Saturday, March 14, 2009

My Cheatin' Heart Tacos AND an award!!



This week Gloria Chadwick featured some great recipes on her Foods and Flavors of San Antonio blog, and she challenged us to come up with some "kreativ" tacos. While reading her Taco Tuesday post, I realized that tacos are one of those foods I seldom eat and almost never cook. I guess I think of them as "fun party food" rather than dinner. What a great opportunity to try something new!

I must confess, however, that I did some cheating. Normally I'm a "from scratch" kind of person. But there were so many wonderful things to choose from at the store, I ended with a whole lot of stuff to put on my tacos that I didn't have to make! Except the cheese. I keep my own herd of cows just so I can always have homemade cheese on hand. (Kidding! :) )

I enjoy both soft and "crunchy" tacos, but one of my greatest frustrations is that when I try to eat a crunchy taco, it falls to pieces in my hands! So I came up with this "recipe" for Two-Way Double Tacos.

Here are the ingredients I bought at the store:

Blue corn hard taco shells, flour tortillas, pineapple-mango salsa, guacamole

1 lb. of skirt steak

Some Caribbean svaory-baked tofu

And some cilantro!

At home, I had limes, shredded cheese, onions, frozen corn, sour cream, a sweet potato, a red pepper and some dried black beans.

I decided that my tacos would include Cuban-style refried black beans. My other filling ingredients would include marinated skirt steak and corn (Option 1) and Caribbean tofu and sweet potato cubes (Option 2), along with the usual shredded cheese, cilantro, sour cream and the Pineapple-Mango Salsa.

To get started, I cooked my sweet potato in the microwave for 8 minutes, then set it aside to cool.

While it was cooking, I started my black beans. I cooked 1 c. of dried black beans in 4 c. water with 1 t. salt and a bayleaf, until they were very soft. It took about an hour and a half.


While the beans were cooking, I got my steak started. First, I washed the steak and patted it dry. Then I sliced it in half to make it easier to cook and rubbed each half with some garlic. I popped it into a ziptop bag.

I mixed up my marinade: freshly squeezed lime juice, crushed garlic, oregano, smoked paprika, salt, olive oil, and, tequila!!


Here's my finished marinade:

It's in the bag!


Once the beans were cooked, I mashed them in the pot with a potato masher.


To make my refried beans "Cuban style," I made a sofrito by sauteeing onion, garlic, and 1/4 of a red bell pepper in some bacon fat and a bit of lard. Of course, you can use olive oil, but since this was for refried beans, I felt it would benefit from the rich porky flavors in the bacon fat.

My "bad" but tasty fats:

Sauteeing the sofrito:


After adding some ground cumin to the sofrito, I added the mashed black beans to the skillet.


The finished refried beans:


I assembled the rest of my filling ingredients:
the peeled and cubed sweet potatoes

The corn

Shredded cheese

And the tofu, cut into slices

Finally, it was time to cook the steak. I heated up my griddle and sprinkled it with coarse salt to create a nice crunchy crust on the steak.


I cooked the steaks about 4 minutes per side for medium rare:

And sliced it into strips:


Now it's time to assemble the tacos! To make the double tacos, I take a soft tortilla and spread it with guacamole.

Next, I added some of the refried beans to a warmed hard taco shell

I added tofu and sweet potatoes.

I added the rest of the goodies: cheese, sour cream, salsa, and cilantro, and finally, I wrapped t the guacamole-filled flour tortilla around the filled hard taco.

By wrapping the soft taco around the taco shell, I can enjoy a cruncy taco without having it fall apart. Plus, it's a great excuse to eat more guacamole!


Since DC doesn't like guacamole, I spread his flour tortillas with refried beans mixed with sour cream.


I filled his tacos with refried beans, grilled steak, cheese, salsa, sour cream and cilantro.
DC loved the double tacos and said they were the most delicious tacos he's ever had. (Isn't he smart? ;) ) He remarked they tasted like a cross between an enchilada and a taco.

By taking advantage of some high-quality, premade ingredients like salsa and guacamole, our taco experience was not only delicious, but easy to prepare as well. Although I chose to make my refried beans from scratch, there are some wonderful dehydrated black bean flakes that let you whip up some pretty decent (and low fat) refrieds just by adding boiling water. And of course, you can always use canned beans as well.

Tacos are so delicious and fun to make, you can't help but get kreativ!

!Buen provecho!

Some late breaking news: Donna-FFW, over at the fabulously wonderful My Tasty Treasures, has graciously shared the Friends award
that she received from PigPig's Corner on to me. I am so thrilled, honored and humbled to be in such great company. Thank you, Donna! Gloria Chadwick also passed the Friends award along to all her San Antonio Foodies. Thanks so much, Gloria! Gloria's blog is a blast-- if you haven't checked it out yet, come on over and party with us!

16 comments:

  1. These tacos look delicious. It may be bed time, but I could totally eat some of your tacos right now! So creative, so delicious. I love every single flavor and ingredient that went into your tacos. Man, do they look awesome!

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  2. Wow, you've taken tacos to a whole new level. That is just all kinds of awesome! And I had no idea there were blue corn taco shells - I am going to have to start looking for them.

    Thanks for a great recipe.

    Dropping by to welcome you to SITS!

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  3. those tacos look AMAZING!! holy goodness.

    OH, I am also stopping by to introduce myself and welcome you to the SITStahood. You are going to love this wonderful community of women.

    You might consider following my blog…I host a monthly drawing for fun prizes EXCLUSIVELY from my list of followers. No need to check in every day (though ya might want to, and I would love that) just follow…pretty cool right?

    AND come enter my FABULOUS giveaway too…so much fun stuff happening in the SITStahood.

    I’m L-O-V-I-N-G it!!

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  4. These tacos look amazing!! My mouth is watering like mad. What wonderful flavors!!

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  5. Your tacos are totally awesome! You really got kreativ with them. :)

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  6. Welcome to SITS!! You will love this bloggy community!

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  7. My gosh you're like a cooking artisan!

    Stopping by to say hello and welcome to the SITS community - it's fantastic to have you as a SITSta!

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  8. Elyse-- thanks so much for the compliments! I've been drooling over your blondies today!

    Mrs. Jelly Belly-- Thanks so much for stopping by! I really appreciate your kind words. It's great getting to know everyone in SITS!

    Mamarazzi-- Thank you so much for visiting DomesticMuse! I will definitely be dropping by to check out your blog. :)

    Reeni-- thank you so much for your compliments, coming from you they mean a lot! :)

    Gloria-- I had a blast making the tacos! Thanks!

    angi b72-- thank you for visiting! You're right, I'm already loving it!

    Hi, Joy-- Thanks for dropping by DomesticMuse, and thank you for the compliment :)

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  9. Karen, your tacos looks wonderful and congrats on the awards!

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  10. Totally inventive tacos, Karen. I love how you make up your own recipes!

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  11. Oh, my! I'm in love with that meal! It's just the sort of thing we eat around here. All Mexican. All the time. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

    I'm dropping by to welcome you to SITS. You are gonna L*O*V*E the SITStahood! Happy Mondaying!

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  12. Okay I need your address and need it now! I hope you have leftovers when I get there late tomorrow afternoon!

    I just realized I have a lot of payback to some bloggers for two awards!

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  13. I'll have to post how we have our Taco day's in my house :) (usually just "Tacos de Carne Asada", "Guacamole", "Salsa de Chile verde o Roja" or a sauce made in the "Molcajete", etc. and the garnishes cilantro, minced onion, and radishes in a water bath cut into flowers) I'll post sometime.

    You can make Taco's out of anything, I know Mexicans love corn tortillas and all but I'm more of a rice person lol.

    P.S.

    Yup the sofrito gives everything a Cuban flair. In my household we get leftover Cuban black bean soup/ stew, blend it in the blender until it's real smooth, then heat olive oil and fry lots of finely minced onion in the olive oil until it's really translucent and cooked down, then we add teh beans and stir until it's somewhat reduced.

    I guess those are our "Cubanized" black beans, I really suggest making the Cuban black bean soup it's delicious and a staple makes a Cuban meal complete. Anyone who likes Cuban food has got to try it (I make really good one's not bragging though lol.):

    http://nathanscomida.blogspot.com/2008/07/frijoles-negros-cuban-black-beans.html

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  14. Nathan-- I would love to hear about tacos at your house! I think Taco Tuesdays are going to be a regular thing over at Tex-Mex Foodies (http://tex-mexfoodies.ning.com/), so be sure to go there and post a link if you blog about your tacos! I do love black beans in any way, shape or form! Thanks so much for your kind words and for reading, and especially for the link to your Black Bean post!!

    Cheers!
    -Karen

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  15. Kendra, WishTrish, Donna and E: thanks so much for the compliments! Trish, all Mexican, all the time sounds like paradise to me! Can I come and eat at your house???

    All y'all are welcome at my house, anytime! Come on over and let's get this party started! :) K

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  16. I came back for more, and just love that name...it dawned on me that Taco Bell came out with that duo taco shell, you know soft and crunchy together! My son would so love this...I am sending him the link to your site!

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