The past couple of evenings I've been reading through my
Mexican cookbook (pictured above) and marking down recipes that I want us to try. I love this book. It doesn't have very many pictures, but it does have a really nice, conversational tone with stories from the author's time in Mexico and lots of good advice. One of these helpful observations is that once you've got the hang of making tacos, you can make them out of almost anything you have lying around the house.
Given that, Patrick and I decided to collaborate and try to create something tasty with what we had in the house. This turned out to be the following:
Corn tortillas
Sour cream
Milk
Chipotle chiles in adobo
Frozen corn
Garlic
Butter
Dried onion flakes
Our tortillas were a bit stale, so when we dropped by Plaza Latina to get coconut we also picked up some more of those, along with cotija cheese and dried epazote (Mexican herb). I'd originally envisioned us getting some mushrooms to put in the tacos as well, but that didn't end up happening.
Patrick created a delicious (although very hot) sauce with the chiles, milk and cream in the blender, and added it to the corn he'd been cooking with garlic and onion in a bit of butter. It needed a little salt, so we added that with the epazote, and then he put in a couple drops of liquid smoke to increase the smokiness of the mixture. I incompetently grated cheese (and managed to get it all over the floor; I'm a terrible cheese grater) until he took over to save me from myself, and cut up galia melon for later. I was going to cut up our papaya too, but it wasn't ripe yet.
We heated up the corn tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds and then used them to make tacos with a bit of corn filling and then a few pinches of cheese on top. Very tasty! I think we might try and use the rest of the sauce in some other dishes this week, maybe
camarones enchipotlados if I get ambitious. It'll have to be mostly me making this, as Patrick has rehearsals all this week, but you never know. We already have the sauce, so all I'd really have to do is make soupy black beans, rice, and add some shrimp. That'd be pretty easy. We shall see.
In other news, our crane count is at 910. I intend on making more tonight, and we'll see how far I get. The last two will be love letters written on heart-covered origami paper and then read before being folded up. I can't remember if I already mentioned that or not, but now you know. Hard to believe I started this little project back in April, whew! Monkey will be so sad when it's all done...
