IT training tacos authentic, festive flavorful

¡MUY DELICIOSO!

, , , ,
   ,  

tacos T:A

Lara Ferroni is a Seattle-based photographer who has contributed images to
Epicurious.com, Gourmet.com, Seattle
magazine, and Portland Monthly, among
others. She also blogs about food on
Cook & Eat (www.cookandeat.com) and
about food photography and styling on
Still Life With (www.stilllifewith.com).
Photographs by Lara Ferroni
Book design by Rosebud Eustace
Printed in China

TACOS
,   

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Scott Wilson grew up eating hard shell
ground beef tacos with orange cheese
and iceberg lettuce . . . until the taco
trucks arrived in his hometown of Redwood City, CA. When he’s not thinking about tacos, he’s writing, gardening,
cooking, making beer, teaching classes
on herbal brewing and food preservation, and spending time with his wife and
two kids on their homestead in Oregon.

Wilson

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Scott Wilson

C O OK I N G

$16.95 U.S .

The Recipes Are Simple
The Variations Are Many
The Results, DELICIOUS
Take a corn or flour tortilla. Add your
choice of rice, beans, shredded cheese,
pickled jalapeños, onions, you name it.
Now it’s time for the main filling—beef,
pork, fish, or sautéed veggies are just a
few options. Pour on salsa, maybe some
guacamole or sour cream, then fold it

up. In your hands, you have a taco—easy
to prepare, made to your specifications,
and oh-so-yummy.
This book shows how to make the best
tacos you’ll ever eat. Try out such variations as Beef Meatball Taco in Guajillo
Sauce, Chorizo and Cactus Taco Dorado,
and Garlic–Wild Mushroom Taco with
Creamed Corn and Morita Salsa. There’s
even a Spicy Hot Fudge Taco recipe for
dessert.

Also included:

6

T Recipes for salsas, side dishes, and
aguas frescas.
T Advice on how to create your own
tortillas.
T Tips for throwing your own taco party.

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www.sasquatchbooks.com

www.sasquatchbooks.com

$16.95 U.S.
ISBN-10: 1-57061-612-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-57061-612-9

T Resources for finding specialized
tools and ingredients.


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tacos

authentic, festive & flavorful

Scott Wilson

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Copyright © 2009 by Scott Wilson
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form, or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Printed in China
Published by Sasquatch Books
Distributed by PGW/Perseus
15 14 13 12 11 10 09
987654321
Cover photographs: Lara Ferroni
Cover design: Rosebud Eustace
Interior design and composition: Rosebud Eustace
Interior photographs: Lara Ferroni
Textured patterns: Billy Alexander / www.sxc.hu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilson, Scott, 1965–

Tacos : authentic, festive & flavorful / Scott Wilson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-57061-612-9
ISBN-10: 1-57061-612-4
1. Tacos. 2. Salsas (Cookery) 3. Cookery, American--Southwestern style. I. Title.
TX836.W45 2009
641.8’4--dc22
2009016940
Sasquatch Books
119 South Main Street, Suite 400
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 467-4300
www.sasquatchbooks.com


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contents
Introduction

salsas and
sIdes
tacos

drInks and
desserts

v

1
29
83

References and Resources

96

Index

98

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IntroductIon
The twenty-first century is destined to be the “Century of the Taco.” The 1900s
were most definitely the Pizza Century, as that delicious invention that began
modestly in Italy ended up being available in every town from Tierra del Fuego
to the Arctic Circle. I don’t believe that pizza is going away, or that it will be
knocked from its mighty throne by the up-and-coming taco. No, there’s room
in this world for more than one superstar finger food.

Consider the rapidly growing Latino food and beverage market in the United
States, with expected sales in 2011 of $8.4 billion, a 47 percent increase from
2006, as reported on American Public Media’s Marketplace Web site. Consider
that, according to the Tortilla Industry Association, as of 2002, tortillas were
the second-most-popular bread product in the United States, with 32 percent
of the market, trailing white bread by only 2 percent. It also estimates that
Americans ate eighty-five billion tortillas in 2000!

wanted: authentic tacos!
Increasingly, travelers to Mexico and other Latin American destinations
are wrapping a culinary cloak around their trips. The expanding sophistication of globe-trotters’ palates means that they seek to immerse themselves in
the gastronomic heritage of their host countries, not only observing authentic foodways, but egnaging in the food preparation as well. When they return
home, they seek to re-create these dishes. Observe magazines such as Gourmet, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Saveur, and others to notice that their recipes
increasingly call for ingredients that were mostly unknown a short time ago.
Huitlacoche, anyone?
Fueling this trend are moves by top cooking schools in the United States
to focus on Latin American cuisine. The Culinary Institute of America (CIA)
is building a new facility on its Hyde Park, New York, campus featuring a traditional Mexican kitchen and a Yucatán-style underground oven for making
cochinita pibil (pit-roasted pork) and other authentic dishes. Also, in conjunction with billionaire philanthropist Christopher Goldsbury, the CIA is opening
the Center for Foods of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas. As newly trained
chefs emerge from programs such as these, we can expect to see even more
authentic, delicious, and innovative creations on menus across the country.

v


And believe me, these creations will be filling tacos as fast as we can eat them.
Already, chefs across the country and beyond are serving up tacos that give a
nod to the true essence of the dish: fresh, local ingredients prepared on the
spot and served right away, devoured immediately in all their juicy goodness.

The taco is the heart and soul of Mexico; it is the root manifestation of the
mother food. Not bad for a food that’s classified as an antojito, or little whim,
in Mexican cuisine.

the global rise of the taco
Yet the rise of the taco into the global consciousness is quite recent. The first
comprehensive Mexican cookbook, Mariano Galván Rivera’s Diccionario de
cocina, published in 1845, ran over a thousand pages but didn’t include tacos.
Though the histories of Mexico and the western United States are intertwined,
the Anglo population of the United States didn’t become interested in eating
Mexican foods until the early twentieth century. By the late nineteenth century, American cookbooks began publishing recipes for “Mexican” dishes such
as tamale pie and enchiladas, but it wasn’t until 1914 that the first taco recipe
appeared in print. By the 1930s, specific taco recipes began to appear, such as
Tacos de San Luis in Blanche and Edna McNeill’s First Foods of America.
Tacos really began to sear themselves into the consciousness of Americans
in the 1940s with the advent of the Bracero Program, under which more than
over four million Mexican farm workers came to the United States to work,
mainly in agricultural jobs.
Tacos entered the world of American fast food with the opening of taco
stands in Southern California in the 1950s, such as Taco Tiq, El Tacos, and Taco
Bell. But it was Juvencio Maldonado who, in 1950, patented the form for deepfrying tortillas into U-shaped shells, and the hard-shell taco was born.
In this book you will find recipes that range from authentic to eclectic.
Having spent a large part of my taco life in my hometown of Redwood City,
in the San Francisco area, I’ve been to countless taquerías and taco trucks. In
fact, I invented the “Taco Triple Crown” over twenty years ago in order to justify eating tacos for every meal, raising the bar on the extreme taco crawl concept. My patrón is San Vicente, “El Taquero Celestial.” So I don’t take messing
around with tacos lightly. Herein, you will find are recipes that seek to honor

vi

Introduction

the ingredients by using cooking and preparation methods that coax out the
best they have to offer.
Most of the recipes are fairly simple. A couple of them involve several steps
but are not complicated. Nearly all of the ingredients are widely available in the
United States, especially if you have access to a Mexican or Latin American
market. And I’ve offered substitutes for ingredients that may be hard to find.
Be assured, though, that you can make most of the recipes with ingredients
purchased at a well-stocked supermarket. If you live far from town and/or a
Mexican or Latin American market, you may want to check out the mail-order
sources at the end of the book for ingredients.
There are, in my estimation, three critical elements in a successful taco
session. The first is serving the tacos hot, hot, hot, especially when grilling.
Most of the meat is cut thin in order to facilitate fast cooking and retention of
juices. The meat heats up fast and cools down fast, too, so make sure the hungry mouths of friends and family are nearby. This is easy to do if you, as grill
master, keep the cooler of beer and aguas frescas nearby. It’s even easier once
your guests smell the marinated meats and onions as they hit the grill. As an
added bonus, use fresh seasonal and local ingredients when possible. The flavor and quality are generally superb, and it makes sense to support your local
businesses.
The second element is a basket of hot soft tortillas, be they corn or flour. To
this end, it is best to have a tortilla master who is in tune with the grill master and can heat the tortillas just before the fillings are ready. If you’re serving
buffet style, you can heat a whole bunch of tortillas and nestle them inside a
kitchen towel inside a tortilla warmer. If you’re serving á la carte, taco truck
style, then have your tortilla person start heating tortillas a couple of minutes
before the grilled food is ready.
The third element is family, and that includes good friends. After all, the
culture from which tacos emerged is deeply oriented toward family. Over the
years, I’ve found that I only really need a few things in life: good food, good
family, and good friends. I believe, by the grace of God, that I have all three. I

extend to you, dear reader, what I hope you find to be a gift of good tacos to
add to your repertoire.

Introduction

vii


a short history of tortillas
Before the tortilla there was nothing. After the tortilla there was the taco.
The most profound truths are often based on simplicity. So it is with the
tortilla, made from nothing more than corn, mineral lime, and water. From
these ingredients, ancient farmers of Mexico and Central America created a
flatbread that over five thousand years later is sweeping the globe. Fillings for
tacos number in the hundreds, yet the tortilla remains the same. Some factories
do add chemicals to their tortillas, and flour tortillas joined corn tortillas after
the Spanish Conquest, but by and large the tortilla of today is the tortilla of
3400 BC.
Before corn there was teosinte (Zea mexicana), which is widely believed by
scientists to be the plant that Mesoamericans developed over thousands of years
into what we know as corn (Zea mays). Unlike other grains, including teosinte,
corn cannot distribute its mature seed, which is bound securely inside the husk.
It needs human intervention for dispersal. The oldest corn specimens yet found,
in the Guilá Naquitz cave in Oaxaca, Mexico, are 5,400 years old!
Not surprisingly, corn figures prominently in the creation stories of Mesoamerican peoples. Within the Mayan cosmology, Yum Kaax is the deity responsible for agriculture in general and corn specifically. He is always depicted
holding ears of corn and wearing a corn headdress.
In Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya, the translation of the Mayan
creation story, the emergence of humanity is intricately linked with the discovery of corn. It describes the fifth creation of earth as when humanity appeared:
This, then, is the beginning [literally, “planting” in the Quiché
language] of the conception of humanity, when that which would

become the flesh of mankind was sought. Then spoke they who are
called She Who Has Borne Children and He Who Has Begotten
Sons, The Framer and the Shaper, Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent.
“The dawn approaches, and our work is not successfully completed.
A provider and a sustainer have yet to appear—a child of light, a son
of light. Humanity has yet to appear to populate the face of the
earth,” they said.
Thus they gathered together and joined their thoughts in the
darkness, in the night. They searched and they sifted. Here they

viii

Introduction


thought and they pondered. Their thoughts came forth bright and
clear. They discovered and established that which would become the
flesh of humanity.
The story goes on to tell how four animals—fox, coyote, parakeet, and
raven—revealed to the humans the yellow and white ears of maize, or corn, and
pointed them in the direction of Paxil, “an excellent mountain filled with the
maize that would eventually be used to form the flesh of humanity.”
We know from the Franciscan priest Bernardino de Sahagún that corn was
still very important during the time of the Spanish Conquest. The most famous
of his works is General History of the Things of New Spain. In it he writes, “Their
sustenance and food was maize, which they sowed in the varieties of white and
other colors; and they used it as currency.”
The Aztec word for tortilla in their Nahuatl language is tlaxcalli. It’s hard
to imagine that the Aztecs didn’t roll up some of their favorite foods in a tlaxcalli and munch on it. Just like today, there was no shortage of fillings in the
pre-Hispanic era, with myriad ingredients available, such as corn fungus, called

huitlacoche, numerous greens, beans, potatoes, chiles, cactus pads, insects and
worms, wild mushrooms, fish, crustaceans, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
During the millennia before the Spanish arrived, corn passed from hand to
hand southward and northward, throughout North and Central America. It is
estimated to have been cultivated in what is now the United States for over
three thousand years. By the time Europeans arrived in North America, most
tribes grew corn. But interestingly, they didn’t make tortillas.
One of the great food contributions the Spanish brought to America was
wheat, a grain that grew well in the regions north of Mexico City. With the cultivation of wheat came flour tortillas. The first known written reference that mentions flour tortillas , dated January 15, 1734, comes from the northern Mexican
state of Coahuila. The cultivation of wheat, however, began in 1542. Dr. Sergio
Antonio Corona Páez, professor of history at the Universidad Iberoamericana
Santa Fe in Mexico City, believes that the manufacture of flour tortillas began in
1591 in Santiago de Saltillo. That year, a new system of irrigation canals allowed
for significant production of wheat. With a population of Hispanicized Tlaxcaltecas (southern groups that normally ate corn tortillas) in that town, they
began to make flour tortillas. Since that time, flour tortillas have become well
established and are now generally preferred in northern Mexico.

Introduction

ix


Whether you prefer flour or corn tortillas is not important. Each class of tortilla has its own nuances, flavors, and fascinating history. Corn, with its ancient
Mesoamerican roots, holds a venerated place in the pantheon of food staples.
Wheat, equally ancient in other lands, but a newcomer to the Americas, has
found respectability in its adopted land. Ultimately, to hold a taco in your hand
is what really matters. As long as the tortilla is delicious, be it corn or flour, and
the filling is satisfying, you’re in good hands—and so is your taco.

making your own corn tortillas

and nixtamalization
Corn, or maize (Zea mays), is a grain native to the American continent and
has been a staple since pre-Hispanic times. It is still a very important food in
today’s diet. As I discussed earlier, the first tortillas in Mexico were made of
corn. Wheat did not arrive until the sixteenth century with the Spaniards.
In addition to developing the original corn strains, the people of Mesoamerica discovered a critical step in the preparation of corn that allows nutrients
(niacin and vitamin C) to be released for human digestion and stabilizes an otherwise semi-perishable product. The product is call nixtamal, from the Nahuatl
word nextamalli, which means corn cooked with water and mineral lime. The
process is called nixtamalization. From this rather simple procedure comes a
complex chemical reaction that turns corn into a highly nutritious staple, the
very foundation of Mesoamerican culture.
When ground into flour, corn grains release fatty oils that decompose rapidly. Lime (calcium oxide, not the citrus fruit) has a high pH, meaning it’s very
alkaline, and stabilizes the enzymatic process that causes decomposition. It is
probable that the first notion of treating the corn came from adding wood ashes
from a cooking fire, which are also very alkaline (and from which good oldfashioned lye is made) to corn while cooking. The result is called masa, and
keeps tortillas from perishing quickly, even in the hot, humid areas of corn’s
birth.
I’ve made nixtamal a couple of times with marginal success. Here, I’ve
created a mashup from several sources to give you an idea of the process. If
you really want to try it, I suggest you read Diana Kennedy’s The Tortilla Book,
then proceed.

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Introduction


First, rinse the corn in cold water and make sure there are no rocks or pieces
of cob mixed in. Then put the corn in a pot and add cold water so that the corn
is well covered. Next, prepare the lime. For 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) of corn, put 1

heaping tablespoon of lime in a bowl and add 1 cup of cold water. If the lime is
fresh, it will begin to sizzle and give off heat from the chemical reaction. This
process is known as slaking. If the lime is older, it will take longer to slake. Stir
it once, then let it sit. Some residue will settle to the bottom. After the lime
has slaked, bring the corn to a low simmer and add half of the lime water. The
corn will turn a vibrant yellow right away. Then taste a couple of drops of the
liquid on your tongue. You should detect a slightly acrid, burning sensation. If
not, add more lime solution and taste again. If it’s too strong, add some water
and taste again. Cook the corn until the skins separate easily from the kernels,
which takes about 20 minutes. Let the corn sit in the water overnight.
The next day, drain the corn, rinse it, and drain again. After that, grind it in a
hand-mill such as a Corona or, like the Mexicans of old (and probably still a few
today), with a mano and metate, made from porous volcanic stone. The mano is
the rolling pin-like piece and the metate is the rectangular, slightly curved stone
with short legs. Once ground, the resulting masa, or dough, can be patted or
pressed into tortillas, or dried for future use. Obviously, I have not advanced the
art of tortilla making here, but only given a glimpse. I believe it’s a lot like chess:
a day to learn, a lifetime to master.

Introduction

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SALSAS ANd SIdES
Tomato-Based Salsas

Fresh Tomato Salsa
Sierra-Style Tomato Salsa
Quick Tomato Salsa

Chile-Based Salsas

Poblano and Jalapeño Salsa
Chile de Árbol Salsa
Don Felix Red Salsa
Seven Chile Salsa

Green and Avocado Salsas

Fresh Tomatillo Salsa
La Esquina Taquería’s Green Salsa
Tomatillo and Chile de Árbol Salsa
Chunky Guacamole
Avocado and Jalapeño Salsa

Sides

Baja Coleslaw with Shrimp

Whole Pinto Beans
Rice with Vegetables
Roasted Poblano Chile Strips
Pickled Jalapeños and Carrots
Pickled Chipotles

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Fresh tomato salsa
Salsa Fresca de Tomate
Nothing satisfies like a fresh tomato salsa in the middle of summer. Scooped
up on corn chips or piled liberally on the tacos of the day, the mélange of
ingredients creates an irresistible symphony of fresh flavor. With red tomatoes,
green cilantro, and red onions, it is as pleasing to look at as it is to taste. Triple
or quadruple this recipe at the height of the season because there’s never
enough.
Note: When serving on tacos, use a slotted spoon to drain excess liquid. Watery
tacos aren’t much fun! If possible use paste tomatoes because they have less free
water content.
makes about 2 cups
1 pound tomatoes
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 jalapeño or serrano chile, stemmed and minced (seed and devein for a
milder salsa)
Juice of 1 lime (approximately 2 tablespoons)
Zest of 1 lime (optional)

Salt
1. Dice the tomatoes and put them in a strainer or colander to drain some of

their water, about 2 minutes. Transfer them to a medium-size bowl.

2. Add the onion, cilantro, jalapeño, lime juice, and lime zest, if using, and salt

to taste. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. The salsa will
keep in the refrigerator for a week or longer, though the onion flavor will
grow stronger.

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TACOS


sIerra-style tomato salsa
Salsa Roja de la Sierra
I love anything that has been cooked over a coal or wood fire. Somehow, even
food that has been charred in a pan on the stove has a satisfying campfire-like
quality. The authentic texture of this salsa comes from the ingredients being
mashed in a molcajete. These stone mortars are widely available in Mexican
markets, and in addition to creating a salsa with excellent texture, they double
as a stylish serving dish. The cebolletas found in Mexican markets are similar
to scallions, but the white base is a little bulb. Use scallions if cebolletas are
unavailable. I use serrano chiles in the recipe because they have a fruitiness
beneath the heat.
Note: For a slightly more refined salsa, peel and seed the serranos and tomatoes
before adding.
makes about 2 cups

1 cebolleta or scallion
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 small cloves garlic, peeled
3 serrano chiles
3 medium tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1. Preheat a comal, or a medium-size cast-iron pan, over medium-high heat for

5 minutes.

2. In a small bowl, lightly coat the cebolleta with the olive oil to prevent drying

while cooking.

3. On the comal, cook the cebolleta and garlic, turning them frequently until

they brown lightly. Set aside and let cool. Cook the serranos and tomatoes
until they brown and their skins blister. Set aside and let cool.

4. In a stone mortar, or food processor or blender, mash or pulse the cebolleta,

garlic, and salt until incorporated. Stem and roughly chop the serranos, then
mash or pulse them with the cebolleta mixture.

Salsas and Sides

3


5. Core and roughly chop the tomatoes, reserving the liquid. Add the tomatoes

and liquid to the cebolleta mixture, and mash or pulse to incorporate.

6. Pour the salsa into a bowl or container. Cover and refrigerate until ready to

use. The salsa will keep in the refrigerator for a week or longer, though the
onion and garlic flavors will grow stronger.

QuIck tomato salsa
Salsa Rápida de los Guys
This simple and quick salsa always comes through in a pinch. I learned it from
los guys, my fellow cooks in the kitchen of Gordon Biersch Brewery in Palo
Alto, where I worked at the time. For the morning snack, I would usually warm
a few dozen corn tortillas and make a big pan of scrambled eggs spiked with
onions and garlic. One of the prep cooks would throw the salsa ingredients into
a pot of water and cook it up in time to serve with the tacos. It’s surprisingly
delicious for being so uncomplicated.
makes about 2 cups
4 medium tomatoes
1 small white onion, peeled
2 or 3 jalapeño chiles, stemmed
Salt
1. In a medium-size pot, combine the tomatoes, onion, and jalapeños, and

cover them with water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes.

2. With a slotted spoon, remove the ingredients from the pot and put them in

a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Add salt to
taste.

3. Pour the salsa into a bowl or container. Cover and refrigerate until ready to

use. The salsa will keep in the refrigerator for a week or longer, though the
onion flavor will grow stronger.

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TACOS


Poblano and JalaPeño salsa
Salsa de Chiles Poblano y Jalapeño
I first tasted this little gem of a condiment at the fish taco stall Tacos La Tía
in Ensenada. Fire-roasting the chiles creates an incomparable flavor, elevating
their essence while adding a rustic, rancho-style touch. This salsa, blended
with Mexican Crema (see page 10), is also fantástico on grilled flap steak and
grilled chicken.
makes 1¼ cups
4 fresh poblano chiles
1 jalapeño chile
Olive oil (if roasting on an electric range)
1. Light a burner on the stove and set the poblanos directly on the burner

grate, one or two at a time, turning occasionally, until the entire chile is
blackened. (If you have an electric stove, heat a cast-iron pan over mediumhigh heat. In a small bowl, coat the poblanos lightly with oil and blacken
them in the pan.)

2. Put the poblanos in a bowl, covered, until cool. Peel the blackened skins

off the poblanos. Cut the poblanos open and remove the stem and all of
the seeds. Do not rinse the poblanos in water at any time. Put the poblano
pieces in a food processor or blender.

3. Cut the jalapeño in half lengthwise. Remove the stem and seeds. Chop the

jalapeño into chunks and add half of it to the poblanos. Purée until smooth.
Add the other half if you desire more heat.

4. Pour the salsa into a bowl or container. Cover and refrigerate until ready to

use. The salsa will keep in the refrigerator for two weeks or longer.

Salsas and Sides

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chIle de Árbol salsa
Salsa de Chile de Árbol
The chile de árbol is a workhorse, used throughout Mexico to make fiery
table salsas. The earthy, slightly grassy flavor of these slender, deep red pods
combines well with garlic and a touch of salt. The ensuing blend, a welcome
but not overwhelming splash of fire, is a must in the arsenal of the serious
taco-head. They are widely available in Latin American markets and the ethnic
sections of supermarkets.
makes about 2 cups
2 ounces dried chiles de árbol (60 to 70 pods)
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
Salt

1. In a small pot, bring about 2 cups of water to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, stem the chiles. Using two bowls, break each chile in half and

roll the pieces between your fingers over one bowl to catch the seeds. Put
the chile pieces in the other bowl, discarding the bowl of seeds. (It isn’t
necessary to remove every seed; leaving a small percentage won’t affect the
salsa.)

3. Pour the hot water over the chiles until they are just covered. Cover the bowl

with a plate or lid. Let it sit for 30 minutes, stirring once or twice.

4. With a slotted spoon, remove the chiles and put them in a food processor

or blender. Pour some soaking water over the chiles until it comes halfway
up the chiles. Add the garlic and salt to taste. Blend the mixture until it is a
smooth purée. The consistency should be slightly thick yet pourable. Add
more water, a little at a time, if necessary.

5. Pour the salsa into a bowl or container. Cover and refrigerate until ready to

use. The salsa will keep in the refrigerator for a week or longer, though the
garlic flavor will grow stronger.

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TACOS


don FelIx red salsa

Salsa Roja Don Felix
While on a West L.A. taco tour, I got on famously with the cook at Carnicería
Don Felix. She even let me hang out in the kitchen. In addition to cuerito
(pigskin sautéed in lard) and barbacoa (steamed beef ) tacos, I had a cabeza
(beef head) taco topped with a smacking-hot red salsa. The señora obliged me
when I asked what was in her salsa. Here I present my version.
makes about 2 cups
2 ounces dried chiles de árbol (60 to 70 pods)
½ white onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon cumin seed
Salt
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro
1. In a small pot, bring about 2 cups of water to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, stem the chiles. Using two bowls, break each chile in half and

roll the pieces between your fingers over one bowl to catch the seeds. Put
the chile pieces in the other bowl, discarding the bowl of seeds. (It isn’t
necessary to remove every seed; leaving a small percentage won’t affect the
salsa.)

3. Pour the hot water over the chiles until they are just covered. Cover the bowl

with a plate or lid. Let it sit for 30 minutes, stirring once or twice.

4. With a slotted spoon, remove the chiles and put them in a food processor or

blender. Pour some soaking water over the chiles until it comes halfway up
the chiles. Add the onion, garlic, cumin, and salt to taste. Blend the mixture
until it is a smooth purée. The consistency should be slightly thick yet

pourable. Add more water, little by little, if necessary.

5. Pour the salsa into a bowl or container and stir in the cilantro. Cover and

refrigerate until ready to use. The salsa will keep in the refrigerator for a
week or longer, though the onion and garlic flavors will grow stronger.

Salsas and Sides

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8

TACOS


seven chIle salsa
Salsa de Siete Chiles
This salsa is so many things at once: rich, tangy, smoky, and sweet. It’s even
good on vanilla ice cream. Make this salsa a day or two in advance to allow the
flavors to marry completely.
makes 2¼ cups
1 pasilla chile
1 ancho chile
1 morita chile
2 dried chipotle chiles
2 cascabel chiles
2 guajillo chiles
2 chiles de árbol

½ cup vegetable oil
1 large tomato, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon finely chopped epazote (optional)
1 teaspoon finely chopped cilantro
½ cup cider vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup agave nectar
1. On a comal, or in a medium-size cast-iron pan, over medium heat, lightly

toast the pasilla, ancho, morita, chipotles, cascabels, guajillos, and chiles de
árbol. Set them aside to cool, then stem, seed, and break them into pieces.

2. In a medium-size sauté pan over medium heat, heat the oil. Then add the

chiles, tomato, and garlic. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add
the epazote, if using, and the cilantro and cook 5 minutes longer. Reduce the
heat to low and cook 3 minutes longer. Set pan aside to cool.

3. Pour the chile mixture from the pan into a food processor or blender. Add

the vinegar and salt and blend until smooth. Pour the salsa into a mediumsize bowl and stir in the agave nectar until well incorporated. Cover and
refrigerate until ready to use. The salsa will keep in the refrigerator for two
weeks or longer.

Salsas and Sides

9

Fresh tomatIllo salsa
Salsa Fresca de Tomatillo
If you can get them, use purple tomatillos in this recipe. Since they’re not
cooked, they stay purple, a nice visual touch to an already tasty salsa.
makes about 2 cups
1 pound tomatillos, husks removed
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 jalapeño or serrano chile, stemmed and minced (seed and devein for a
milder salsa)
Juice of 1 lime (approximately 2 tablespoons)
Zest of 1 lime (optional)
Salt
Dice the tomatillos and put them in a medium-size bowl. Add the onion,
cilantro, jalapeño, lime juice, and lime zest, if using, and salt to taste. Mix
well. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. The salsa will keep in the
refrigerator for a week or longer, though the onion flavor will grow stronger.

TACO TIp

mexican crema
Tangy and creamy, it’s quite different than American sour cream.
Combine 1 cup heavy cream and 2 tablespoons buttermilk in a small
bowl. Cover, and put in a warm place for 12 to 24 hours, or until
thickened. Crema will keep in the refrigerator for a week.

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TACOS

Salsa and Sides

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