Beef tacos: meat browned hard, spices bloomed in the fat, tortillas warmed properly
Tex-Mex tacos as they are made at home in half an hour: minced beef browned hard over high heat, spices fried with the tomato paste, a splash of stock and a quarter of an hour of simmering to a thick sauce. Eight tacos, each one built at the table. The tortillas have to be warmed in a dry pan — one of those steps that takes twenty seconds and decides everything.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Browning 12 min
- Simmering 15 min
- Tortillas and building 8 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneBrown the beef hard
Heat the oil in a wide, heavy pan over high heat. Add the beef, break it into crumbs with a spoon and fry 8–10 minutes, stirring rarely. First it releases water, then the water boils off, and only then does the meat brown and stick to the pan. That brown crust is the whole flavour of the filling.
Ingredients: 500 g minced beef · 1 tbsp oil · 1 pcs onion · 3 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp tomato paste · 2 tsp ground cumin · 2 tsp sweet paprika · 1 tsp dried oregano · ½ tsp chilli flakes · 200 ml stock · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
TipWhile there is water in the pan the temperature cannot pass 100 °C, and the Maillard reaction — the one that gives brown colour and meaty flavour — only gets going above about 140 °C. So don't stir constantly and don't cover: the meat needs time sitting on the hot metal.
Water gone, the meat browningBloom the spices with the tomato paste
Lower to medium heat. Add the finely diced onion and fry 3 minutes, then the chopped garlic, tomato paste, cumin, paprika, oregano and chilli. Fry 1 minute, stirring constantly, until the paste darkens from red to brick and the spices smell toasted.
TipMost of the aromatics in cumin and paprika dissolve in fat rather than water. A minute in hot fat pulls them into the sauce; the same spices tipped straight into liquid taste raw and dusty.
Paste turned brick red, spices fragrantAdd stock and simmer
Pour in the stock, scrape the pan bottom with a wooden spoon, season with salt and pepper. Simmer over low heat 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until you have a thick sauce and a spoon drawn across the bottom leaves a trail that closes slowly. The filling should be moist but not runny: a loose one soaks through a tortilla in three minutes.
A thick sauce, the spoon leaves a trailWarm the tortillas in a dry pan
Heat a dry pan (no fat) until hot. Lay the tortillas in one at a time and warm 20 seconds a side, until they start to puff and brown freckles appear. Stack the warmed ones and wrap them in a clean tea towel.
Ingredients: 8 pcs wheat tortillas, 20 cm · ½ pcs iceberg lettuce · 2 pcs tomatoes · ½ pcs red onion · 150 g cheddar, grated · 150 g sour cream, 18 % · 1 pcs lime
TipA tortilla straight from the packet is stiff and cracks when folded, because its starch has had time to retrograde — to set hard. Brief dry heat drives moisture off the surface and makes that starch pliable again, and the towel traps steam that keeps the whole stack soft until the end of supper.
Twenty seconds a side, then into a towelPrepare the toppings
Shred the lettuce into thin strips, dice the tomatoes (scoop out the seed core with a teaspoon), slice the red onion into thin feathers, grate the cheese. Cut the lime into wedges. Put everything on the table in bowls.
Everything in bowls, each person builds their ownBuild and serve
Spoon 2 heaped tablespoons of filling down the middle of a warm tortilla, then lettuce, tomato, onion and cheese, and finish with a stripe of sour cream and a squeeze of lime. Fold in half and eat at once. The filling keeps 3 days in the fridge and freezes well.
Beef, vegetables, cheese, sour cream, lime
Before you start
Hard taco shells
Warm shop-bought corn shells 4 minutes at 180 °C before filling: crisp instead of cardboard. Use less filling and keep it thick, or they split under the weight.
With turkey, or meat-free
Swap the beef for 500 g minced turkey (add an extra spoon of oil), or a can of red kidney beans crushed with a fork, cooked 10 minutes with the same spices.
The full spread
Guacamole and a fresh tomato salsa with lime turn this into a whole Tex-Mex supper. Both come together while the meat simmers.
