Tacos
Barbecued meat of any kind, including goat, makes a juicy taco, or fried tortilla sandwich. Just lay meat slices on a tortilla, spread with any kind of pickle relish, fold and fasten with toothpicks, and drop into deep hot fat. Serve with a moist Mexican salad on top-such as shredded lettuce with chopped tomatoes and hot chili sauce or finely chopped stuffed olives and grated cheese with hot sauce sluiced on.
There is no end to variations of tacos, for they take the place of our sandwiches and are usually eaten with a cup of hot chocolate, Mexico's national beverage. A popular meat stuffing for them is 3 parts ground pork with 1 part veal, fried brown and then highly seasoned with peppery sauce before folding in the tortilla, frying, and topping with salad.
Sometimes they're toasted instead of being fried, but that's not the original way; also they're filled with sweet stuffing and cream cheese, and Americanized in any number of ways, which takes them pretty far from the original barbecue sandwich they started out to be.
This is a fried taco -- what would now be called a taco dorado -- built from barbecue leftovers. The method is sound but the instructions assume a cook who already knows how deep frying behaves.
- Fat temperatureThe recipe specifies only "deep hot fat" and gives no number. The usual deep-frying range, 350-375F, suits it: below that the tortilla soaks up oil and goes limp; much above it and the edges scorch before the filling heats through. Two to three minutes, turning once, is enough since the meat is already cooked.
- Warm the tortillas firstCorn tortillas straight from the refrigerator crack when folded. Heat them briefly on a dry griddle or dip them in the frying fat for a few seconds until pliable, then fill and fold.
- ToothpicksUse plain wooden picks, not coloured or plastic-tipped ones, and count them in so you can count them out. Remove every pick before the plate goes to the table.
- "Pickle relish"The recipe leaves this open: "any kind of pickle relish." A drained salsa, pickled jalapenos, or chopped escabeche vegetables sit closer to what the dish is reaching for than a sweet jarred relish.
- The pork and veal fillingThree parts ground pork to one part veal, browned and seasoned. Veal is now expensive and often hard to find; ground pork alone, or pork with a little ground beef, gives the same result. Drain the fat well before filling or the tortilla will not seal.
- Salad goes on after fryingThe shredded lettuce, tomato, olives and cheese are a topping, added the moment the taco leaves the fat. Dress it just before serving so the moisture does not reach the fried shell.
- YieldNo quantity is given. Reckon about 2 oz of sliced or ground meat per tortilla and three tacos a person; a pound of filling makes roughly eight.
- The chocolateMexican drinking chocolate is thinner and less sweet than a modern cocoa mix, usually a tablet of chocolate with cinnamon whisked into hot water or milk until frothy.