Whew, it took some time, but finally I managed to make some tacos with a few of my friends. One of the key members of our group of funny and amicable drunktards is moving with his girlfriend, so we had a dinner to "celebrate" the lose of a friend.
First of all, some considerations:
-I know those are not Mexican tacos. Quit your bitching, it's our own recipe.
-This is the "base" taco. You can put more stuff.
-This dinner was *very* improvised.
-The pics are shit. Lighting conditions were not the best.
It is still a great and quick recipe to throw a small party with your friends. It is very simple, but the result is supertasty. Just keep in mind the diarrhea factor if you plan to drink that night.
Well, here we go:
-Minced meat for four people (three grown men and a woman) Don't ask me how much, we just picked up two plates of mixed pork and beef
-Lea & Perrins sauce
-White pepper
-Curry
-Cumin
-Tortillas
-Some cognac
Not pictured: Philadelphia cream cheese (two recipients), salt, tomato sauce, tabasco, oil, a small onion, lettuce, two tomatoes, one big green pepper (not from the spicy variety). Notice that glass flask; that's the cognac. Our friend's girlfriend doesn't drink and doesn't want any kind of booze in their home (ohboi)
Somebody start chopping the green pepper and the onion.
Mix the meat with the spices. We do not measure the quantities, mind you, but you'll need quite a bit for all that meat.
Heat a big pan with some oil. We use olive one.
Fry the onion and the pepper.
Don't forget to move the mix.
Put the meat when the onion starts changing its colour.
Cut the lettuce and the tomatoes while cooking the meat and put them in separate recipients. I suggest to chop the tomatoes near the end to avoid any loss of juice.
Move the meat and pour a generous quantity of Lea & Perrins sauce. Once again, we don't measure it.
Add some cooked tomato sauce (fried tomato) See how much is left in the can? You just need like three spoons full of it, if you use more the meat will have too much juice. Once is mixed add the salt. No, we don't measure it, just try to remember that this thing is spicy, so you don't need a lot of salt. I guess we use like a coffee spoon.
Oh yeah, the corn. Use as much as you want but remember that it adds juice to the meat.
Finally, pour the cognac when it's pretty much done and keep heating it for some minutes.
Now,
avoid this situation at all costs. We only had two pans, a big one and a very small one, so we couldn't heat the tortillas properly. You should heat a pan with no oil and do both sides of the tortillas until they form small bubbles, but always keeping them flexible, otherwise they will become fragile and you won't be able to roll the taco. As soon as one is done, you must put it in a big plastic recipient and close it so the heat and the humidity are preserved. Heat another, open the recipient, put it, close it. Keep doing it until you have all the tortillas you are going to use.
Now everything is pretty much done.
Here's the table. The tortillas are inside of the plastic recipient with the coke stains.
Take a tortilla and close the recipient quickly so the rest are preserved hot and flexible. Spread a generous amount of cheese over it.
Add some lettuce and tomato.
Add the meat.
Pour as much tabasco as you like. We usually cook the meat with some tabasco sauce and then use more tabasco while rolling the taco, but since we were eating with a girl we didn't want them to be extra spicy. It is also something to consider if you are going to try this recipe for first time.
Roll it! As you can see, the taco is not really tightly rolled and the tortilla is pale. This is because they were nuked instead of heated with a pan (microwaved tortillas tend to break) A nicely rolled taco should look like this:
Tips:
-Use more vegetables if you plan to go out after the dinner. The tacos will be kinder with your stomach.
-The leftover meat can be used to make some incredible macaroni (pour some extra tomato sauce) and rice.
-You can also use the tortillas for a dessert, just use some hot nutella and whipped cream/butter and be amazed.
Also, I found this pic of a foxy lady from the Paris Auto Show resting on my mem card and I thought I should share it with my fellow cooks.
I hope you like the recipe. It is very easy, clean to prepare (not to eat, though) and utterly tasty, not to mention there's a lot of space to improve it with your own ingredients or varying the amounts.
