Taco 101

Aaaah... Tacos. Not to be underestimated, a meal of tacos can be very delicious and healthy if prepared with the proper ingredients. A taco feast is composed of a variety of dishes to fill the tacos, and a pile of fresh warm corn tortillas. You should prepare the various dishes first, so that the freshly made tortillas are still warm when you are ready to eat.
The various dishes can include refried beans (black bean dip from Mooswood cookbook is fantastic) and guacamole (see recipe in previous blog entry), as well as a simple dish of grilled meat. However to add interesting choices to your taco feast, here are a couple of very good and simple recipes you should include :

Papas con chorizo. It consists in simply dicing about 4 potatoes (small cubes), and pan roast them together with the shredded filling of one chorizo sausage. The chorizo should be sufficient to flavour the potatoes.

Another Yucatan staple which is usually served as a main dish is the Poc Chuc. This is a filet of pork (can also be made with chicken breast) marinated in the juice of 2 or 3 sour oranges – a fruit found here in Yucatan. You can replace the sour orange by mixing one part orange juice, one part grapefruit juice, and 2 parts lemon juice – and add some finely grated grapefruit zest. Marinate the meat in the juice, with some garlic, salt and pepper, for at least one hour. Grill it, and cut in small pieces to fill tacos.

A side dish of caramelised onions is also very nice, some salsa, and pico de gallo (finely chopped tomatoes and white onions, salt and cilantro).

Get you fresh corn tortillas, and make your taco with two corn tortillas – a trick from Tio George that we also noticed in other taco snack bars later. Making your tortilla double will make it easier to handle all the yummy stuffing you put in it (will not break). And this is the typical soft taco fair here in Yucatan.

Other fillings you may want to google are : Chicken Tinga, and for fish lovers - Ceviche.
In Mexico city, we also had tacos which were filled with chicken (or other meat), rolled-up, and fried until crisp all around. Nice too, but much more work and of course, kind of oily.

Provecho!