Cinco de Mayo a good excuse for eating tacos (as if you need one)
One of my favorite holidays occurs this week: Cinco de Mayo.
It’s a great excuse to eat tacos, although who needs an excuse for that?
Tacos are a fun way to feed a crowd easily, economically and without much effort as your guests arrive, except to heat the tortillas. This week’s recipe, barbacoa tacos, was developed for a client, and I have to admit, I’d never made beef cheek meat before this. I’m not too adventurous when it comes to these types of meats; however, this recipe made me reconsider a bit.
I also had to cook tongue for this same client, and boy, was that an adventure. Tongue is not the most appetizing-looking thing. But cooked correctly, beef tongue is tender and pretty delicious.
Back to the cheek meat. It can be purchased in a hunk at Mexican grocery stores like Super Del Centro. Either way, it needs some trimming, because there’s a fair amount of fat on this cut. Trim away the excess fat, make the marinade, rub it on the meat, brown it and throw it in the slow cooker (or Instapot). The aroma of the marinade alone will make you happy you made this recipe.
If you’re not adventurous enough to try cheek meat, you can purchase chuck roast and make the same recipe. It won’t have the same marbling as cheek meat, but you can still enjoy the tacos.
I love a good margarita, but I already shared that recipe with you post-Cabo a while back. So this week, I’m sharing a paloma recipe. It’s got tequila, way less sugar (if made with Fresca), salt and lime. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.
Perhaps I should have made these tacos for my friends from The Wichita Eagle who came over for lunch last week: Jean Hays, Denise Neil and Jaime Green. When you work remotely, it’s really nice to get a bit of face time with the people you send weekly e-mails to. I served the ladies a simple lunch of pureed cauliflower soup with shiitake mushrooms, basil oil and garlic sea salt; kale quinoa cherry pecan salad; and lemon shallot chicken. It was a busy day for them because they were packing boxes for the big move, so I was happy to give them a quick pause and nourishment in the midst of the chaos. A surprise pop-in from Eagle columnist Bonnie Bing always brightens the day, so we all got to chat and enjoy.
This week I challenge you to have a party – however simple or complicated you’d like. Invite over some friends and celebrate life.
Adriene Rathbun is an enthusiastic Wichita cook who offers cooking classes through her business, Social. Reach her at socialcookingclasses.com or ar@adrienerathbun.com.
BARBACOA TACOS
2 1/2 to 3 pounds cachete (beef cheek)
8 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons instant espresso
1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons honey
4 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons smoked sweet paprika
2 cups loosely packed cilantro
2 teaspoons plus 2 tablespoons salt, divided uses
1 1/2 cups beef stock
1 white onion, sliced
Corn tortillas
1 avocado, sliced
Pico de Gallo:
Cilantro, chopped
3 limes, cut into wedges
In a blender, make the marinade with garlic, chili powder, espresso, olive oil, honey, cumin, paprika, cilantro and 1 teaspoon salt. Prep meat by salting each side before adding the marinade paste to all sides of the meat.
In a nonstick pan over medium-high heat, brown each side of the meat nicely until the aromatics of the marinade are present. Add beef to the slow cooker on high for four hours with beef stock and white onion slices.
Serve on warm corn tortillas with avocado slices, pico de gallo, cilantro and lime wedges.
PALOMA
2 to 3 ounces white tequila
Ice
Fresca or Jarritos grapefruit soda, to preference
Lime wedges
Salt, for rim
Add tequila and soda to ice in glass and garnish with lime and salt. Cheers.
This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 10:32 AM with the headline "Cinco de Mayo a good excuse for eating tacos (as if you need one)."