106 replies to this topic

[Chris Amirault]

Tacos with carnitas, chicken, and lots of fixin's on the way. I'm surprised no one has mentioned pickled red onions (salt, lime) for their tacos. Not done out there?

Also, does anyone else have experience with a cilantro, white) not yellow) onion, and black pepper garnish? I had it on the US/Mex border in AZ once and have been addicted ever since...

[judec]

Tacos with carnitas, chicken, and lots of fixin's on the way. I'm surprised no one has mentioned pickled red onions (salt, lime) for their tacos.

I'm planning to make a batch of Cochinita Pibil and the requisite pickled red onions over the weekend. I'll post pictures and hope it turns out good...

[Chris Amirault]

They're good, if untraditional, with carnitas, I think.

[jsmeeker]

Tacos with carnitas, chicken, and lots of fixin's on the way. I'm surprised no one has mentioned pickled red onions (salt, lime) for their tacos.

I'm planning to make a batch of Cochinita Pibil and the requisite pickled red onions over the weekend. I'll post pictures and hope it turns out good...

Tell us more about the method/recipe. Will you do it in a crock pot or in a dutch oven placed in the oven? Will you use banana leaves?

I made this one time from a recipe in Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday book. I even made the picked red onions (those were really great)

[pickledgarlic]

We made Two kinds.

On the left are Lamb strips marinating in Shawarma spices, on the right, Lamb strips marinating in Mexican Chorizo spices.

Schwarma spices eh. I am a schwarma addict and have been on the experiment train of making them at home (as the one's found in Vancouver seem to lack something compared to the ones I lived on in my undergrad days).

I'm curious what your marinade is, care to share?

[judec]

Tell us more about the method/recipe.  Will you do it in a crock pot or in a dutch oven placed in the oven?  Will you use banana leaves?

Had no time to get banana leaves and anatto so no cochinita this weekend. Ended up making puerco en naranja using pork shoulder. It was braised in garlic, mex oregano, and whole oranges.

Not exactly tacos but oh well...

I'll be using Diana Kennedy's Pibil recipe from her "Essentials" book with a dutch oven. No backyard hole digging for me.

Saw Bayless pibil episode on PBS and his pickled onion recipe uses lime juice doesn't it? Kennedy's calls for vinegar and a bunch of herbs/spices. I wonder which one's more "authentic," whatever that means these days.

Edited by judec, 04 June 2008 - 06:51 PM.

[C. sapidus]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned pickled red onions (salt, lime) for their tacos. Not done out there?

Chris' question reminded me of the Ensenada-style fish tacos that we made a while ago, accompanied by quick-pickled red onions, guacamole, salsa, limes, cabbage, and jalapenos.

[JAZ]

What kind of batter do you use for the fish, Bruce? Whenever I've tried to make fish tacos with deep fried fish the batter gets soggy and makes the whole taco fall apart.

[C. sapidus]

What kind of batter do you use for the fish, Bruce? Whenever I've tried to make fish tacos with deep fried fish the batter gets soggy and makes the whole taco fall apart.

Janet, we followed Marilyn Tausend’s recipe in Cocina de la Familia – 1 cup all-purpose flour, salt and pepper, and about 2/3 cup room-temperature beer. Mix to the consistency of pancake batter, and then rest the batter for at least ten minutes. Dredge large chunks of firm-fleshed white fish one piece at a time, and deep-fry in small batches at about 375F.

Good luck!

[Dave the Cook]

This seems like a great place to try the Blumenthal-McGee batter recipe. It's got terrific staying power in terms of crunchiness -- I've even reheated fish the next day and it maintained its texture.

[C. sapidus]

Hashed crab with capers (salpicon de jaiba con alcaparras), from Zarela’s Veracruz. This is like crab tacos a la Veracruzana, with tomatoes, onion, bay leaves, pickled jalapenos, and capers in the sauce. Served with a squeeze of lime, crumbled feta cheese, and salsa roja de chile guajillo asado, from Mexican Everyday.

[Chris Amirault]

Bruce, why feta? No queso around?

[C. sapidus]

Bruce, why feta? No queso around?

Short answer: too busy/lazy for an extra trip to the Latino market.

Longer answer: before I had ready access to crumbly queso, I used feta as a substitute. Over time, I grew to like the combination of feta and Mexican flavors.

Best answer: I conducted further research at breakfast, and the crab tasted better without cheese, anyway.

[RAHiggins1]

Unfortunately I did not take pics but I did a standard ground beef meat filling with fried white corn tortillas. Because the shells were very crisp and crunchy I took green leaf lettuce and lined the shell with it before adding the meat. The taco held together and stayed crunchy all of the way through. The 2nd, 3rd & 4th tacos did not get soggy while waiting for me to eat them. It also made it look nice with a lettuce fringe bordering the edges of the taco. I also added your garden variety mexican cheese mix, chopped onions and tomatoes.

Edited by RAHiggins1, 13 July 2008 - 04:01 PM.

[JAZ]

Great idea with the lettuce. I make miniature tostadas for one of my classes, and always put a little shredded lettuce on the bottom to keep them crisp, but never thought of it for crisp tacos.

[nakedsushi]

Vegan "fish" tacos with home made pico de gallo and guacamole.

The fish is strips of frozen tofu battered in chickpea flour, water, and panko and then pan-fried.

[ChrisTaylor]

Reminded of it by the picadillo thread, I figured I'd dig up my go-to recipe for tacos--cobbled together based on a bunch of stuff I found online and wherever else.

I take a rump steak (skirt also works--I guess you could use an expensive cut like sirloin, too) and season it with salt, pepper, ground cumin and oregano. I then fry or barbecue it to rare or medium rare and rest it. Meanwhile, I may the 'salad' (the recipe for this was actually cobbled together from reading a blog post about a culinary tour of Mexico, if I recall correctly--can't remember the Spanish name of the preparation that inspired this) using diced tomato, diced red onion, diced cucumber, minced garlic, coriander leaves and jalapeno. The 'salad' is dressed with lime juice and extra virgin olive oil.

Stuff tortillas with some of the steak (sliced) and the 'salad'.