Crispy Mexican Tacos


Mexican food is famous for its crunchy taste, beans, gaucamole, sour cream and spice! So as we continue to get scattered showers here in CA, hot and crunchy Tacos are something that one enjoys eating. And though you'd find a Taco Bell at almost every nook and corner of the universe, making these tacos at home is not only easy, but the vegetarians can be sure there's no meat sauce in them as you make them in the safety of your own home. Kids would love this delicious food, and with beans, lettuce and avocado, it is also healthy upto a certian extent! And they are not at all time consuming as one stop at the supermarket can get you most of the ingredients. Its pretty much the assembling that you do at home, so you can serve dinner in a jiffy!

Ingredients
8-12 Taco shells (for the more adventurous, I have the shell recipe below)
2 cans of refried beans (same as kidney beans, and they don't have any beef in it)
1 small packet of sour cream
1/2 cup gaucamole sauce
6-7 large tomatoes - boiled
1/2 onion - chopped
1 tsp cayenne pepper (or 2 tsp red chilli powder)
salt - to taste
1 tsp garlic paste
2 cups shredded lettuce
1/2 cup tomato ketchup
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or mexican 4 cheese blend)
3 tbsp oil
2 tbsp Taco Seasoning Mix (available at supermarket)
chopped cilantro - for garnish

Ingredients for Taco Shell:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow corn meal
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 1/2 cup cold water
Oil for frying

Method

Making the Shell
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Beat until smooth. The batter will be thin. Spoon a very small ladle of batter (about 3-4 tbsp) on a moderately hot ungreased griddle to make a very thin 6 inch pancake. Turn when edges begin to look dry, but not brown. Cook on the other side for half a minute and remove from the griddle. make all your shell pancakes like these and keep. On the other stove, put oil to heat in a skillet or pan. Now using 2 tongs drop each pancake in the hot oil and hold both sides up with the tongs to form a taco-shell shape. Cook on both sides for just a few seconds. Take out and drain on brown paper and allow to cool and harden

Preparing the Taco
Now take another pan, put some oil in it, then saute the onions, garlic paste and the boiled tomatoes. Add in the salt and 1 tbsp taco seasoning and also the tomato ketchup. When everything is cooked, blend it well in a grinder to form a semi-solid tomato sauce or paste.

In another skillet, put some oil and add the refried beans to it. Add 3-4 tbsp water if needed and the remaining taco seasoning mix and cook so that the beans become soft and a thick gravy is formed.

Take each taco shell. Layer it with the home-made tomato sauce at the bottom, followed by the refried beans mixture, then the shredded lettuce, gaucamole, sour cream and shredded cheese. Add more ketchup at the top if you like. Garnish with some chopped cilantro for a touch of Indian flavor. Indulge into the flavor of Mexican food!!


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17 comments :

Anonymous said...

beautiful! I love tacos, and as u said, they r convenient to make..my friend's mom made these at home and i absolutely loved the shells!


its time I tried making some at home too:)

-Kirti

Padmaja said...

hey Mansi!! mexican with indian tinge!! i love it!!! its absolutely delicious

Kribha said...

wow...u did the shells at home? I usually get mine outside. Maybe I should try your recipe next time. Your tacos are beautifully dressed.Nice picture.

Rina said...

Luv your tacos. Thanks for the recipe.

FH said...

Beautiful color.We love soft Tacos.
Looks delicious:))

Swaruchy said...

mansi...the tacos look so beautiful.....want to grab and eat one dear :-))

Mansi said...

Thx ppl!

Kribha, I also mostly get the shells from outside, but this is for a lavish time, when you just need to try a hand at something! actually, you can even get the corn tortillas from outside and just fry them and make shells at home...

Saju said...

Mansi, thanks for stopping by my blog, it led me to yours. And you know what? I love it.

Tee said...

Beautiful tacos! I love mexican food,its so colorful and yummy! btw, don't refried beans have pork fat or something...vegetarians will need to buy vegetarian refried beans, which is easily available in the market.

Mansi said...

Thanks Tee - I agree that it's really colorful and tasty too:)yeah the refried beans that I buy don't have any beef or pork, as I mentioned in the post..but thx for pointing it out explicitly!

musical said...

So not fair, Mansi-posting tacos in the evening ;). i am getting so hungry!! Lovely, dear. and thanks for the taco shell recipe! You are great :).

KellytheCulinarian said...

I love taco night! It's every Friday at the National Press Club. My favorite night, by far.

TBC said...

Not a big fan of Mexican food but your tacos looks very nice and colorful:-)

zlamushka said...

I love Mexican, guacamole, tacos, beans... ahhh, what did you do to me? I need one right now. There are no Mex restaurants here in Malmö.... :-(

You make your own taco dough, now THATs something... Gotta try this very soon.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

what if i wanted to make this taco shells but without the egg. how do i do that?

Mansi said...

Meghana - I haven't tried the shells, but I think you can omit the egg and replace it with 2 tbsp oil. That should be good to make eggless taco shells...let me know how it goes!

Rajath said...

Super delicious. Well i guess i will just sit here and imagine i am eating a whole plate of your Ravioli and the sauce.