7-layer tacos

When I was a young freelance musician (I am now an old freelance musician), I used to rely on Taco Bell's 7-layer burrito, which was $1.79 in the late '90s in mid-Michigan, to get me through long drives to and from gigs. It was vegetarian, which I was at the time, and a total fat bomb that kept me full for hours. These tacos remind me of those times, only I can eat them at my dining room table and not drop food all over my concert black. (PS, you can use real ground beef if you hate animals, but Morningstar Farms Grillers crumbles are actually delish, and that's not a paid sponsorship).

7-layer Tacos

Makes about 6 tacos

6 small tortillas (I like the flour-corn hybrid ones)
2 teaspoons olive oil
6 oz. (1/2 bag) of Morningstar Grillers Crumbles or ground beef
1 garlic clove, minced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
6 oz. black beans
2 teaspoons ground cumin, divided
2 teaspoons salt, divided
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 large chopped tomato
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed and drained
guacamole (preferably homemade)
sour cream or plain yogurt
Crumbled fresh queso or shredded Mexican blend cheese
chopped fresh cilantro and lime wedges for serving

Warm the tortillas and wrap in foil until ready to use.

Place the black beans, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, and a dash of lime juice in a medium bowl and smash together with a potato masher, fork, or back of a wooden spoon until it resembles refried beans.  Heat those bad boys up in chef Mike (the microwave) for about 60 seconds if you want.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet and add the garlic, Morningstar crumbles, scallions, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon chili powder.  Saute about five minutes over medium heat.

Build your tacos: lay down a tortilla, smear some "refried" beans all over it, then top crumbles, tomato, corn, guacamole, sour cream, and cheese.  Sprinkle some cilantro on top and squirt some lime over the whole thing.

Simple toppings to make your tacos pop

I don't want to post this on Cinco de Mayo, as the whitest person on the planet, and be a total douchebag.  And I eat tacos (well, things piled on top of small tortillas) like, A LOT, so why wait, anyway?

Fillings: any combination of seasoned ground meat or sausage, scrambled eggs, bacon, seasoned beans or lentils, or grilled vegetables or fish work perfectly well as taco filling.  Then comes the fun stuff, which can make every taco taste different:

Pickles: quick lime-pickled radishes or onions (see master recipe below), a jar of pickled jalapenos or other peppers, or this corn relish will fit the bill.

Cheeses: Of course, crumbled queso is all milky and mild and perfect with anything, but did you know manchego is actually great with chorizo? Pepper jack is nice with pulled pork, and feta often adds a great bite of salt, especially if you're going heavy on the sour-sweet relishes (above).

Herbs: you've got to have some fresh chopped herbs on top of all that.  Try cilantro, parsley, arugula (finely chopped so it's not so clumsy to eat) or dill, and don't go with the most obvious choice for your filling.

Don't forget the lime wedges, hot sauce (I love Tapatio), and chopped red onion, of course.  What are we, wild animals?!

Quick lime-pickled vegetables

Freshly squeezed lime juice
Sugar
Salt
1 Red onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced or bunch thinly sliced radishes, or anything else your heart deisres

1. Whisk together lime juice, some water, sugar and salt until the sugar and salt dissolve. Use approximately 1/2 cup of lime juice, 1/2 cup of water (or up to 1/2 cup more to help submerge onions), 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt for every onion. This amount will also work well for a full bunch of radishes from the grocery store.

2. Add red onion to a bowl and cover with lime juice mixture. Allow to sit at room temperature for about an hour. Stir occasionally.

Keeps in the fridge up to two months. 

Getting Lowdown for breakfast

A couple of weekends ago, I had a trip planned to Denver on a Sunday to enjoy brunch and a concert.  I knew it was a risk, as Denverites like their brunches almost as much as New Orleansians, but I decided to pop in to City O City, a hipster vegetarian place with an amazing breakfast menu and the quirky slogan, "breakfast all day". It was packed and there was an hour wait.  No, I said, I am too hungry for that shit.  So we wandered (well, drove) over to Lowdown, and I had the best tacos of my life.  I'm not exaggerating.  The beers were also fantastic--the grapefruity IPA, the toasty, chocolaty rye porter...I don't think I'll ever go anywhere else for brunch in Denver.  The tacos, by the way, charmingly called "Soooo I'll Call You... (yes, the brunch items all have snarky, youthful titles implying that the diner is a sexpot who is always hung over on the weekends), are pictured below:

I ate one of them before I took the picture because I was so excited when I saw them. But I cannot just go down to Denver willy-nilly and eat tacos and drink beer whenever I want!, so I have also painstakingly recreated the deliciousness, which is actually quite easy to do, below. (Seriously, though, go to Lowdown.  The Cuban was really good, too.)

Best Breakfast Tacos Ever
(copied from Lowdown’s Soooo I’ll Call You...)

Serves 4

Warm flour tortillas
1 pound chorizo without casings
½ pound bacon
8 eggs
½ cup milk
Salt and black pepper to taste

For the pico de gallo:
Four plum tomatoes, cored and chopped
¼ small red onion, finely chopped
¼ packed cilantro leaves, roughly chopped

Lime wedges, crumbled queso fresco, and crema* for serving


Combine the eggs, milk, and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl.  Whisk thoroughly and set aside.

In a large frying pan, cook the bacon until crisp over medium-low heat.  Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.  When cool enough, crumble into small(ish) pieces.

Pour out the grease and increase to medium heat.  Add the chorizo, chopping into fine pieces with a wooden spoon as you cook.  When chorizo is thoroughly cooked,  move to one side in the pan and add the egg mixture to the other side.  Working quickly and tilting the pan to keep eggs separate from chorizo, scramble the eggs, getting them a little bit dry.  Mix the eggs and chorizo together and add the crumbled bacon.

To assemble, place some egg and meat filling in the center of a warm tortilla, top with pico and cheese, drizzle crema on top, and squeeze some lime over the top.


* crema can be faked with sour cream or plain yogurt and a little milk added to make it runny like a sauce. 

My version at home. 

Texas barbecue, my style

The title of this post is terribly deceptive, because I am really not that into Texas barbecue.  I do not think beef is ever the right choice of meet for slow, smoky cooking (ooh, get out the voodoo dolls with my photo on them!), and sticky-sweet sauce is just boring.  But probably the best tacos I ever had were in Houston, long ago on a trip to audition for graduate school, and they were filled with beautiful, perfectly seasoned pork carnitas.

Texas-style Pork Carnitas

Serves 6-8

3 pounds boneless pork shoulder or pork butt, cut into 2-inch cubes
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lime juice (from about 2 to 3 limes)
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon Kosher salt, plus more to taste

Corn tortillas, for serving 

Toppings: avocado slices, chopped cilantro, shredded cabbage, sliced red onion, and lime wedges

Place the pork in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot. Add the orange juice, lime juice, garlic, jalapeno, cumin, salt and enough water to just barely cover the meat. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for two hours. Don’t touch the meat.

After two hours, increase the heat to medium-high and while occasionally stirring and turning the pieces, continue to cook for about 45 minutes, or until all of the liquid has evaporated, leaving only the rendered pork fat. Let it sizzle in this fat long enough to brown at the edges, turning pieces gently, only as needed.

When pork has browned on both sides, it’s ready. Adjust seasonings to taste and serve on warmed tortillas with fixings

Tacos are my favorite food.

Well, one of them, anyway. Before I moved to the Rockies almost ten years ago, my knowledge of Mexican food was limited to Taco Bell, watching Rick Bayless on PBS (but not actually cooking the stuff, because I couldn't find the ingredients), and that bastion of Midwestern cuisine, Chi-Chi's "Mexican" Restaurant. I liked it.  I liked all the ingredients separately, and I was accustomed to bland food.  Plus there was melted cheese.

Then I moved to Greeley, Colorado in 2003.  Greeley has its low points (it smells like shit all the time from the nearby feed lots, we have a gang problem, the restaurants suck), but a definite plus in my book is the sizeable Mexican population here, and that means we have access to authentic ingredients, great banda music, and real Mexican culture in action.  I still marvel at the festive quinceanera dress shops (like little, brightly colored wedding dresses) dotting a street full of bail bond offices and check-into-cash shops. The local tortillaria makes their tortillas fresh every day, along with beautiful green chili and tamales in the deli section, and some of the most elaborate cakes I have ever seen.  The Cinco de Mayo parade that runs down our street is small, but full of heart and great music (and some pretty kick-ass paint jobs on the low-riders). And in the side of our local grocery market, there is a taco stand, which is where I will always claim I began my induction into the world of authentic, delicious Mexican food.  Small corn tortillas topped with freshly grilled marinated meat or beautifully seasoned vegetables will then be ornamented with the appropriate condiments (cilantro, diced red onion, and a lime wedge for carne asada; queso and pickled onions for the pork). Although I recognize every nation's pride in their unique independence movements, Cinco de Mayo meant nothing to me before moving here.  And it still can never mean to me what it does to the majority of my neighbors, but I feel a deep respect and appreciation for them, their culture, and most certainly their food.

Here are some of my favorite taco attempts at home:


Quick Fish Tacos

Serves 4

1/2 pound firm white fish (I like Swai)
peanut or some other neutral oil
salt + black pepper
about 3/4 cup cornmeal for coating fish
small corn or flour tortillas
condiments: shredded red cabbage, lime wedges, jalapeno slices, sour cream, chopped cilantro

Rinse the fish and pat it dry.  Cut into equal bite-size pieces (about 2 inch x 1 inch chunks), season with salt and pepper, and dredge through cornmeal, shaking off excess.  Heat about 3 tablespoons oil in a large frying pan on medium high heat, and when it smokes, add the fish.  Cook about 3-4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve with all remaining ingredients.

Grilled Shrimp Tacos 

Serves 4-5

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon chipotle or blended chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 pound medium shrimp (about 20), peeled and deveinned
small corn or flour tortillas
condiments: 1 large chopped tomato, 1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed and drained, chopped avocado, sour cream, lime wedges, chopped cilantro, chopped red onion

I like to do these on skewers just so it's easier to turn the shrimp without losing any in the coals.  Combine shrimp with oil, salt, and chipotle powder in a bowl and stir to coat.  Thread through skewers and cook over hot coals about 20 minutes, turning once so that they brown on both sides. Remove from skewers and serve with all remaining ingredients.


And from some old posts...
Tacos with Drunken Pintos and Roasted Veggies
Vegetarian "chorizo" tacos

Drunken Pintos

I like pinto beans.  They're tasty, and they're cheap and plentiful.  I had these recently in tacos topped with roasted sweet potato, onion, and spinach (pictured), but I have also done all of the other suggestions listed at the end of this recipe and I fully endorse them.  This recipe serves as a good base for my version of  Brazilian Pinto Soup, as well.

Drunken Pintos

2 cups dry pinto beans
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons salt
½  teaspoon cayenne
12 oz. beer
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, finely diced

Place beans, tomato paste, cumin, salt, and cayenne in a stock pot or pressure cooker and add water to cover 1 inch above beans.  Cook 1.5 hours at a low simmer or according to pressure cooker directions (generally 20-25 minutes) or until beans are tender.  Drain off some of the cooking liquid if it seems like too much and pour in the beer.  Stir in the garlic and jalapeno and heat through.  Serve as a soup (you can blend up to 2/3 of it for a thicker, creamier texture), over rice, or drain and serve in tortillas topped with chopped tomatoes, sour cream, and red onion as tacos.

Alright alright, I'll make Superbowl food

After the brief 80s revival that occurred in the late 90s (or judging by the sound of indie bands today, perhaps it's ongoing), I thought I'd gotten over my nostalgia for Frankie Goes to Hollywood and neon sweatshirts, but I feel a wave of it coming on lately.  Suddenly Spandau Ballet is amusing instead of irritating, and I have found myself craving the Good Housekeeping-approved recipes of my childhood at an alarming rate.  Did anyone else eat 7 Layer Dip at every party from 1982 to about 1994?  Was it just a Midwestern thing, or just a low-class thing (if so, I'm OK with it)?  I have been craving it for weeks--both the unimaginative,Taco Bell-like flavors and the memories of the Harvest Gold and/or Avocado kitchen appliances that helped make it possible.

I thought I might try to update the dip a little to suit my super-classy, grown-up tastes.  I'm also pretty excited about the fact that I am now old enough to drink beer with this junk, which probably negates the need for the higher quality ingredients.  Gimme a holla if you remember this delectable American classic, and share your own variations below!

Aaaaaw yeah, baby.

7 Layer Dip 2.0

Serves somewhere between 1 & 16


2 lbs mixed mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (16 ounce) can black beans
1 tablespoon lime juice
4 cups shredded cheese 
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1 cup guacamole
1 cup salsa
1 cup mixed olives, chopped
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped green onions

In a large skillet, saute mushrooms, garlic, and onion with a little salt. Drain in a colander and set aside cool to room temperature.

In a 9 x 13 casserole or serving dish, spread the black beans, season with salt, and sprinkle with the lime juice.  Smash the beans a bit with the back of a wooden spoon and spread evenly, creating a layer about 1 inch deep.   Sprinkle 2 cups of shredded cheese on top of beans. Sprinkle mushroom mixture on top of cheese. Spread sour cream very slowly on top of mushrooms. Spread guacamole on top of sour cream. Pour salsa over guacamole and spread evenly. Sprinkle remaining shredded cheese. Sprinkle olives, tomatoes, and green onions on top.

Serve at room temperature with pita chips or those delicious, middle-aged fashionable multigrain tortilla chips they're selling now. 

Cinco de Mayo means booze.

Having never lived in a part of the country with a present Mexican-American population before, I grew up thinking that Cinco de Mayo meant an excuse to drink and perhaps grab dinner at Chi-Chi's Restaurant.  When I moved to Colorado, I thought that surely I would learn a greater appreciation for the cultural heritage of the Mexican people and their bravery in declaring independence.  What it seems to mean in the Denver area is that you can drink more and maybe go to Rio Grande (much better than Chi-Chi's) for dinner. I exaggerate, but only slightly.  And this seemed like the best way to introduce some recipes for margs and dips.

Jason's Classic Margarita

Serves 1

2 oz. gold tequila

1 oz. triple sec

1/2 oz. lime juice

1 shot orange juice

salt for rimming glass

lime wedges for garnish

Combine all ingredients except salt and lime wedges in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice and shake vigourously.  Strain into a glass that has been rimmed with sal and garnish with a lime wedge.  

I stole this one form that weird-ass lady, the Barefoot Contessa.

Grapefruit margaritas

Makes 4

1 lime cut into 4 wedges

Salt for rimming

1 cup ruby red grapefruit juice

½ cup lime juice

1 cup Triple Sec

2 cups ice

1 cup tequila

Cut a slice in the middle of each lime wedge and run each one over the rim of a short tumbler or old-fashioned glass. Dip each rim in salt and perch a lime wedge on the edge of each glass. Combine all remaining ingredients in a tall pitcher and stir well.

And something to soak up the booze is helpful...

Mango-Black Bean Dip

1 fresh mango, pitted and diced

2 tablespoons red onion finely chopped

1 small jalapeno, seeded and finely diced

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon cayenne

1 tablespoon fresh cilantro chopped

1 tablespoon lime juice

Mash black beans, to a smaller size/paste, with a potato masher or use tines of a fork I like to leave a few whole ones for texture). Add mangoes, mango juice, onion, jalapeno, cumin, cayenne, cilantro and lime juice; combine evenly.  

And of course, I still love this bacon-laced guacamole I published earlier on this blog. 

And if you need more food, try these clever tacos; they make good drunk food, if I do say so myself.

Chorizo tacos for vegetarians

I live in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood in my Colorado town, which means I always have access to delicious food. Of course, there are some cutesy Tex-Mex places with decent food and margaritas that go down like Kool-Aid, and those places are not bad when your parents are visiting. But I prefer the brightly colored, glorified chicken coops where the menus are in Spanish (can’t understand a word), the hot sauces are homemade, and not one single menu item reminds me of growing up in the Midwest (Chi-Chi’s, you should be outlawed).


At these places, which I would like to believe are authentic, you can get the best tacos (pictured above). They are so simple—two small heated corn tortillas stacked on top of one another with a little pile of super-hot chorizo garnished with chopped red onion and cilantro, lime slice on the side. It’s perfection. My favorite taco place is inside Jerry’s, the small grocery store up the street from my house. I get them with a glass of melón, sweetened cantaloupe-flavored water.

The chorizo is really so special, I think, because it’s so spicy and bright in flavor. It is also greasy and made from who knows what reconstituted bits of animal no one else would eat. So, I have figured out a ridiculously simple way to make a meatless version of these beautiful, beautiful tacos at home.



Meatless Ode to Jerry’s Chorizo Tacos


1 package Morningstar Farms Recipe Starters Grillers Recipe Crumbles (fake ground beef)
2 teaspoons cumin powder
2 tablespoons Sriracha hot sauce, or to taste (this stuff’s hot, friends!)
Salt to taste
Corn tortillas
Finely diced red onion
Chopped fresh cilantro
Lime wedges


Heat a tablespoon of canola oil over medium-high heat in a frying pan. When oil is shimmering, add the soy crumbles (no need to defrost first) and stir constantly until “meat” is thawed and moistened with oil. Add cumin and stir well to coat. Then add the Sriracha, a bit at a time, stirring and tasting often to make sure the heat level is edible for you. Add salt to taste.

To assemble tacos, lay down two warmed corn tortillas per taco (if they get cold they become brittle and break wide open). Pile “meat” mixture in the middle and garnish with chopped onion and cilantro. Squeeze lime over taco just before eating.