Food for Cinco De Mayo

Birria inspires Cinco de Mayo dinner.

So today, as I'm writing, it's Cinco de Mayo. While this is not a one of the top holidays on my list of things to celebrate, I do love some good south-of-the-border treats.

I've gotten pretty spoiled in my taste for Mexican cuisine over the years. First was when my then and now former Aunt-in-law relocated to Rio Ranch, New Mexico to retire and paint. Aunt Marcie and Uncle John Lemken would come east with all sorts of local treats as long as we had Entenmann's cakes to trade. There was no Entenmann's to be had in NM at the time. I learned what authentic pico de gallo tasted like and learned that out west, when a jar of salsa says hot, they mean it.

Years later after John and I were married, his cousin Mark came to visit from California and I learned that Mark's mom, John's Aunt Lisa, is Mexican and did a lot of authentic Mexican cooking. So, Mark took me shopping and cooked with me for most of the weekend that he visited.

Again, I digress..... Back to Cinco de Mayo. I find myself caught up on life after a busy week last week and a productive weekend. Time on my hands = what should I cook today? In celebration of the day, I decided on homemade soft tortilla tacos. The dough for the tortillas is resting as I type and the beef for the filling is thawing on the counter.

Add liquid to a well in the dry ingredients

Knead into a uniform ball

Divide into 16 balls

press each ball into a disk

It's now May 6th and I'll share the rest of yesterday's adventure down the rabbit hole: I did an experiment with the tortilla dough and mixed 2 parts white flour and 1 part fine corn meal because I couldn't decide on one or the other. For the most part it worked but the the dough was not as elastic as wheat flour would have been and in hindsight I probably should have added more liquid.

Inspired by a recipe for Birria tacos I saw on a PBS cooking show, I experimented with the filling and whether to assemble and fry the tacos or serve the soft shells at the table to fill as you go.

Birria tacos hail from the Jalisco region of Mexico and refer to meat braised in a consomme. Birria tacos are simply tacos made with Birria braised meat and garnished with pico de gallo, cilantro, and a splash of lime. The broth is reserved and the tacos are dipped in it, sort of like a French dip.

When I decided to take this trip, I knew I would need to improvise a bit -- rather that get groceries. That's part of the adventure for me!

Without fresh lime, cilantro or jalapenos, I made due with what I had on hand. I used ground beef, and took advantage of some seasoning kits that Santa was kind enough to leave in my Christmas stocking (yes, I do love kitchen thing in my stocking).

Chop onions

Saute peppers, onions and soup base. After adding consumme, add meat

Cover and allow meat to cook on low

After the dough was resting, I chopped up some sweet peppers and onion and with a touch of oil and some of the 'farmhouse chili' seasoning and some Adobo base, sauteed them until tender. I added about a can of consomme and crumbled the meat into the broth to cook.

While the beef was essentially poaching, I put the pico de gallo together using jarred jalapenos slices, the tubed Cilantro (that's part of my pantry staple list). and bottled lime juice.

Chop and drain tomato, chop onion

Combine all pico de gallo ingredients, cover and refirgerate

Once the meat was cooked, I strained it and the peppers and onions out of the broth and into a bowl and set it aside. I transferred the broth to a sauce pan to finish later. I knew I wanted to thicken that broth eventually, so I poured about 1/4 cup of the lime juice into a small bowl, added about a tablespoon of cornstarch, some of that farmhouse seasoning, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and instant espresso coffee. (I had a mole sauce on my mind) I have this tiny whisk and used it to mix this concoction into a slurry to use then it was time to thicken the sauce. There was no real reason to mix this ahead of time other than that's when I was inspired.

On a floured surface, roll each disk into a 7" round

Store between pieces of floured wax paper

The next task was to roll out the tortilla dough, and I have this awesome roller from Pampered Chef that makes rolling out dough a breeze, it's all I ever use. I rolled out each disc into a 6"-7" round and layered them dusted with flour between layers of wax paper.

cook in a hot skillet for 45 seconds until it begins to brwon

cook on the other side until the edges begin to get golden

When it came time to fry the tortillas, I heated 2 heavy frying pans: one cast iron and the other Calphalon, for any of you geeks like me, I can tell you that the performed equally well. I cooked them for between 45 and 60 on the first side and then another 20 on the second. What I found was that the corn meal changed the texture from all flour recipes that I've done and it was necessary to keep them wet with dampened towels in order to have them stay soft for filling. About halfway through the 16 tortillas, I decided to try to fill the uncooked shells and fry them in oil which is how the more traditional Birria are prepared.

place the dilling into the center of a aw tortilla

flod and using water glue the edge, fold and crimp the dege

GENTLY fry in oil un each dire until tortilla is light golden

Had this not been an afterthought I might have rolled them a bit thicker because they were kind of flimsy and I needed to pinch the open edge to give them some body. So, I kind of ended up with empanadas when all was said and done.

The last task was to thicken the sauce. I brought the reserved broth to a boil, and whisked in the slurry I made earlier and kept cooking until it was my desired thickness.

In addition to the pico de gallo, I served some shredded mozzarella (I didn't have the traditional queso fresco) to sprinkle on the tacos and empanadas.

THE RECIPE:

For the tortilla shells

2C flour (you can use 3C of flour instead of adding the cornmeal)

1C fine cornmeal

1t kosher salt

1t baking powder

1/3 C corn or canola oil

1C warm water (If using corn meal, I might increase the water by 1/4 to 1/3 cup)

Whisk the dry ingredients to combine

Create a well in the center and add oil and water

Knead until the dough forms into a ball

Divide the dough into 16 pieces and after forming a ball from each one, press them into a round disc.

Let rest on a floured surface covered with a towel for 2 hours.

For the filling

2T olive oil

1C diced onion

1C diced sweet peppers

1T Adobo soup base

2T chili or taco seasoning (or if you like to play; a combination of cayenne, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, cocoa powder, and instant coffee to equal 2T)

1 can beef consomme

1lb beef

Heat the oil and add the peppers and onions

Stir in the Adobo and other seasonings to combine

Cover and let simmer a few minutes until the onions are soft

Add the consomme and bring to a simmer

Add the meat, reduce heat and cover

Simmer until meat is cooked through

Strain meat and vegetables out of the broth and set aside in a oven-safe bowl or container.

Pour the reserved sauce into a medium saucepan

For the pico de gallo

1C fresh diced tomatoes drained

1/2C diced onion

2-3T cilantro if from the tube (if using fresh, use 3/4 cup finely minced and 1 teaspoon of salt)

2-3T lime juice

Combine all ingredients in a bowl

Refrigerate until ready to serve

For the sauce

Reserved liquid from cooking the beef, peppers, and onions

1/4 C lime juice

1T cornstarch

1/2t each of chili or taco seasoning, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and instant espresso

Heat the reserved broth to boiling

While the broth is heating, combine remaining ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine and remove any lumps

When the broth is boiling, whisk the slurry in and continue stirring until it has thickened.

To keep everything warm for serving, into a 200 degree oven, I put the cooked tortilla shells in a baking dish with a soaked towel on top and covered tightly with foil; the remaining beef filling covered in a bowl, and the empanadas in a baking dish covered with foil.

Serve with consomme sauce and cheese and pico de gallo on top

As I was taking the photo of my plate (with the only empanada that didn't crack while frying), my husband commented about it looking 'lovely' when I asked him how it tasted, his response:"pretty freakin' good!"