Earl Cooks Tacos - Well, It's Tuesday!

In the mid '70s, I lived in central Mexico. In my two years there, I never once had anyone say the word "burrito" except in reference to small donkeys or mules. No food called by that name. I lived in and around Mexico City in Central Mexico. The area I lived in was about 15 million people and roughly 99,000 sq. miles. It ranged from sea level (Acapulco) to over 7,000 feet, almost a 1½ miles high (Mexico City). And while I never heard of what we call a burrito, I did eat a lot of great and authentic Mexican food...street foods and everyday foods. And I saw markets like I have never seen here. Imagine the best farmers market, but it is EVERY DAY, all year long. I saw and ate foods I had never seen, often purchased direct from the source, the grower, the butcher. All of this brings me to the dish I made today. Tacos.

In Central Mexico, tacos were almost exclusively street food. I don't remember ever having one at a regular meal. Tortillas were everywhere. Tortillarias (a tortilla stand) were on nearly every block, often right next to a bakery (panaderia). Nobody made their own, they simply walked to the stand and grabbed what they needed for the meal or the day, and walked back. The same with bread. one of the best memories I have of my time living there was the smell of fresh baking bread and tortillas being churned out by the hundreds. Oh, and no flour tortillas or hard shelled tacos. If you wanted flour tortillas, you made them yourself, which one of my roommates would occasionally do for us.

Mexican tacos, at least in central Mexico, are not like what the gringos here are used to. Ground beef was not common. The street tacos I ate were tacos "al carbon" or over coals, although it was usually on a spit, like the ones found in Greek and Mid-eastern restaurants. Today, restaurants and foodies call them "al pastor" meaning of the shepherd. Okay, history and geography classes are over. Now down to MY tacos.
Needless to say, I am not making tacos like those in Mexico. Mine won't look much like those in restaurants today either. I know I have some flour taco shells that are more like bowls. I looked in my pantry for any taco seasoning I might have on hand, but I had none. I then went to the Internet for a homemade taco seasoning and found one that was mild enough for my wife and I made it MORE mild. It was chili powder, ground pepper, dried cilantro, sea salt, oregano, onion powder, ground cumin, garlic powder. I didn't have any dried cilantro so I added what I had. I also had some 80/20 Angus ground beef which I defrosted. Unlike Wendy's, I freeze mine. My favorite food from my time in Mexico is...wait for it...REFRIED BEANS! I had never eaten them before I lived there and I would eat them with every meal if I could. Of course there, they make them from scratch, but I am not about to try that. The canned ones work just fine for me. I have refried black beans on hand, hoping my wife would learn to like them like I do, but she doesn't so this whole pan will be for me. I have low fat but I add bacon grease to make them even tastier. In Mexico, it would be manteca, Spanish for lard. Interestingly, the Spanish word for butter is Mantequilla or "little lard". I didn't eat much butter there, but I bet I ate a bunch of lard...and loved it. My mom always kept a container of bacon grease in the fridge growing up, as do we. Sometimes you just need a little lard! ...Anyway, I season and brown the beef. It is important to not over cook the beef until crunchy, it is almost inedible like that. Now for the toppings. A taco should be like a salad smorgasbord. You get to choose what you want.
For our tacos I had sour cream, tomatoes, jalapeños, shredded Monterrey Jack and sliced scallions. I also had a mild, chunky, red salsa that is not pictured. How authentic is this?...Not very. The sour cream would be crema, the cheese would probably be a crumbled fresh cheese, the scallions might be onions and the peppers would not come from a bottle. One thing. I never EVER had lettuce on a taco or any other way. Back then, water was the quickest way to get sick and lettuce grows in water. Besides, I don't care for shredded lettuce, and the Taco Bell's of this world use it as a filler. Always HOLD THE LETTUCE!

Now, to my surprise, I go to the cupboard to retrieve my flour taco boats (which are a great invention), and I discover I have a taco kit, not boats! Oh, it has boats, but it also has seasoning and taco sauce. I didn't need to create my own. Oh well, now I have seasoning for next time...if I remember!

Here they are. My two tacos for taco Tuesday. I use the beans as a base and spread them thin. They create a moisture barrier so the boat doesn't get soggy. Then the meat. I love sour cream with refried beans. so lots of that. onions, cheese, and salsa. They were delicious, even if they didn't resemble a Mexican taco, they had many of the ingredients I learned to love there. "Turkey" (a.k.a. my wife) loved hers too! She even encouraged me to make them more often.