Gute Essen

An Ode to a Taco

      Tuesday, August 11, 2009 | 1 comment »

Taco Time!
What you're looking at there? That? That photo? That is perfection embodied in a simple pile of vegetables, fruits and beans.

I'm pretty sure that if Julie had her way every night would be taco night, or at least every week would include a taco night. Now, I'm not going to argue with that concept at all, since tacos might actually be the apex of humanity's designs on food. Also, they're fucking delicious.

Luckily taco night happened to fall on the second day of a two day heat and humidity streak we experienced. (The night before was turkey burgers since the stove had to be on only for about 12 minutes total.) I say luckily because tacos are quite easy and quick to make, especially when they only contain vegetables, even if you're making your own tortillas.

I had read a while back a post on Serious Eats about Kale and Black Bean Tacos and it had been on my mind for a while, mostly because I love both kale and black beans, and because I am getting a little bored of chicken tacos (which, are mostly, the only kind of tacos that Julie really likes to eat). Although, I didn't much like his recipe given (and like, I don't need to put lard in a perfectly cromulent combination of vegetation to make it palatable for consumption), so I took the theme and changed it up a bit to come up with the perfection you're seeing above.

A little salty, smokey from the cumin, creamy from the beans, a decent bite of heat from both jalapeños and chipotle peppers, and a nice hint of bitterness from the kale, these tacos were seriously some of the best I've made in a while.

Also, lets discuss tortillas quickly here. I can think of no reason why people don't make their own corn tortillas at home. It's not that much extra work (especially if you buy a tortilla press), they are eight million times cheaper and put anything you've ever had pre-made to absolute shame. And these are just ones made from instant masa (masa seca), not even real masa (which is surprisingly hard to find in New York oddly enough). It takes me about 10 minutes to make a batch of tortillas from mixing the masa with water (that's it -- just masa and water) to pressing each one out to cooking it on a griddle until it starts to smoke a little. So, really, go make your own. Please. You'll thank me for it.

Black Bean and Kale tacos

  • 2 cans black beans drained, but not well drained (I have no qualms about canned beans. They're easy quick and not much more expensive).
  • 1 large head of kale, removed from the stalks and ripped up into small pieces
  • 2 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
  • half a red onion, sliced thin
  • 2-3 tbls whole cumin seed
  • 2 jalapeño peppers, diced
  • 1 chipotle pepper chopped fine and 2 tsp of the accompanying adobo
  • salt, pepper and olive oil

  1. In a 4 quart dutch oven heat up the olive oil over medium heat until it shimmers, add the garlic, peppers cumin, and onions with a pinch of salt and let them cook until soft.
  2. Add the black beans and any residual canned bean liquid (or cooking liquid from the dried beans if you went that route) and let them warm up.
  3. Add the kale and about a 1/2 cup of water. Stir the kale in well and when it goes from crisp to just soft, kill the heat and eat!

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