Cinco de Mayo

Spiced Beef Fajita Tacos with Avocado Cream and Restaurant Style Salsa

May 3, 2017 by The Partial Ingredients

For Cinco de Mayo I wanted to showcase one of my favorite “food truck” style taco recipes. As you can probably tell by my post history I am a big fan of tacos. I wanted to incorporate my favorite part about fajitas–the seasoned peppers and onions–into a taco recipe. The beef is seasoned with a medley of spices that complements the bell peppers and caramelized onions. The salsa is a simple “restaurant style” recipe made with oven roasted tomatoes and blended with chilies, garlic and jalapenos. It also happens to be excellent with chips so have some of those handy for an appetizer! One of my latest favorite taco toppings has been avocado cream which sounds fancier than it is. While avocados are always perfect on their own, I sometimes like to mix them up a bit. All you need is a ripe, well mashed avocado, sour cream and lime juice. Mix together and there you have it–super easy! Top this one with plenty of the salsa and lime juice. I used a finely shredded sharp cheddar to garnish but a crumbly queso fresco or white cheddar would be excellent as well.

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Korean BBQ Chicken Tacos with Coleslaw and Sriracha Sour Cream

July 27, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

What draws me to taco recipes is the symphony of flavors from the meats, condiments and sauces. I have never eaten Korean tacos from a food truck but I would hope that they might be like something like this: barbeque style chicken with crunchy coleslaw and spicy sour cream.

These tacos kick everything up a notch in terms of flavor and texture. The chicken is marinated ‘Dak Bulgogi‘ style with a sweet and savory sauce, grilled until caramelized. The coleslaw is a play on American coleslaw, using Napa cabbage (as used in Kimchi) with fish sauce, green onion, sriracha, and mirin. As the chicken is marinating in the sauce, prep the coleslaw and sriracha sour cream and leave it to chill. That way you’ll have everything you’ll need to assemble the tacos after grilling the chicken. The best way to make tacos is just having everything done so that you can time your dinner perfectly and not be scrambling at the last minute! I loved these tacos and will definitely make them again soon.

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Green Chile and Chorizo Soup with Smokey Croutons

July 17, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

I love soups and tex-mex food and this recipe combines the best of both worlds! This soup combines a delicious mix of green chilies and tomatillos, chorizo, hominy, potatoes and spices. I went a little overboard with the garnishes and topped the soup with crumbled queso fresco, green onion, fresh lime, cilantro and smokey baked croutons. Even the croutons alone in this recipe are stand out awesome and could easily be snacked on alone! The recipe does require a lot of ingredients and time to prepare but it is totally worth it in the end. I actually never made anything with hominy before and I thought it worked really nicely with the other ingredients. The soup was hardy, with multiple layers of sweet, spicy and savory flavors. I chose a beef chorizo for the meat but soy and pork varieties would work fine in this soup. All of the ingredients blended together so well and I was happy with how it came out!

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15 Recipes for Cinco de Mayo

May 3, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

April has blown by and Cinco de Mayo is only a few days away! Here are some of my favorite recipes that would be perfect for any table on Cinco de Mayo.

Chipotle-Lime Roasted Chicken Tacos

Steak Tacos with Chipotle Cherry Salsa and Caramelized Onions

Cochinita Pibil Tamales with Roasted Tomatillo Salsa and Queso Fresco

Black Bean and Sweet Corn Salsa

Roasted Jalapeno and Avocado Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Korean Pulled Pork Tacos with Kimchi and Queso Fresco

Chile Verde Chicken Tamales

Korean Grilled Chicken Burrito with Pickled Onion & Cucumber Relish

Cochinita Pibil Tacos with Queso Fresco and Pickled Onions

Roasted Corn and Red Pepper Salsa

Achiote Black Bean Tacos with Grilled Avocado and Goat Cheese

Chile Verde Roasted Pork Stew

Pork with Mole Negro Sauce

Cuban Pulled Pork Tacos with Red Cabbage and Jicama Slaw and Chipotle Mayo

Corn Esquites Salad with Avocado (Mexican Roasted Corn Salad)

Korean Grilled Chicken Burrito with Pickled Onion & Cucumber Relish

May 2, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

For Cinco de Mayo I have been trying some tex-mex dishes with an injection of Korean flavors. So far I have been enjoying these recipes a lot. This recipe is all about the combination of spicy and sour flavors. The grilled chicken and salsa bring the spiciness while the cucumber relish brings the sour and sweet. The creamy avocado and queso fresco mellow everything out and the result is a really tasty burrito. It wasn’t hard to assemble but prepping the fillings beforehand does take time. To make it easier, I made the red salsa days earlier which shortened the prep time by an hour or so. I would recommend marinating the chicken for a few hours before grilling so the flavors can come together. Garnishing the burrito with a little lime juice at the end helps prevent the avocado slices from browning.

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Korean Pulled Pork Tacos with Kimchi and Queso Fresco

April 27, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

When I decided to make Korean/Tex-mex food the first thing I thought of were tacos. They are so easy to load up with any ingredient you like. I settled on pork shoulder for the meat filling along with two different salsas: a red salsa flavored with fresh ginger and sesame seeds and a refreshing cilantro and lime salsa. Then I decided on kimchi, a Korean fermented cabbage and crumbled queso fresco to complete it. The result was a delicious taco loaded with great toppings. The pork was cooked on low heat for about 2 hours which resulted in meat that fell off the bone. The pork was spicy and sweet which went along great with the red salsa and kimchi. The cilantro and lime salsa provided a nice crunch and the lime juice went along nicely with the other fillings. All the flavors worked so well together and I look forward to making this again!

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Cochinita Pibil Tamales with Roasted Tomatillo Salsa and Queso Fresco

February 13, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Tamales are a great traditional Mexican dish that is made with masa (corn flour), and stuffed with a meat or bean filling. They are then wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves and steamed. For the filling, I decided on a nice pork shoulder that I seasoned with savory annatto seeds, cumin, and allspice–the same recipe for the Cochinita Pibil Tacos. I made Chicken Tamales before, and I wanted to try pork. I decided to use a roasted tomatillo salsa and queso fresco again since salsa verde is so good with pork.

This dish is labor intensive and requires some planning–about 2 days. The first day is to get all the ingredients together and cook the filling. The second day is assembling the tamales and steaming them and of course eating them! When the tamales are in the steamer all you have to do is wait. Once the wait is over it is time to unwrap and enjoy some tasty tamales.

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Cochinita Pibil Tacos with Queso Fresco and Pickled Onions

December 21, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

Cochinita Pibil tacos is a traditional Mexican/Central American dish that is made by slowly roasting pork shoulder with a savory spice blend that consists of cumin seed, annatto seed, cloves and allspice berries. The pork is marinated in spices and orange juice over night, wrapped in banana leaves, and baked in the oven. Thankfully it was easy to find the annatto seeds and banana leaves at a latin grocery store. After several hours, my kitchen smelled amazing from the spices and the pork was ready to be shredded and wrapped in warm corn tacos. I added a little crumbled queso fresco and Mexican pickled onions for garnish. To add a substantial amount of heat I put a tiny bit of roasted habanero salsa on them as well. I topped the tacos with fresh cilantro. If the salsa is just too firey, add a little sour cream to cool the heat.
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Cuban Pulled Pork Tacos with Red Cabbage and Jicama Slaw

November 6, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

My high opinion of pulled pork and pork shoulder was further validated by this recipe for Cuban pulled pork tacos. Making good pulled pork is always a very simple formula: wet rub + dry rub + marinate + several hours in an oven = fork tender, juicy pulled pork. The flavor profile of this recipe is sweet and spicy, which comes from the cuban dry rub and fresh orange and lime juices. The red cabbage and jicama slaw added more sweet heat along with some texture and crunch. The chipotle mayonnaise was surprising as I had never eaten mayo with a taco before but the results were great nonetheless. The mayo is super easy to throw together as all it requires is mixing mayo and a few tablespoons of pureed chiles in adobo sauce with a little lime juice. I topped the tacos with sour cream and chopped cilantro.

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Chipotle Lentil and Bean Chili

October 30, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

October and November, in my opinion, are the best months for soups and chilis. I can’t really get enough of a warm bowl of something tasty during these months. Since I had quite a few leftover ingredients from other meals (e.g. lentils, beans, tomato sauce, cilantro, etc) I figured I should try creating a chili out of what I had sitting around. I kept looking around for more things to throw in and noticed I had some frozen green peppers and jalapenos, so I cut them up and threw them in too. I was very happy with how the chili turned out! This chili does not need an ounce of meat as it is packed with protein from the lentils, kidney beans, and pinto beans. The ground chipotle chilis were great and gave it a more smoky, aromatic flavor. I garnished the chili with sour cream and cilantro, but yogurt would be a good substitute for the sour cream.

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