Corn Tortillas and Slow Cooked Pork Tacos

I was going to have tacos. Of course, a lack of good corn tortillas in this country was a bit of a limiting factor but I was determined to try making my own at home and I pictured myself wrapping them around tender pork, lots of delicious salsa and definitely some chopped fresh coriander. Oh, just the thought of them has me thinking of making them again this weekend.

However, the process didn’t go entirely smoothly at first. I made the amateur mistake of confusing masa harina and masa arepa. Both are corn meals made of precooked corn but only masa harina is made of corn that’s undergone nixtamalization (it’s cooked in an alkaline solution) and is the correct one for making corn tortillas. Just to confuse things, the side of the package of masa arepa that I purchased first (PAN brand) states that it can be used for tortillas too. I bought my masa harina from the Cool Chile Co. (Maseca is also a famous brand).

On our first go at making corn tortillas, we pressed them using a heavy pot…quite painfully and tediously. The next day, I went straight out and bought a proper cast iron tortilla press (again from the Cool Chile Co.). Oh, how it makes life easier! Fresh corn tortillas are pressed so quickly and without any effort whatsoever! I can’t believe I’d been buying corn tortillas (sometimes taking up precious space in my suitcase when I was travelling back from the other side of the Atlantic) when they’re so easy to make at home!

Corn Tortillas

Take 2 cups of masa harina and mix with a little less than 1.5 cups of warm water. Mix together to a dough – it shouldn’t crumble (too dry – add water) or stick to your hands (too wet – add masa harina). I read somewhere online that it should have the texture of play dough and that’s truly how it felt. Let sit for about 10 minutes.

In the meantime, heat a cast iron or nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Take a plastic freezer bag and cut two circles of plastic out of it – they should be big enough to line each side of your tortilla press. Take a small golf ball sized nugget of masa dough and roll it into a ball. Place in between the plastic circles and flatten in the tortilla press (I like mine quite thin – it’ll be about the size of the palm of your hand, I think). Peel off the tortilla and slap into the hot pan. Cook for about 30 seconds on the first side, flip and cook for a minute on the other side, flip again and cook for another 30 seconds. On the final side, the tortilla should start puffing up – pressing down on the tortilla can encourage it. Take out of the pan and cover with a clean dish towel. Repeat with all the masa.

You can eat tortillas with any meal, of course, but it’s most fun to make tacos at home. I slow cooked a lot of pork shoulder the first time I made tortillas, shredded the results and used that as a very simple filling for tacos.

Slow Cooked Pork for Tacos

1.5 kg pork shoulder, cut into chunks
juice from a large orange
2 bay leaves
1 chopped onion
2 minced garlic cloves
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp salt

Mix all the ingredients together in a slow cooker and set on high for 4 hours (mine only is set to high – it’s a rice cooker – though I reckon perhaps low on a regular slow cooker for 8 hours is also ok). Take out the meat and shred with two forks or your hands. A lot of liquid would have come out of the meat – I used some of it to moisten the shredded pork. Serve with corn tortillas.

The pork is a bit plain on its own. Better is topping your tacos with some pico de gallo. Or if you’re pressed for time/ingredients, just chopped onions pickled lightly in lime juice.

Pico de Gallo

1/2 a small onion, chopped
1-2 medium sized tomatoes, seeded and chopped
a very small handful of fresh coriander, chopped finely
juice of half a lime
salt

Mix all the ingredients together and then chill until ready to serve (give it an hour, I reckon, for the flavours to meld).

Now you’re almost ready for tacos!

Set out some chopped fresh coriander, a salsa (I’m working on recipes but this was just a good canned salsa verde), perhaps some sliced avocado or guacamole, sliced radishes and lime wedges and you’ve got a taco party! Well, it was just for two in our case but yeah, a party!

The best part is that you’ll have plenty of pork leftover. I suggest frying up some of it in its own lard (the edges go all crispy…mmmmmm) and having more tacos! There will definitely be more taco adventures in my future.

 

Breakfast Burritos Aren’t Just for Breakfast

Why are breakfast burritos generally limited to, y’know, breakfast time? I love that combination of cheesy, eggy, savoury goodness all wrapped up in a neat handheld package and I reckon it’s suitable at any hour of the day.

I wish breakfast burritos were more of a thing here in the UK; in the States, even McDonald’s serves them (they also have biscuits but that’s a rant for another post)! Luckily, they’re easy and quick to put together. Quick enough for a weekday dinner!

Breakfast Burritos

In a frying pan, fry some chopped onions and perhaps some chopped bell peppers until soft and then add meat (chorizo, breakfast sausage, ham, bacon – chopped), maybe some chopped leftover potatoes too. I used chorizo and some tater tots first baked in the oven. A couple of tomatoes wouldn’t go amiss here and when it’s all almost done, perhaps some wilt down some spinach in the mixture. Salsa and jalapeno peppers are good too. Beat a few eggs together and season the mixture with salt and pepper. Pour it all over the mixture in the frying pan and throw in a good handful of grated cheddar or Monterrey Jack cheese. Gently fold together until the mixture is set. Take off the heat.

In another pan or in the oven, heat a flour tortilla or two until warm and pliable. Pile on the egg mixture and fold up like a burrito. Eat with salsa or hot sauce.

And sure, they’re also good for breakfast, brunch or lunch!

 

Pani Puri Night

One box of ready made pani puri shells. One jar of date and tamarind chutney. A box of pani spice mix. Boiled chickpeas and diced potatoes. Finely diced onion. Chopped coriander.

I love putting together this classic Indian snack: punch a hole in the hollow shell (the puri), fill with stuff, dip in the spicy water (the pani) and gobble whole. It’s a good and quick TV dinner!

 

Braised Beef and Daikon

It sure doesn’t feel like spring… maybe it was an April Fool’s joke by someone or something above but there was a bit of light snow coming down in west London in the early afternoon today. Spring weather it may not be but it’s still perfect weather for braises and stews.

Braised beef and daikon is a traditional Cantonese stew and most classic recipes online call for Chee Hou sauce, a ready made sauce of soybeans, ginger and garlic used for Chinese braising. I have no experience with the stuff and didn’t have any of it to hand but I did have a tub of white miso paste in the fridge. A spoonful of it went it and didn’t hurt it one bit. Melt-in-the-mouth beef, tender daikon, lots of thick sauce that’s perfect over white rice – this will keep you warm on the inside!

Braised Beef and Daikon
serves 4 with rice.

600-800g beef for stewing (like braising steak, shin, brisket)
2 tbsps oil
4 slices ginger
3 large garlic cloves
80ml Shaoxing wine
2 tbsps oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 heaped tsp miso paste
1-2 star anise
1 stick cinnamon/cassia
a sprinkle or two of white pepper
a small chunk of rock sugar
3-4 cups water
1 small to medium sized daikon
2 tbsps cornstarch

Cut up the beef into large chunks. Heat up a pot over medium heat, add the oil and then brown the beef on all sides. Add the ginger and garlic and stir for a minute or two until aromatic. Add all the other ingredients except the daikon and cornstarch and stir to mix. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat so that everything is just at a simmer. Half cover the pot and let it do its thing for about 1.5 to 2 hours. You want that beef to be tender.

Peel and cut the daikon into large chunks. Add to the cooking beef and then continue cooking all together until everything is tender. Mix up a cornstarch slurry by combining the cornstarch with cold water and then stir as much as you desire into the sauce to thicken it to your liking.

Serve with rice and other dishes if desired. Stay warm, everyone!

 

Chicken Curry Bread

I had to share this! There’s this chicken curry bread that hails from the town of Kampar in Perak, Malaysia (a town which is quite well known for its food). It is a massive loaf of bread baked with a chicken curry centre; at the table, it’s opened up with great ceremony. Tasty as they are, banish thoughts of those miniature chicken curry buns you get at Hong Kong style bakeries  - the Malaysian style curry inside this behemoth is wrapped in paper first to retain all the gravy in the middle. I’ve never tried the original but the thought of it stuck in my head for so long that I had to recreate it at home.

For the bread, I used a recipe for a Basic Sweet Bread Dough from a book called Magic Bread by Alex Goh (though be prepared if you’re going to use it – it requires starting with a scalded dough that needs resting overnight). The recipe at that link gave me enough bread to create the massive wrap for my curry as well as a bit extra to form 6 buns.

I filled it with my usual chicken curry recipe (which I wasn’t entirely happy with this time…I was trying to reduce the amount of coconut milk in it so no sharing this time!) but any curry recipe will do. I used lots of greaseproof paper to wrap the curry (about 3 chicken legs, 2 thighs, some potato chunks and plenty of curry gravy) but in hindsight, some aluminium foil would have performed better to contain all that curry.

The bread dough was flattened to cover my entire baking sheet, the curry parcel was carefully placed in the middle and the dough sheet wrapped around it. A few pinches here and there to seal and it was left to rise before getting a shiny egg yolk glaze and a baking in the oven for about 25 minutes.

It is certainly an impressive thing to bring to the table! Slice up the top layer of bread…

…and unwrap the paper wrapped curry inside.

We tore into the bread like savages, dipping into the curry, grabbing chicken legs, getting curry everywhere. The bread recipe is brilliant – it produces a tender, sweet crumb not unlike that you find at Hong Kong style bakeries (I’ll be using the recipe again for another go at hot dog buns) which perfectly complements the spicy, creamy, coconutty curry. We stuffed ourselves silly.

Next steps for this? Improvement in a couple of areas. My curry recipe needs tweaking. I need to ensure that the layer of bread on top of the package doesn’t get too thin. I should also place it on the lower rack of my oven though this varies from oven to oven. But really, it’s all just another excuse to make this insane creation again!