Was that title too long? Oh well, let's move on.
I have spent YEARS perfecting what are the most perfect elements to put into tacos.
Here were my pre-requisites
1. Must be relatively authentic aka no sour cream and cheese.
2. It has to be simple, I don't want it to be a millions steps with an overnight anything. You feel me?
3. Needs to be impressive. I make this for most "dinner parties" I cook at because it tastes damn good, it's easy oh and it's cheap.
4. Versitility, because sometimes you make things in batch to eat for a whole week so it needs to be able to be made into lots of different dishes (ideas are at the end).
Okay what are the three components to kick-ass tacos?
1. Protein
2. Salsa
3. Guac
1. Protein
Okay so I went with a red sauce based mince mix here. You can do the same and replace the mince with beans or extra veggies if you want to. You can also just fry, grill or bake up some chicken, fish or strip steak. If you do that just give it some loving with some paprika, salt and pepper before cooking.
Here's my taco mince recipe
You'll need
2 tbls olive oil
1 brown onion
1-2 cloves of garlic
1 Red capsicum (or any other red or orange vegetable you have, or none)
500g mince meat (beans, extra veg, any meat diced)
Pasaata (or tinned tomatoes)
Salt and pepper
Your fav spices (I use paprika, cumin and chilli flakes)
What to do
1. On a medium heat, fry up the onion and garlic until soft.
2. Add in the capsicum and continue to fry until soft
3. Add in the mince meat and your choice of spices (I used maybe 1/2 tbls of each except chilli which was less).
4. Allow the mince to cook down until the juices start to dissapear. If you'd like to deglaze by adding a splash of red wine do that now and continue to cook for a minute or two.
5. Add in your pasaata or tinned tomatoes and allow the mix to simmer uncovered until it has reduced, around 15 mins.
Thank you next.
2. Salsa
If you'd prefer to buy a pre-made salsa go right ahead. This one here though adds texture and brightness and I promise will add a level of "pro" that your friends didn't know that you posessed. My only advice here is DO NOT add salt to tomatoes as it draws out the moisture and you'll end up with raw tomato soup.
What you need
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
1/2 red onion
Juice of 1/2 a lime
1 tbls olive oil
Corriander if you have it and like it (it's great with it, you won't die without it)
What to do
1. Dice cherry toms and onion and mix together with lime juice and olive oi.
2. Season with cracked black pepp.
3. Simple-ville.
And then?
3. Guac
Don't have avocado? That's fine! Don't make mexican.
I spent a solid two years making guacamole for a cute health food cafe that I worked at. Here's the secret to good guac... stop making it so complicated. There's a seasoning going around called "Guacamole Seasoning" and here is my professional opinion, use it on your protein instead. Avocado is fabulous as is, all it needs is a little seasoning.
Fool proof Guac
1. Smash the avocado in it's own skin to save on the washing up (see photo above).
2. A little squeeze of lime, some salt and pepper and give it another mix. Taste it.
3. If it's good, then it's good. Look for the balance, don't put too much lime juice, don't put too much salt. Those are just there to bring out the avocadoness (yep it's now a word). Look for the balance.
And that my friend is how you make the best taco fillings. It's simple, quick and bloody delicious.
Okay so apart from wrapping them in delicious flour torillas (oh if you want that recipe you can click this link right here) what else can you eat this with?
Other ideas
- Cook up some rice and serve your taco fillings on top as a "mexi-bowl"
- Scamble or fry some eggs and turn it into a breakfast wrap
- Bake a sweet potato and use these as toppings
- Turn it into enchilladas
- Serve it with quesadillas
I hope you enjoyed this recipe and as always if you make any of these don't forget to tag me on your socials @grumbleandquench. If you have any questions you can contact me via email grumbleandquench@gmail.com or DM me on insta here or facey here.
Thank you all for your support and HAPPY EATING!
S
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