7 layer Tacos

Tacos always make me go mmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! More the layers, more tasty and more fun. I made these tacos for my hubby's birthday and everyone who ate, gave me thumbs up... It was fun to share it with friends and family. there is something about food and people, If there are not many people to enjoy food with us, it does not get as much taste it can. Even a bland meal gets tasty when we have people to share it with. 

Mexican food is basically very fresh and uses a lot of flavours that refresh taste buds. I fell in love with it the first time I tasted a fajita (pronounced fahita) at Chipotle... after eating it there, I had to make it at home.. I will post the recipe shortly for a burrito and fajita. Here is a very long recipe of the seven layered taco I made... make and enjoy.

This will take a very long time to make, 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours to put together including cleaning... so choose a week end to make it if you are making it for the first time. With left overs, tacos take less than 10 minutes to arrange.. 

Ingredients:

1. Cooked Beans - Recipe below

2. Guacamole -  Recipe below

3. Tomatillo (pronounced Tomatiyo) salsa - Recipe below

4. Tomato Salsa - Recipe below

5. Finely chopped vegetable - Red\green\yellow bell peppers, sweet corn, onions and tomato (seeded)

6. Romaine lettuce - finely chopped into strips

7. Sour cream (reduced fat)

8. Hard taco shells

Cooked Beans:

Ingredients:

• Pink\black\pinto beans - 1 16oz can
• Chipotle (canned variety) -  1 or 2 (be careful, can make the whole dish extremely hot)
• Yellow pepper paste - 2 tsp
• Onion - 1 big\2 small, finely chopped
• Garlic - 3 to 4 pods, grated or minced, if using paste, 1tbsp
• Coriander\Cilantro - a handful, finely chopped
• Oil -  2 tsp
• Dry oregano - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste

Method:

• Heat oil in a skillet on medium heat and add onions with a pinch of salt and saute.
• After onions turn transparent, add garlic and saute for a few seconds, add oregano and saute for a few seconds.
• Put the chipotle peppers in and mash them well so they break and mix with onions well
• Drain and wash beans and add it to the skillet. Add a little water if it is sticking to the pan. Mash the beans well in to onions. Let a few beans be visible.
• Add the yellow pepper paste and salt and mix well, add chopped cilantro and beans are ready to serve.

Tips:

If you are eating beans with rice, then do not mash them. Make it with a little gravy so it can go well with rice.

Guacamole:

Ingredients:

• Avocado - 1 (use hass avocado, it has the best taste)
• Garlic - 1 pod grated or 1/2 tsp paste
• Jalapeno - 1 seeded
• Lime juice - 2 tsp
• Cilantro\coriander - A handful
• Salt - to taste

Method:

• Cut the avocado into half, take the seed out and scoop the fruit out of the skin.
• Take all the ingredients in to a blender or a chopper and give it a whip till all of 'em mix well together. Guacamole is ready.

Tip:

• To choose a good avocado, just press it with your thumb lightly, it has to give slightly to know it is ripe enough for use before you buy it. Trust me, you will not want to use a raw avocado.
• To take the seed out, cut the avocado in to half vertically, take your knife hit the seed with the bottom sharp side of your knife, give it a slight turn and it comes out clean.
• DO NOT BUY RIPE AVOCADO IF YOU ARE NOT PLANNING TO USE IT THE SAME DAY OR THE NEXT, THEY GO BAD VERY FAST.
• You can not store anything made of avocado for more than a day even in fridge, so make it fresh as and when you need it.

Tomatillo Salsa:

Tomatillo looks just like a raw tomato, However, they are covered with a green layer. When you take the layer out, you can see it looks just like a tomato. They are sticker and tarter than a tomato and this salsa tastes nothing like a tomato salsa. If you do not get them, try it with raw tomatoes and let me know how it turned out. Bitterness alert, raw tomatoes can be bitter.

Ingredients:

• Tomatillo - 5 to 7, roughly chopped
• Onion - 1 big or 2 small roughly chopped
• Garlic - 3 pods roughly chopped
• Jalapeno - 1 seeded and roughly chopped
• Cilantro - a handful
• Salt - to taste
• Lime juice - 1 tsp (optional)
• Oil - 2 tsp

Method:

• Heat oil in a pot on medium heat.
• Saute onion and garlic till onion becomes transparent with salt.
• Add jalapeno and saute for a few minutes. Now add tomatillo and saute for a few minutes, put the lid on and let tomatillo cook well.
• Once it is done, add cilantro and lime juice. Let it cool and run it in the blender till smooth. Tomatillo salsa is ready.

This Salas stores well, for upto 2 weeks in the fridge, so cook a big batch and eat it with rice, salad, tacos chips and whatever you want to try it with.

Tomato Salas:

Ingredients:

 

• Plum tomato - 3 to 4 medium, finely chopped
• Green bell pepper - 1 medium, finely chopped
• Jalapeno - 1 or 2 depending on your taste, seeded and finely chopped.
• Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped
• Garlic - 3 pods, minced/grated or paste 1 to 2 tsp
• Cilantro- a handful, finely chopped
• Salt - to taste
• Oil - 2 tsp

Method:

• Heat oil in a pot on medium heat. Saute onion and garlic till onion gets transparent with some salt.
• Add bell pepper and jalapeno and saute for a minute.
• Add tomatoes, saute for a few minutes, put a lid on the pot and let it cook till it is well done. You can add water if you need. It has to be slightly watery than ketchup.
• Add cilantro and lime juice and salsa is ready to eat.

This salsa stores well, for upto 2 weeks in the fridge, so cook a big batch and eat it with rice, salad, tacos chips and whatever you want to try it with.

Method To put tacos together:

Take the hard taco shell and layer beans at the bottom, then, lettuce, tomatillo salsa, chopped veggies and tomato salsa, guacamole one on top of the other then top all of it with a dollop of sour cream... taco is ready to eat.

You need not follow the exact same layering, try your own way, include or exclude a few ingredients and make your own taco... it is all about what you have on hand and how resourceful you can get.