¡ Hola amigos ! And that, sadly,
is about the extent of what my sad little brain retains from many, many years
of high school and college Spanish lessons.
That and “¿ donde esta el baño ?”, which is frankly just as important
of a phrase. Perhaps even more so…
But, I digress, as always. This,
however, may be the earliest digression yet.
No, apparently that tendency of mine didn't go away during my hiatus.
Tomorrow (or today, depending upon where you are and when you’re
reading this) is Cinco de Mayo. Which,
although it is most likely, what I call a “faux-li-day” or a contrived holiday
(see other examples, St. Patrick’s Day, Groundhog’s Day, Sweetest Day, and
darest I say…Halloween), is still however, in the grand tradition of holidays,
faux or real, an excellent excuse for some “good eats” (to borrow a phrase,
thanks AB). Yikes. THAT sentence structure even hurt MY brain…..let’s
carry on, shall we, and try to recover from that horror ?
For dinner tomorrow, I’m planning on making a very traditional Mexican
dish that features all the colors of the Mexican flag, which of course I’ll
share with all ya’ll in a bit. But for
immediate inspiration, not to mention satisfaction, here’s a suggestion for the
star of your particular fiesta. I made
these earlier this week, and they were a) easy and b) tasty, which, in my book,
makes the recipe a winner. Even throwing
together some refried black beans, salsa and guacamole from scratch didn’t add
to the stress/effort level all that much.
So, let’s make some tacos, shall we?
You’re going to want to marinate the protein (chicky or piggie) in a
mixture of dark beer (preferably Mexican, but any dark beer will work, I used
an Anchor Steam), dark sesame oil, a boatload of minced garlic, dried oregano,
salt and pepper, and cayenne pepper. You
could let the meat sit in the yummies stashed either in a zippy bag, or, as I
did, in a flat Pyrex dish.
That’s my porkie chops after their overnight bath. You want to let the protein marinade for at
least several (2 to 4) hours, but trust me, overnight is better. It also wouldn’t be such a bad idea to take a
fork and puncture the chops a couple of times to make sure the marinade will
have a chance to penetrate beyond the surface.
Turn the chops/thighs over a couple of times during the marinade process
as well.
When you’re ready to cook, take the meat out of the marinade, and
discard it. You can cook the meat either
on an outdoor grill (charcoal or gas) or indoors, on a grill pan, as I
did. If you’re cooking it on a grill
pan, lay the drained meat on some paper towels, and pat it dry. Damp meat won’t sear and give you that nice
crusty, charry surface. Outdoor grills,
with the live flames, don’t have that same issue.
Sorry. That's REALLY a bad picture, isn't it? Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do to fix it. Just pretend I didn't sear your retinas with that overexposure, and carry on.
Heat up your grill pan for a good long time. I let mine go on my “high output” burner, at
about 3/4 power, for 10 minutes before I use it. You want it screamin’ hot. It’s a *really* good idea to have a *really*
good exhaust hood on while you’re using the grill pan, and you may want to
temporarily disconnect any smoke alarms.
Unless you like terrifying small dogs.
Don’t ask me how I know…..
While the grill pan is heating, take a large onion (brown or white),
peel it, and slice it into thick slices.
Brush both sides of the slices with some vegetable oil, and when the
grill pan is hot, slap them down on the pan.
Let them sizzle around a bit (literally no more than 2 or 3 minutes per
side), and then carefully flip them over to grill the second side. Use a spatula to slide under the slices. Then pull them off the pan and set them on a
cutting board to cool a bit. Slice into
strips and place on a platter.
Oil the grill pan with some vegetable oil (a pastry brush works really
well to get the oil on both the ridges and valleys of the pan). Then slap on the chops/thighs. Again, I have sufficient faith in all ya’ll
to be able to figure out how to cook these on an outdoor grill. Don’t disappoint me !!
Cook until both sides of the meat are well marked, and the meat is
cooked through. For those thin pork
cutlets, that won’t be more than 5 or 6 minutes total. Don’t over cook, they’ll get tough and
stringy and nasty, and you’ll be sad.
The small dogs, however, might be happy (castoffs and all that….).
Pull the corn tortillas you were bright enough (again, I got faith in
my audience) to wrap in foil and toss into a low oven to warm up while the meat
was cooking, and build yourself some tacos !
What’s that you say ??? Didn’t I
mention some refried black beans, guacamole and salsa, too ? Why yes.
Yes, I did. Good memories you
have, too.
So, black beans. I had some I
needed to use up. There literally was
about half a cup, but for one serving that’s plenty. Into a small, non-stick frying pan went some
beige gold….bacon grease. Mmmmmmm. Bacon grease makes most everything better.
Melt that down, then throw in some minced onion, garlic and hot pepper
(I used half a serrano….the jalapeños around here recently have been wimpy, and
besides, the ones I had in the produce drawer had gotten a bit, erm, hairy). Use whichever hot pepper floats your
particular boat. Let the veg get nice
and soft and fragrant, then toss in the drained, rinsed beans. Let them sauté around for a bit, then use your
potato masher to smoosh them up (yes, it’s another highly technical cooking
term…smoosh).
I added a sploosh (ewwwww, another highly technical cooking term) of
water to loosen up the mixture, but stock or beer would work too. Wine, not so much. Let that simmer while the meat and onions
grill. And sorry, I've yet to discover a way to photograph refried beans, especially refried black beans, without them looking like cat barf.
Why, that looks like makings for salsa ! And, in fact, it was. Plus a garlic clove that was tardy to the
line-up photo. Aren’t those heirloom
baby tomatoes pretty ? I’m sure you all
know what to do with these players.
Mince, chop, season, mix. You end
up with this.
For that handful of tomatoes, I used half of that large scallion, and
half of the serrano. The other half of
the scallion and serrano met up with these guys:
…to make this.
There was also some lime juice involved, and to smooth the mix out, and
because I wanted to, I dolloped in a small spoon of this lovely, unctuous stuff
which is amazingly luscious homemade mayonnaise. I used less than a tablespoon for the whole
avocado, so it really was just a dollop.
But I liked it. It was a good
addition. But then, I also like to eat
mayonnaise, even Best Foods mayonnaise, with a spoon, so I may not be the best
judge of the appropriate use of said condiment.
Yeah, sorry. No picture of the finished assembly. Hey, I was HUNGRY, and as I said, I'm way out of practice on this photo-cooking thing. They were purdy, though. And yummy.
So, there’s your fiesta de tacos.
Festive enough for a holiday, easy enough for weeknight Taco
Tuesdays. You want the proportions for
the marinade, you say? Sure enough, here
it comes. Oh. And it’s really, really, *REALLY* good to be
back !
Beer-Marinated Pork Tacos with Grilled Onions
(adapted from Serious Eats)
Serves 4
For the marinade
1 cup dark beer (Mexican, preferably, such as Negra Modelo)
2 tblsp. dark sesame oil
1 tblsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed lightly between palms
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
For the tacos
6 boneless, thin cut pork loin chops or 6 boneless, skinless chicken
thighs
1 large white or brown onion
Vegetable oil
2 cups of your favorite guacamole
2 cups of your favorite salsa
Cilantro sprigs
Lime wedges
8-12 “taco size” corn tortillas
Mix all of the marinade ingredients together in a small bowl or glass
baking dish. Poke the chops/thighs several
times with a fork to help the marinade penetrate. Add the meat to the marinade and either place
in a zippy bag with marinade, or cover the baking dish with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, preferably overnight,
squishing the bag or turning the meat periodically.
Remove the meat from the refrigerator and prep either an outdoor grill
or a cast-iron grill pan. Peel the
onion, and slice into thick slices.
Brush both sides of the onion slices with vegetable oil and sprinkle
with some salt and pepper. If using a
grill pan, lay the chops/thighs on some paper towels and pat dry. Lay the onion slices on the grill or grill pan,
and cook until softened and charred on one side. Carefully flip, using a spatula, and cook on
the second side until nicely marked.
Total cooking time for the onions will be 2-3 minutes. Remove from grill and let cool. Slice into strips.
Lay the chops/thighs on the grill or grill pan, and cook until browned
and marked on the first side. Flip over,
and cook until the second side is well-marked, and the meat is cooked
through. Total time for pork cutlets
will be about 5 minutes, for chicken thighs about 10. Remove from grill and allow to rest. Cut meat into thin strips.
Warm tortillas in low oven (wrapped in foil) or microwave (wrapped in
damp paper towels) until soft and pliable.
If using an outdoor grill, you can also grill the tortillas, about 30
seconds per side. Assemble tacos by
spreading a spoonful of guacamole onto the middle of each tortilla. Add strips of meat and onion. Top with cilantro and salsa to taste, and
squirt over lime juice.
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