When I was a kid, I was the pickiest eater. We’re talking I-only-like-bread-and-butter picky… Interestingly enough, now I’ll eat just about anything. I will try anything once… which is a good philosophy to have when your love is a self-proclaimed foodie. Let’s put it this way: if I love food, then he’s obsessed with food (and I mean that in the best possible sense). Have I mentioned that he’s an amazing cook, too? Here follows a chronicle of one of the meals we had while I was visiting for my birthday. Shrimp Tacos.
First, let me introduce you to Nate. He is my love.
Ok now, on to the foods. Here we are making masa tortillas! It’s incredibly simple and the recipe (water, salt, masa) is even on the bag of masa. You just mix and make little dough balls.
See? Masa balls! Also, there’s the tortilla press Nate bought at a little Mexican grocery store, which is a really simple tool. You don’t actually need a tortilla press; I’ve made them at home with wax paper and a rolling pin. It does make it easier though…
A pressed tortilla! So simple to make. We made them very small so we ended up having 12 mini tortillas. I started by doing the pressing and then discovered halfway through that my upper body strength, sadly, did not lend itself to continually pressing tortillas. I’m a wimp. I know. So I coerced Nate to let me do the frying, which he had been in charge of up until this point.
The trick to getting these to cook properly is to make sure the pan is hot enough. Nate explained that he presses the tortillas down when they begin to bubble to make sure that they are getting fried evenly. No oil or butter is on the pan, you have to fry them dry. Flip them a couple of times, and when the whole thing bubbles up you know it’s cooked all the way through.
Yay! Delicious homemade tortilla shells! If you wanted to make tortilla chips, simply chop these up and deep fry them in oil until they’re crispy and golden brown. YUM.
Anyway, this was actually done the day before, because we got all menu-planny and were thinking ahead. It took us less than an hour to make these, so it’s not hard to make them right when you want tacos. We kept them ziplocked in the fridge with some paper towels layered between and then just popped them in the microwave for 30 seconds right before eating.
And now, the shrimp part of the shrimp tacos.
Nate did all the slicing and dicing because he has wicked knife skills (and he rightfully doesn’t trust me with a sharp object or with the concept of “slicing”). We made street tacos, which is basically just a meat and cheese filling that you pile onto tortillas in your hand and eat as you make them.
Meanwhile, I was gutting avocados and chopping onions and garlic for the guacamole. A little bit of lemon pepper, salt, and chili powder and voila! Homemade guac.
Nate sauteed the shrimp in garlic and onions and then grated monterrey jack cheese over the simmering pan of deliciousness. I’m practically drooling just remembering it…
He popped the whole pan into the oven to finish it off, and we waited anxiously for the cheese to melt to perfection. Our tortillas were in the microwave and I was sitting at the bar with plates and a rumbling stomach.
It’s still bubbling and steaming. Simply amazing.
We thoroughly enjoyed every bite, and ended up eating 3 or 4 each. I’ve never even heard of shrimp tacos before, and boy was I missing out.
And happy birthday lunch to me! ^_^
goldfishsavant 