then cook the fajitas till they are only halfway done.  The fajitas will finish cooking on the way to the table on the hot metal sizzler plate.
   
     Fajita Sauce Recipe:
     Place 1 ounce of soy sauce in a sauce pot over medium low heat.
     Add 1 ounce of rice vinegar.
     Add 1 1/4 cups of lager beer. (White wine can be substituted.)
     Add 1/4 cup of water.
     Add 1 chopped garlic clove.
     Add 3 pinches of onion powder.
     Add sea salt and white pepper.
     Add 2 pinches of crushed dried red pepper.
     Add 3 pinches of cumin.
     Stir the ingredients together.
     Simmer for about 3 minutes, so the alcohol denatures.
     Set the thin fajita sauce aside for 20 minutes, so the flavors meld.
     Fajita sauce will not taste good, till it is added to the hot vegetables and meat in the sizzler pan.  On its own, fajita sauce is not really something to be tasted.  After it rapidly cooks on a sizzler platter, it tastes great!
   
     Fajitas Recipe:  
     Just like a Chinese stir fry recipe, have all the ingredients ready, before the cooking is started!
     Cut 2 handfuls each of these vegetables into 3/8 inch wide strips:
     - onion
     - red bell pepper
     - green bell pepper
     Set the fajita vegetables into a bowl. 
     Add 1 thin sliced green onion.
     Add 1 thin sliced jalapeno pepper.
     Pluck about 10 leaves of fresh cilantro and set them aside.
     Peel 10 to 15 medium size shrimp and set them aside.  Remove the tails, but do not devein the shrimp for fajitas.
     Heat a saute pan over medium high heat.
     (If you plan to use a hot sizzler plate for the presentation, then heat the sizzler on a separate burner.  Have the wooden base for the hot sizzler plate ready too.)
     Add 1 splash of vegetable oil to the hot saute pan.
     Add the shrimp and stir fry, till they become partially cooked.
     Add the vegetables and stir fry the ingredients.
     Add the cilantro leaves.
   
     Sizzler Plate Finishing Method:
     Stir fry the fajitas till they are half way done cooking. 
     Place the hot sizzler plate on its own base board.
     Set the fajitas on the sizzler plate.
     Pour some of the fajita sauce over the fajitas and onto the hot sizzler plate.
     The fajitas will sizzle and steam on the way to the table.
   
     Regular Platter Presentation Finishing Method:
     If you do not plan to use a sizzler plate, then stir fry the fajitas till they are 3/4's done cooking.
     Add some of the fajita sauce to the hot fajita pan. 
     Allow the sauce to steam rapidly! 
     Immediately place the hot steaming fajitas on a plate and carry them to the table.
   
     Presentation:
     Serve the fajitas with warm flour tortillas.
     Garnish with lime slices and a cilantro sprig.
   
     Hot steaming fresh cooked shrimp fajitas!  The aroma of fajitas does turn heads in a restaurant dining room, when a hot sizzler plate is being carried to a table!  Do not over sauce the fajitas or the crisp stir fry texture of the vegetables will become limp.
     I learned this recipe from some great cooks from Monterey, Mexico that I worked with a few years ago.  We served thousands of fajitas and we were cooking in a small, fun, seafood restaurant and bar on the bay of the Gulf Of Mexico.  We were not cooking fajitas at a chain restaurant!  We served fajitas the way they were meant to be served.  Sizzling fun yum!  ...  Shawna