Taco Time

Was craving the fresh vegetal, spice of green chilies so, I went with a taco bar for dinner.

Made fish tacos on MARTHA this week  which reminded me how beloved this dinner is in our house–an awesome one because you can just assemble a bunch of ingredients–according to taste or what you have in the house. Shopping I noticed a special on organic Haas avocado’s ripe enough to use immediately so I grabbed a bunch. So often they’re mad expensive and hard as a rock. You buy them hoping they’ll ripen and by the time you get around to using them they’re brown and mushy. Tomatilla’s make the greatest sauce–with just a few ingredients: serrano pepper, garlic, onion, salt. But this time (not always) after I pureed the sauce, I fried it in peanut oil for 5 minutes–a little trick I learned in Mexico when you don”t want a super raw flavor. Just toss the shredded chicken (just simmer a whole chicken in salted water for 50 minutes–also yielding a quart of broth for later use) in some and it stays moist and flavorful. I’m a purest when it comes to guac–never ever do I put lime juice or garlic in. Just grind the serrano, white onion, cilantro and salt in a molcajete (or chop finely). Slightly mash in the avocados–leaving big chunks. Fold in some minced tomato at the end if you want or one time–in Mexico I had it with chopped mango which was so good too. As for the tortillas–I used corn and toasted each one on an open flame for about a minute per side. They get kinda stiff and charred but when you stack them in a cloth together–they steam too and become pliable enough for forming a taco.

Today I’m grilling kielbasa and burgers on my new extra large big green egg and making potato salad. But–there was also some fresh poblano peppers at the market yesterday so will roast and peel to add to the potato salad–a riff on rajas e poblano–a little Mexican zing along side the Polish and American vibe.