Mexican Food -- 'mercun style

Tacos.  

We have wonderful corn tortillas here in Corozal, made fresh as you watch.  The tortillerias open at 6AM and close at 2.  Chico's makes delicate thin tortillas, perfect for chips and frying.  Mirasol makes heavier tortillas, better for enchiladas and soft tacos.  

Taco Meat.  Belizean beef is typically tough, even after stewing(!) so I recommend pork, or maybe half pork and half beef.  The fresher ground the better.  You could use one of the prepared Taco seasoning mixes here, but they cost about 3 dollah. (Almost as much as the meat!!!)  This recipe tastes like the real thing!

3 Tbsp Oil

1 lb. meat

3 Tbsp minced fresh onions

Black pepper

2 Tbsp Chili Powder.

1 Tsp Beef Consommé granules or 1 TBS Maggi Beef Extract.  

1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder

2/3 Cup water

Heat the oil, and then brown the meat in a heavy skillet, stirring and breaking up so that it is uniformly crumbled.  When it's all browned, pepper it liberally. [Remember, black pepper is HOT, and it gets hotter if you cook it with the meat.]   Add the unions, pepper them liberally, and cook until onions are soft. In the midst of cooking, add Chili Powder and stir it in.  Add beef granules or extract and stir it in.  Add water, cover, lower heat and simmer until meat is tender.  Remove lid and simmer, stirring often, until liquid disappears. [Note: In the States, you would have too much oil/fat.]  Here we use more oil to make up for VERY lean meat!]

Frying Tacos.  You probably need a taco fryer.  These are tongs, available in the states, which hold your tacos in the right position so that they will be open enuf to fill.  One recipe I read about suggested that you put the meat in the tortilla and fry it.  This spatters terribly, and the tortilla is tough where it wrapped the tortilla.  You are better frying one side, and then the other, and leaving the middle a little softer, if you don't have a holder.  

Note: perhaps you can delude yourself that soft tacos are better, but they're not.  What could be better than standing out in the yard, eating crispy tacos, letting the crumbs fall in the yard where the dog and the cat devour them gratefully?

Enchilada Sauce

You can buy enchilada sauce in the states, in a can.  Not so here!! Why?  It's simple to make!  Here's a good approximation of what you get in the can, for about half the cost. 

1 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 TBS Minced Onion

1/2 Tsp Black Pepper

1 Cup Tomato Sauce

1/2 Cup water

1/2 Cup Salsa (Canned Salsa Casera)

1 Tsp Chili Powder

1/2 Tsp Granulated Garlic or one Clove minced Garlic.  

Cook onions in olive oil until soft, pepper generously while cooking, add tomato sauce, water, salsa, chili powder, garlic, and cook until it is slightly reduced and resembles canned enchilada sauce!

Hint:  If you cook this in a big iron skillet, you can dip tortillas right in the skillet!  (one less dirty dish, eh?)

Nother Hint:  Put this in a zip-loc bag and freeze it.  Several little bags, which you can thaw and use as required. 

Enchiladas & Encharitos

Enchiladas are made with corn tortillas.  Encharitos (a trademarked Taco Bell term) are made with flour tortillas.  They are very similar in construction, altho the taste is different.  Here is the drill. 

Warm the tortilla.  Dip it, both sides, in enchilada sauce (above) until it is well soaked and soft.  Put it on a plate, which will contain the mess!!  Fill it with some or all of the following:

+ Refried Beans

+ Chopped Onions

+ Chopped Tomatoes

+ Taco Meat (see above) or Chicken or Pork

+ Grated Cheese (be generous

Roll and place in a baking dish that will fit your order.

Cover rolled tortillas completely with enchilada sauce.

Grate cheese over the top of the dish. 

Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

Two enchiladas or one encharito per person.   Serve with salad, Spanish rice, beans, etc. 

Huevos Rancheros New -- get a separate page here.

Refried Beans

You can buy refried beans in a can, but they don't taste very good!  (More like catfood, eh??)  So, here's what you need to do to make canned refrired beans taste like the great stuff you get in a Mexican restaurant. You need:

Coconut Oil. 

Beans

Salsa.

Coconut oil is easy to find in Belize, if a little expensive.  It makes your beans taste heavenly!  If you can't get that, you'll have to use ordinary oil.  (Click here to find out how to buy Virgin Coconut Oil.)  Heat about 2 Tbsp in a heavy iron skillet and then put the beans in.  If they're canned refried beans, they're already smashed.  If you have previously cooked beans, you can put them in and smash them with a potato or bean masher.  (A bean masher has a flat plate with holes in it; a potato masher has a wavy bar.  The bean masher works better.)  Stir the beans and cook them/it in the oil for a while.  You can add water and cover and cook for a little while, but mostly, you just have to get the mix into a thick consistency so you can use it to spread on tortillas.  

Now, add a half cup of salsa.  This can be canned salsa, like the Salsa Casera we have here in Belize, or it can be Old El Paso® or Pace® Picante Sauce. Stir it in until it disappears, cook a little more to marry the flavors, and your refried beans are ready to hold their own with the restaurant variety.  

They'll keep about a week in a sealed Tupperware® container;  we use them for lots of things, including side servings for breakfast. 

New. For goodness sake.  I've been looking at "Enchiladas" on the web.  People are making them with Cream of Chicken Soup or <gasp, choke, gag> Cream of Mushroom Soup!

DON'T DO IT!!  Popacatapetl will visit you in the middle of the night and cut your heart out with a obsidian knife!  <just kidding>  Don't do it!  Enchilada sauce is tomato sauce, onions, salsa, and chili powder.  Period.  Chicken is chicken, perhaps cooked with a little onion and consomme'.  Cheese is cheese. 

Newer.:  Don't miss my recipe for Rick's killer Breakfast Burritos, 

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