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So back to my birthday taco post.  So what would Negra Modelo and Coca Cola have to do with taco's, other than drinking them with your taco? 

Beef taco's

My daughter's friend hates her birthday already, at the age of 12 she's already hating her birthday.  That's just not right.  I'm 44 going on 45 and I still love my birthday!  A 12 year old should most definitely like her birthday, especially since she is now one more year closer to being a teenager.  When I was 11 turning 12, I could not wait for my next birthday because I would officially be a teenager. 

So I had to do a little something to make her birthday special. This girl LOVES taco's.  So a few days before her birthday my daughter and I set up a little special taco birthday dinner for her friend.  Me being who I am, I could not bring myself to do the silly hard shell, hamburger cooked with packaged taco spice and grated cheddar cheese tacos.  If it was coming from me, it had to be the real deal.  So I pulled out my trusty Taqueria Tech recipe collection and made homemade shredded beef tacos. 

My homemade pickled Mexican Vegies

The beef boil

Beans

Mexican Rice

Sides for the tacos

And the taco dinner!

Now for the recipes:

Shredded Beef:

2 1/2 lbs rump or any other beef cut

6 oz dark Mexican beer

1 11 1/2 oz jar of hot Mexican veggies - I used my homemade pickled Mexican veggies (verduras escabeche) with 1/2 cup of the pickling liquid

3 or 4 dried pasilla chilies

1 peeled orange

1/2 tablespoon California chili powder

1/8 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp Mexican Oregano

4 or more cursed garlic cloves

Use fatty meat - fat equals flavor.  Prepare the chilies by roasting them on an open flame until they just begin to brown, then soak them, completely covered in hot water until slightly pliable, about 20 minutes.  Slit them down one side, rinse out the seeds, and lay them flat open on a paper towel.  

Cut the beef into quarters and put all ingredients in a large pot and stir.  Add enough beer or water to just barely cover the surface of the meat.  lay the soft chilies over the top of the meat chunks and bring to a rapid boil.  Cover the pot, lower the heat and simmer for 2 hours.  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Remove the cooked meat and place it on a large cookie sheet, reserving the liquid and veggies.  With two forks shred the meat and arrange it on the sheet so it will bake evenly.  Ladle some of the cooking liquid onto the tray and place it in the oven.  Bake the meat, turning once, for about half an hour.  Make sure it doesn't burn.  

Strain and reserve the cooking liquid from the veggies.  Remove the orange and peppers.  Puree the veggies with a bit of the liquid.  Save half for something else like enchilada sauce.  When the meat is deep brown, return it to the puree mixture and cook it down until it's almost dry.  Keep some of the juice so the meat will be easier to reheat later.  Keep the beef covered in a warm oven until ready to use for tacos.  

Taqueria Beans from canned refrieds:

1 30 oz can of "spicy" refried beans.

1 sliced onion

2 or 3 garlic cloves

2 to 3 tablespoons lard

1 small package cream cheese

1 medium handful of jack or cheddar cheese - or Mexican cheese

canned green chilies or minced jalapenos.

Prepare the lard by melting it in a large pan. Lightly saute' the sliced onion and garlic cloves.  The plan is to flavor the lard only.  Don't let the garlic and onion brown.  Remove them and place the canned beans and their liquid in the hot lard.  Be careful not to splatter the hot lard on yourself.  Add the chilies or jalapeno's, unless you want the beans mild.  Add the cream cheese and grated cheese, turn on medium heat and stir until all is melted and mixed together.  

Arroz a la Mexicana (Mexican rice)

1 cup rice

1/3 cup chopped white onions

2 to 3 cloves minced garlic

1/4 to 1/2 tablespoon pasilla or New Mexico chili powder

2 peeled, seeded finely chopped tomatoes

1/4 cup frozen peas

2 tablespoons chopped pimiento

1/3 cup peanut oil

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the rice until golden.  About 10 minutes. Drain oil from the rice.  Add the onion, garlic, cumin, and the chili powder and saute', stirring continually for about 2 minutes.  Add the chicken stock, peas, pimiento, and tomatoes.  Cook covered until liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes.  

Sides for the taco's - salsa, sour cream, avocado, shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, crumbled Mexican cheese or shredded cheddar, and limes.  

Along with this I served sliced cucumbers with sliced lemons and kosher salt.  

To drink?  Negra Modelo and Mexican Coca Cola

And there is one yummy Taco Birthday party! 

 

Taqueria Tech

I've been meaning to post about my little taco fest I served up for one of my daughter's bff's a while back.  Every day life takes over and I have yet to do it.  It's too late for me to get it posted tonight, once again - but damnit I'm going to post something - so here is a teaser.....

 

What - other then drinking - could these two things have to do with tacos?  I'll give you 3 guesses until tomorrow night - when I can hopefully get back here and tell you the answer. 

Pork Tacos

Well, I still haven't posted my Thanksgiving leftover recipes.  I hope to soon, since they could be useful for Christmas leftovers as well.  Speaking of leftovers, I was lucky enough to come home with some leftover pork roast from my in-laws.  I didn't have to cook Christmas dinner this year.  My sister's in law had that honor and did a fantastic job.  They did give me the honor of allowing me in their mom's kitchen long enough to bake an apple pie, which my father in law said was one of the best he's ever had.  That was my best Christmas present ever.  (Especially since it was my mom's recipe - I send a thanks to my mom in heaven.)

The huge meal the SIL's put together left far too many leftover's for my father in law and mother in law to deal with, so they were kind enough to send us home with a few things, including the rest of the pork roast.  The first thing I thought of was TACO's.  I found this great recipe at For the love of cooking: Pork Tacos with Fresh Pico de Gallo and Gaucamole and modified it to my needs.  I sliced up 4 of the chops off of the rib roast into bite size pieces.  I sliced up a quarter of a large red onion and sauteed it until it was soft.  I added the pork and about a half teaspoon each of cumin, smokey paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, and onion powder and some salt and fresh ground pepper.  I added a half can of black beans and let it simmer while I made a pico de gallo consisting of 2 large tomatoes, a little over half a large red onion, a chopped garlic clove, a couple tablespoons of chopped cilantro, one chopped fresh jalapeno, 4 finely chopped radishes, some salt, the juice of half a lime, a sprinkle of chili powder and a sprinkle of smokey paprika.  I then made a sweet salsa for my kids consisting of one mango, 2 tablespoons of cilantro, 2 tsp on chopped onion, 1/4 cup of chopped bell pepper, a tsp of sugar ( the mango was quite tart), a pinch of salt, a pinch of chili powder and smokey paprika, and a squeeze of lime juice.

I then attempted to make my first homemade corn tortillas.  They were not a success, but not a complete failure either.  I used 1 cup of masa flour combined with 1/2 tsp salt.  I combined that with 1/2 plus 1/8 of boiling water that had 1/2 tsp of lard melted in it.  I had to add about 3 more tablespoons of hot water to get it to what felt like the right texture.  I formed it into 6 golf ball size balls and covered it with seran wrap.  Here is where I went wrong.  I let it sit a little too long and it got dry, so when I fried them, they were a little too dry, and not useable for tacos, but still tasted quite good.  I don't have a tortilla press, so I put the balls between two pieces of plastic ( cut from a gallon size freezer bag) and I rolled them out with a roller.  I also needed to roll them a bit thinner to get a manageable tortilla.  One thing I did realize. This is doable.  This could be a short learning curve and it won't be long before I have good homemade tortillas.  I will be practicing this process again soon.

Fortunately I bought corn tortillas as a backup (they worked better, but didn't taste quite as flavorful as the homemade ones).  I heated them, topped them  with the meat and bean mixture and the salsa of each person's choice.  I also put some fresh avocado on each, some cojito cheese, some pickled jalapeno on mine, and some sour cream on the kids.

This turned out to be a flavorful way to use up leftovers, as well as a nice change from what we'd already enjoyed on Christmas.  You just can't go wrong with pork tacos!