Fresh approach to tacos with intriguing fillings

[one...two...tree 2,762]

by Susan Felt - The Arizona Republic

It's time to up your taco game.

No more pre-packaged spice mix added to cooked hamburger and slapped into a stale, hard shell.

Expand your taco repertoire to include more intriguing fixings, such as shredded pork, grilled marinated steak and smoked chicken.

And how about fish? Shrimp? Crumbled queso fresco? Try a chocolate and banana dessert taco. Or pineapple pico de gallo and fresh salsa, not the kind spooned from a jar.

You live in the Southwest, with its rich heritage of Mexican food. The ingredients for exciting tacos are readily available. Fresh corn and flour tortillas are made daily at Food City and Phoenix Ranch Market. You have an assortment of chile peppers and homemade salsas at your disposal.

Tacos are a quick, nutritious, economical and portable food, satisfying as an entree and fun as the centerpiece of an impromptu party.

Azucena Tovar, owner of Los Sombreros in Scottsdale, grew up in Mexico eating her mother's sublime tacos. Fourteen years ago, she moved to Phoenix. When she opened the restaurant, she returned to the cuisine she loves most: Mexican rural food.

"I grew up with great homemade food," Tovar said. "We had tortillas three times a day and you make tacos. It's our side dish."

Tortillas were stuffed with a little bit of the stew, chicken, potato, egg, pork or beans on your plate.

Growing up in central Mexico, Tovar had her favorites: the street tacos served from carts in abundance in nearly every town. It wasn't until Tovar was older that she sampled her first fish taco. Seafood tacos were specialties of coastal towns and not interior communities where she was raised.

But she developed a taste for seafood tacos and has one on the menu at Los Sombreros.

At her restaurant she honors her childhood heritage, serving tacos in corn tortillas. These hand-pressed tortillas are grilled over a mesquite-fired stove and filled with grilled fish, smoked chicken or grilled steak. Garnishes include homemade salsas, pico de gallo, sour cream, chopped cilantro and onion.

Tovar adheres to the culinary principles she learned as a girl: Use the freshest, best ingredients available and keep it simple.

http://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/food/ar...wtacos0604.html

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

mmmmm tacos

[one...two...tree 2,762]

mmmmm tacos

I'm about to go have some for lunch!

[Marilyn. 340]

thanks to julez i am going to be making tacos for din din tonight

Edited June 4, 2008 by *Marilyn*

[one...two...tree 2,762]

thanks to jules i am going to be making tacos for din din tonight

Awesome!

[almaty 19]

mmmmm tacos

need beer

[Sister Fracas 5]

A foodie thread from Steven?

hehehe

are you hungry?

[Marilyn. 340]

will be making the soft taco kind with some ground beef..

[one...two...tree 2,762]

A foodie thread from Steven?

hehehe

are you hungry?

I'm hankering for some tacos!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I had a great ground beef quesadilla yday for dinner.. yum. Do they make quesadillas in Mexico or is that an American thing?

[almaty 19]

I had a great ground beef quesadilla yday for dinner.. yum. Do they make quesadillas in Mexico or is that an American thing?

it is a mexican food....and americanized here...

[one...two...tree 2,762]

mmmmm tacos

need beer

...one of my favorites with Mexican food.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

oic. well i dont know if what i had was more like the authentic version or more like the americanized but it was gooooood.....

[Sister Fracas 5]

I'm making a dish tonight that has chorizo and Mexican stylee queso cheese. mmmmm, can't wait

[Marilyn. 340]

A quesadilla (IPA [kesi'diya], usually anglicized as [keɪsa'dija]) is a dish in Mexican cuisine or Tex-Mex, which involves cooking ingredients, most importantly cheese, inside a corn or wheat tortilla or a wrapping of masa (cornmeal dough)). The word comes from Spanish, and literally means "little cheesy thing" Exactly what constitutes a quesadilla varies from region to region and between the U.S. and Mexico, and is not universally agreed upon by chefs, but there are certain similarities between the different versions that people generally agree upon, namely that the quesadilla is cooked after being filled or stuffed, while a taco or burrito is filled with pre-cooked ingredients. The purist faction may argue that only the folded-masa, empanada-style Mexican version is a "real" quesadilla

Mexican quesadilla

Originally, in most regions (especially the central region) of Mexico, a quesadilla is a circle of uncooked corn masa folded in half and filled with cheese, then warmed up until the cheese has melted. However, variations include the use of wheat flour tortillas, especially in the northeast part of Mexico, which are more like cheese tacos found in the U.S. Wheat dough is used in place of corn masa in pastes, a preparation typical of the Mexican city of Pachuca, Hidalgo.

Salvadoran Quesadilla

El Salvador also has its version of the quesadilla. Unlike its Mexican counterpart, the Salvadorian quesadilla is a dense bread dessert that is usually eaten with coffee. The ingredients include flour (or pancake mix), milk, eggs, butter, sour cream, sugar, and Parmesan cheese. The ingredients are mixed to create a batter and then baked in a shallow pan in the oven for about 30 minutes. This type of quesadilla is also common in Guatemala and southern Mexico states like Chiapas and Oaxaca.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quesadilla