Friday, July 8, 2016

Rosie Makes Puffy Tacos.



 I've been in the mood for fish tacos for a while.
I've been thinking about them.
Wondering how I wanted to fix them.
What kind of fish?
How to cook the fish?
And what about the taco?
I didn't want any regular taco.

Rosie Note:  If you want to take a regular taco
to the next level, here's what you do:
Brush the tortilla with melted butter
and season with cumin, cayenne, oregano, cilantro -
you know, the regular stuff.
Then - and this is the beauty -
hang the taco over two rungs in the oven.
Bake on low until golden-brown and then you have a taco 
with a flat bottom that sits straight up on your plate.

 Well, back to what I wanted.
I wanted a special taco.
And then the Puffy Taco ran into my brain,
jumping up and down, 
and wildly waving its arm back and forth,
saying, "Pick me!  Pick me!"

So I did.

 I was in a hurry to get this on the table
since I was feeding other gaping mouths,
so, unfortunately, you won't be getting the step-by-steps
on the pics.
I'll do it for you another time when I have time.
But I'll do my best to explain the process
of producing the puffy taco.

 Here are my little puffy tacos.
Not a good pic,
but they look like little flying saucers.
And there's about 3-4 inches of puff in the middle.
They're fried tortillas and there's a trick to making them puffy.

That trick is hot peanut oil - 400°.
If you haven't bought a laser thermometer yet,
I urge you to do so.
Besides my hands, it's one of my most used kitchen gadgets.

I use an iron skillet, pour in peanut oil (It has a high smoke point.),
and bring oil to 400°.
Carefully(!) slide a tortilla into the hot oil and
ladle the hot oil over the top of the tortilla.
Now comes the scary point.
It starts to blow up like a balloon
and I'm always scared it's going to burst
and cause me severe pain.
Using tongs at arms length and protective head gear,
carefully turn puffed-up taco over and fry on other side.
After the domed middle is golden brown,
using tongs, or asbestos fingers,
lift the taco to rotate and brown the sides.
Drain on paper towels.


 I filled my puffy tacos with seared mahi mahi.
Seasoned the filets with a little Creole/Cajun seasonings I happened to have,
then seared in peanut oil and unsalted butter until done and flaky
Times depend on thickness of filet.
Mine were about an inch thick.
Over medium high heat, I probably seared the first side 3 minutes,
turned over for 2 minutes, then I seared the sides.
You want flaky.

 I tucked in a little jasmine rice,
diced squash, zucchini, onion with a little cumin touch,
homemade salsa, shredded iceberg lettuce,
and my special sauce - mayo, sriracha, sweet chili sauce 
in the proper proportions:
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 TB sriracha
2 tsp sweet chili sauce
Adjust if you like.


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