I have never tried Mexican cuisine save for the affected upmarket nachos at PVR cinemas while in India - in the US, the urge is lower especially with limited vegetarian options.He finds them ok,especially the supermarket 'fresh' tortillas a good substitute for home-made rotis and phulkas and if the roti-maker that you have carried does not have matching voltage and the cooking appliance is not a gas burner but an induction one and a thousand other issues!
On the road trip during my birthday weekend, we had stopped by downtown Guerneville for a quick bite - he had some piping hot cheese quesadilla while i stuck to my safe nachos with salsa.
Back in our neighbourhood, we stopped by one of these Mexican food-on-wheels, quite like the mobile bundis we have back home.Trust me, they have great stuff most times!
I ordered a simple veg taco, the filling was tomatoes-onions-green chillies and some sauce sauteed with coriander garnishing on a hot iron pan. It was that simple but admittedly mouth-watering for a suddenly windy Californian evening.
Last Saturday, after a long day's hike and a movie evening out and my fastidious mind saying no to cooking at home or North/South Indian fare, we decided to go tacos!He is not very fond of Chinese or anything Asian, it will be acquired, he assures.But i must say i'm not very fond of the red beans taco for all its health benefits..I have a pet peeve or two with these beans. Also realised, the veg taco filling varies from wheel to wheel.
At Santana Row, at this nice quaint Mexican place - open air under a giant oak tree, i went footloose singing and clapping, dancing in my seat to their live Mexican music - a very happy place.I totally loved their pan-fresh Mexican fries with a light sprinkle of paprika, McDonalds should admit defeat and shame.He ordered Nachos with guacamole sauce and a sizzling something in sesame. We were killing time before that movie premiere.
Day before yesterday, he brought home a pack of tortillas and told me he is going to snip a centimeter of my hair everyday if the tortillas .Guffaws. So my lunch today was Mexican - veg tacos :)
For the filling
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 big onion, finely chopped
1 big green chilli, finely diced
1 clove of garlic,finely diced
1/2 a capsicum, finely diced
Salt to tast
A pinch of garam masala
Garlic pepper powder
A pinch of black salt
Chopped coriander for garnishing
A dash lime for garnishing
Half a tsp of any tomato based sauce (optional)
Any cooking oil
Heat pan over medium heat.Pour very little oil.Add some mustard seeds and cumin seeds and see them through till they crackle. Add the chopped onions and garlic, stir and fry until they give out that nice aroma.You may want to add a pinch of garam masala for effect. Add the chopped capsicum and tomatoes till all the juices blend well. Sprinkle salt and sprinkle garlic pepper generously per taste.And sauce,optional though. Garnish with coriander, a dash of lime and a sprinkle of black salt.
Now over to the tortillas - took out a couple of them.
(You can choose to heat them or not.You may also refrigerate them and serve later for a salad effect in styled cuts and slices, almost resembling those Indo-Chinese veg rolls, served in our restaurants back in India. Ideally, you should heat tortillas on a flat iron pan but putting them in the microwave for 20secs or so is as good enough.
You could use anything imagined from peanut butter to flavoured cheese. I took my favourite sour cream cheese cube and smeared it all over the tortilla wrap and added my already prepared filling. Roll it, and its ready. I also took out some of his favourite hummus paste from the fridge and that was as good.
Sorry, no pictures - i was really hungry but its a pretty much easy D-I-Y method.
I wanted to say Gracias to myself.
1 comment:
nice. Your wiritng is punchy, and has that street style to it. keep it going :)
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