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friscofrankie

Now there's folks'll tell ya tacos salsa and the like ain't 'Merikan. These folks, know fuck-all about 'Merikan food, Don't fuckin listen to 'em. Tacos are meat and veggies wrapped in corn tortilla. The native americans been eatin this dish since long before columbus folks, tamales too!
The flavors brought in by Spaniards includes the influences of their Moorish occupiers and these flavors blended together give thattypical "merikan "melting pot" appeal. Folks Tacos are Pure D 'merikan.
Anyway to get you goin on a good evening with these ground beef based tacos you're gonna need a few ingredients.


Down front, on the plate, we got fresh oregano, tomatoes, Cilantro chilies tommy-toes and green onions almost of these ingredients except the oregano will go into the taco sauce.
In the back we've got cuple of avacados (tacos just taste better with a touch of guac), lettuce about 400 gr of ground beef a dozen or so tortillas, Don;t wates timwe with thos preformed dry-assed "taco shells" they fragment soon as you bite into 'em if they survived the trip over here.
There's some limes up in there too
Before getting started with the tacos I'm gonna build us a coupl of sauces, Noe the Guacamole you can check out on that other thread somewhere's 'round here.
The taco suace or "salsa" I'm gonna make is really just "Pico de Gallo" with a twist. Chop up the tomatoes medium-fine. Toss 'em in a nice big bowl.



Add in some chopped cilantro, green onions chilies.



and a touch of the secret ingredient Cumin

'Bout this much:


Now add in the juice of two or three limes and stir it around. And you have:


Pico De Gallo!

just to give it a bit more sauce like consistancy I add a touch of


Tomato Juice.
Jusat a very sligh touch man it ain;lt soup ya know.
Next up we'll grate the cheese and start preparing the meat.

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friscofrankie

Ok for those of you that need directions to grate cheese...
Call your momma she didn't raise you right and I ain't got time to be teaching y'all kitchen basics. You want good food like this and cain;t cook? Marry a fat chick they usually cook pretty good.
Anyway. We got the guac & salsa in the refer the cheese is grated and we chopped up some iceberg lettuce.


Chucked that into a bowl and we're ready to start browning the meat.
Toss the meat in the pan and add just a touche of oil if you're using thai beef. There just isn't enough fat to dstibute the flavors of the herbs and spices that we'll add: Cumin, chili powder and a handful of chopped fresh oregano.
Looks somethin like this


let it brown up a bit till it looks like this:


now we can put that in a bowl for later assembly into our tacos and get the shells goin'

There are several ways to prepare the shells. Crispy, chewy and just slighty heated with steam or dry heat to make 'em pliable. The tacos you get in the backroom of some carneceria in the california Texas or down calexico way are usually fresh as all get out and just handed to you with some stuffing, goddam good eatin'
These tacos are more civilized (not necessarily better) You've seen the "Taco shells" for sale in foodland, tops even lotus at times. Avoid 'em like the plague. They taste like shit the are usually broken and if they aren't they will be on first bite; usually dumping the contents in your lap.
use The soft tortillas but they aren't all that fresh so you're gonna have to cook 'em some way. I llike 'em fried till chewy, NOT crisp Too crisp and well see the above discussion of so-called "Shells"
Use a medium-high heat. you got to work fast on these and tend 'em it only take about minute to have a completelyDon't bother foldin' 'em just toss it nice and flat, give 'em about 10 seconds to soften 'em up a bit then fold em over:




Looking at the above picture the one on the left is just abot ready to remove and drain
Drain these babys on a rack!! Draining on paper towels just doesn;t get it. Infact anything you want fried and drained learn to use a rack. paper towels just do not all the grease to drain off it just sits there absorbed inothe paper and soaking into your food.



you're ready to assmble your taco and enjoy some damn good eatin folks. Lot's of methods and theory around the proper way to make a taco, you come to my house i'd look at you funny if you didn;t add meat first then cheese, then some guacamole, lettuce then top it with a couple large spoonfuls of that "salsa".

friscofrankie

Now


Don't you wish you had one. Right Now???

LesBonsTemps

You're killing me, Frisco! It's 11:20 AM EDT and I was already hungry.

I like the soft flour tacos -- just a preference. Also (know it sounds a little weird to some people)...fish tacos.

Guacamole is indispensable.

Marmite the Dog

Frankie - you are a grade A wanker! Awesome food yet again. How much will it cost for you to adopt me?

friscofrankie

^you gotta be fuckin kiddin me? Much as you eat? I got one skinny 25 year old comes over and clears out the refer in just one breath. Both you guys and I'd be a pauper no matter how much fuckin' work I got.
I will feed ya next time you're up this way though, providin' you don't bring the whole damn crew (GoW can come though)

Some nicely fried (NOT battered) cod, dorado or maybe Wahoo chunked up in a taco is great! We used to get smoked Wahoo, shred that up and put in a soft taco... This really works well with flour tortillas in my view but I prefer the taste of corn with beef or carnitas.

The meals is done now I freid up the left over tortillas flat and crispy as hell. Tomorrow morning scrambled eggs, with the left over beef, cheese, bakd in the oven then add all that guac, slasa and lettuce; for breakfast. Mmm... can't wait

buadhai

Yum, yum. Looks lovely. And, it's an entire kitchen full of ingredients not available in Korat.

I guess I'll have Khao Phat for lunch... again!

ChiangMai noon

Super duper stuff Frankie.

friscofrankie

I believe I saw a Tops in A. mueang The only thing tough to find might be tortillas. Of coure, no that you are forbidden to speak english during your emersion language experience, finding the right thai phrase for "corn tortilla" might be tough. You could try "Kanom pang bang - Khaow Powt" (somethin like that).