Taco Wars

This is probably the biggest case of bolting the door after the horse has bolted in history.  Forget passing maritime safety regulations after the Titanic sunk, or disbanding Polish cavalry units after German Panzer tanks had arrived en masse. 

 

Basically, I went to a Tweat Up event absolutely yonks ago then totally failed to write it up until now.  BUT it was acecakes so I'm going to share it all with you anyway.

 

On the very last day of the famed Hawker House, Tweat Up (the team that brought you Street Feast London and who are now bringing you Model Market in Lewisham and Riverside Feast at Battersea Power Station) held their second Taco Wars (imaginatively entitled 'Taco Wars 2').  It was awesome.  For a modest fee we were invited to gobble down eight tacos and slurp a cocktail and a beer, rounding the day's munching off with a bowl of spectacular gelato, before casting our ballots for the best.

 

They'd got the place just right.  Hawker House was clearly a great venue generally, but a lot of thought had been put into making it somewhere cool to hold a taco creating contest – from the brightly coloured papel picado (famed Mexican tissue paper banners, the motifs being chiselled out of piles of paper) hanging from the ceilings...

...to the mariachi band that strummed and sung their way through the day.

But let's not kid ourselves, right?  We're here for tacos.

Let's start with Rita's contribution.  It was a soft taco filled with pigs head, belly and trotter, and served up with a burnt spring onion crema and blood orange pico.  Very good – no complaints there.

Santo Remedio offered us an unusual (and ballsy) combo: chargrilled octopus marinated in Pasilla de Oaxaca chillies with black beans, yerba santa and serrano aioli.  Raising the bar on the taco shell front, SR served their taco up on an avocado leaf tortilla.  I was a little disappointed here – not because there was anything wrong with it, but because it just didn’t meet expectations.  I mean, Octopus! Avocado tortilla!  Serrano aioli!  Excitement!  But sadly no.  Just... OK.

 By about this time we were getting thirsty so decided to cash in our chips for a blood orange margarita.  Very tasty – if perhaps a little weak.

Next up: B.O.B.'s Lobster.  The only vendor I'd had previous experience of (and about whom I have written more here, in another spectacular display of post-horse-bolting door-closing).  They served up finely diced Ahi tuna with wasabi guacamole, chipotle crema, Asian slaw and sesame seeds.  Another attempt at a new take on the humble tortilla, theirs was a wonton shell, deep fried to crispiness. 

OK, so this was good. It was very tasty. A lovely balance of Asian flavours - wasabi, soy and sesame - perfectly complimenting the tuna.

But it wasn't a taco. Sorry, it just wasn't. As a dish, I would rate it highly. As a taco, I could not.

Luardos (the folks behind those tremendous Jesus and Mary vans than seem to pop up at any street food fest in town) offered us grilled skirt, salsa roja, supersweet onions, coriander and lime in a homemade corn tortilla.  This was very good.  Very good indeed.  The 45 minute queue for the stand was not, but heh.  This was possibly the most authentic taco of the lot – it took me straight back to eating tacos from the street vans in Puerto Vallarta a decade (and more) ago. 

Benitos Hat, who own a string of (justifiably) highly successful burrito shops about town came up with their own quirky number: pork belly, crispy chicharrón (a bit like scratchings), shaved fennel, lime, roasted apple and habanero salsa in a homemade corn tortilla.  This had so much going for it – a very carefully thought through collation of flavours and textures.  Unfortunately, just thinking about it is not enough.  I had to wonder if anyone had actually tried this – seriosuly – because, whilst it tasted alright it was incredibly greasy.  Really, really oily.  Which is not good.  I desperately wanted to like this, but just did not.  Sorry.  

Kimchinary are basing a lot on the current hipster food fetish for Korean BBQ – and rightly so, given (a) its popularity, and (b) the fact that it's really good.  So I was expecting a bit of kimchi (you know, that red stuff that seems to be piled on top of everything hipsterfoodie these days).  What I wasn't expecting was a taco of beer braised pork belly, pickled mustard seeds, Korean pear salsa, oyster kimchi, gochujang and 'pig crunch' on a smoked pork fat and sesame tortilla .  Because that's a lot of different pig bits.  In fact, it's a lot of a lot, and we've seen already that that way can lead to madness.  Fortunately, however, they had got it just right.  A very good – if rather different – taco.

And so we come to Breddos. 

I don’t really know what to say about this.  Their offering consisted of chipotle and bone marrow roasted short rib, barbecued Guinness-marinated brisket, and smoked cherry marmalade.  It was wrapped up in a homemade beef dripping tortilla.  It was served with a pipet of naga chilli oil (the hottest chilli in the entire world).  It was accompanied by a chilliback – a shot of silver tequila with a shot of habanero pickling liquor (spicy, sour, chilli, vinegary and sweet all at once).  It was, in short, one of the most unbelievably good things I have ever eaten in my entire life.  Nothing short of that.  They won overall, after all the votes were counted (including GrubsterBoy's and GrubsterGirl's) and I'm pretty sure that I can say that it was a well-deserved victory. 

Breddos have just opened up a new restaurant.  Expect a review coming soon. 

- GrubsterBoy -

Quick Chilli Con Carne

Last weekend, over a big dinner en famille, I was (quite rightly) criticised for being a thoroughly impractical chef.  It's true, in a sense: I only tend to cook things that take flippin' ages.  My chilli con carne, for example, (one of my very, very favourite meals) takes approximately six to eight hours on a good day.  Longer if I'm being serious and cooking it overnight.  Another staple, sausage pasta sauce, takes at least a couple of hours.  All well and good – and I think that there are real, untapped flavours and textures that are lost without the joys of slow cooking – but hopeless for a quick supper on a Monday night.

 

Which is why I am bringing you quick chilli con carne.  It's based on my a slowly refined recipe I've developed over the years, but with a view to throwing it together when you get home from work.  And it is possible to do that with this recipe. 

 

I tend to eat this with rice or flat bread, depending on mood and/or whether I can be bothered to boil a pan of water.  To serve: Tobasco sauce, sour cream and an avocado salsa.  Guacamole works just as well, but you always have to wait for the avocadoes to ripen (even when they're marked 'ripe and ready to eat' – the biggest lie since "the cheque's in the post") which would totally undermine the quick, unplanned idea behind this dish / post.

 

Ingredients:

 

For the chilli –
500g beef mince
1.5 medium onions
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 tsps oregano (You can buy Mexican oregano from Cool Chile which is infinitely better.  I was out, however, and the regular stuff is fine.)
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsps smoked paprika
0.5 tsp turmeric
2 fresh red chillies
500ml tomato pasata
1-2 tsps cocoa powder
1-2 tsps soft brown sugar or molasses
Chilli pepper sauce (See my note on chilli sauces.)
2 sweet green peppers
1 can of beans (Kidney is traditional, but I prefer black eyed beans for being a touch crunchier.)

 

For the salsa -
2 avocados, as ripe as you can find
The other half of the onion (that you didn’t use for the chilli)
2-4 cherry tomatoes
Handful of fresh coriander
Half the juice of a lime
Chilli sauce (Green, if you can find it.)

 

To serve
Sour cream / crème fraiche

 

 

1. Start by chopping the one and a half of onions and garlic small and getting them on the heat in a little oil.  You'll want to use a big, heavy bottomed saucepan – this is a great one-pot dish, by the way, which saves a bit on cooking.  Keep the heat nice and low to soften the onions without burning the garlic. 

 

2. Add the beef and brown it, making sure to crumble it as it goes in and break it down a little in the browning process.  You want it in crumbs. 

 

Right now it'll look (and smell) pretty unappetising.  My friend Ben, who is domestically challenged, recently said to me: "Isn’t chilli just Bolognese with kidney beans and chilli flakes?"  No.  Silly boy.  Sure, it's mince and onions and tomato, but it’s also a whole heap more.  Basically, it starts the same – sure – but that's just the base.  To that you're adding a spice palate and developing a wholly different dish.  Ben's question is basically like looking at the ingredients for Toad in the Hole and saying: "Isn't that just a sponge cake with sausages in it?"

 

 

Essentially, my point is this: You're developing the base into a Mexican-y flavour adventure.  So add whatever you think appropriate.  So fear not that it doesn’t look / smell like chilli yet – it's not.  But you're about to make it chilli.

 

3.  Add the oregano, cumin, turmeric and paprika.  This last item got left out of the ingredients team photo by accident and so deserves its own picture.  It's absolutely the daddy and deserves respect.  It's Spanish stuff which comes in two varieties: hot and sweet.  Use hot.     

 

 

If you want it hot hot, now's the time to add 0.5 to 1 tsps crushed dried chillies, or alternatively soak and add a whole dried chilli like a chipotle. 

 

Leave it for a bit to cook, toasting the spices nicely.  You see?  Already it's beginning to look like a chilli.

 

 

4. Add the pasata, fresh chillies, cocoa and sugar.  You can also add coffee if you like – a shot of espresso goes down well if you have a machine handy.  Another thing you can try is a cinnamon stick or two.  

 

Add chilli sauce at this stage – the quantity will all depend on how strong the sauce you're using is, so kinda add to taste.  Do it slowly, though: it's hard to correct an overly strong chilli.  I also lobbed in a couple of teaspoons of Trees Can't Dance's amazing chipotle paste, to give it a smoky touch as well.

 

 

5. Bring the whole mix to a gentle simmer.  Now's the waiting time: it needs about 20 mins minimum to simmer away.  In an ideal world, this is where the slow cooking bit would come it – you'd add stock / other liquid, and leave it in a low oven overnight.  But you don’t have time for that, so get it going to let the beef soften and the flavours infuse.

 

 

6. Whilst it's doing that, make the salsa.  Peel the avo's and chop them finely – about the same size you'd chop tomatoes for a regular salsa.  Chop the tomatoes and the onion mega finely.  Roughly chop the coriander. 

 

 

7. Put the salsa ingredients into a bowl and stir vigorously.  Season well with salt and pepper, add a

few dashes of chilli sauce and some of the lime juice.  Stir again, vigorously, and taste.  Repeat the seasoning until it tastes the way you like it.  Cover and leave in the fridge until the chilli's ready.

 

 

8. Returning to the chilli, after it's had about 20 mins or so, it should have reduced right down and gone an even deeper red.  You can keep it going like this as long as you like, just be sure to top up with water / beef or vegetable stock from time-to-time, to stop it becoming too thick. 

 

 

9. Chop the green peppers into chunks – about 1cm squared.  Open the beans and rinse under the cold tap.  Throw both into the pot and give them 10 mins, really just to heat up.  If you're doing rice, you probably want it to go in the pan now. 

 

 

Once the peppers and beans have had their time, you're done and ready to serve.  Basically, it's just a trick of sticking everything in a bowl and handing out forks.  Also serve with chilli sauce on the side – different people like things at different strengths, so I always aim (with varying degrees of success) to produce a relatively mild chilli then let people spice it up with sauces of different flavours.

 

 

And to drink?  Don’t be silly, there's really only two options: Mexican beer (Corona, Pacifico or Modelo, perhaps?) with a wedge of lime in it, or a big, strong, salty margarita.

 

 - GrubsterBoy -