Taco Night

Although it is blazing-hot out (by my standards at least) I decided I would make short rib tacos for dinner tonight. I was likely to be home most of the day so all I needed to do was take a quick trip to the grocery store to get ingredients and this morning I chopped the veggies and then threw the ingredients into a pot and I just check on it every hour. I like to cook it all day for the most tender, falling apart beef. The recipe calls for short ribs, and I had previously stopped making it with short ribs because they are really fatty, so sometimes I have made it with brisket, but recently I have discovered grass-fed boneless short ribs at Whole Foods and they are much less fatty. Yum!

I have modified this recipe that I originally found on Epicurious.com (which was reprinted from Tacolicious, by Sara Deseran and Joe Hargave, Copyright © 2014, published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House LLC.).

Braised Beef Tacos

Serves 4–8

Ingredients:

• olive oil to coat pan
• 1 large onion (I prefer sweet onions, but use what you prefer) — chopped
• 3 garlic cloves (more or less depending on your preference) — chopped
• 1 large green bell pepper — chopped
• 1 large red bell pepper (or orange or yellow) — chopped
• 1 dried guajillo chile— remove seeds if you want this to be mild, keep seeds for more spice and add a few more for a bigger kick.- chopped
• 1–3 dried chipotle chiles — these add a lot of spice and smokiness, which is really good but my 12-year old has not learned to appreciate even the slightest spice so I leave this out unless I know he won’t be eating it. Chopped if using.
• 3 tsp. chile powder (or more)
• 2 tsp ground cumin (or more)
• 2 tbsp dried oregano
• 1–2 tsp salt
• 1–2 tsp black pepper
• 3 lbs beef short ribs or beef brisket. Cut off as much fat as possible. Slice into 3 or 4 inch pieces.
• 32 oz low-sodium beef or vegetable broth (original recipe used 12 oz bottle of dark Mexican beer — I have nothing against beer, the more the merrier, but I like the broth flavor better).
• choice of tortillas or lettuce (salad) base

Procedure:

1. Heat a dutch oven on medium-high heat with some olive oil.
2. Add onion, garlic, bell peppers to pan and sauté until soft.
3. Add dried chiles if using them and sauté a bit longer. Sometimes I add one or two for some smokiness and take the seeds out (keeps the 12-year-old happy).
4. Add chile powder, cumin, oregano salt and pepper to the onion mixture. Sauté for a couple of minutes.
5. Add broth, bring mixture to a boil.
6. Puree half or all of the mixture, return to the dutch oven.
7. Add beef short Ribs, bring mixture to a boil again and then turn down to simmer, cover and let simmer for several hours, or until meat is tender and falling apart. You can also put into a 375 degree oven and cook covered for several hours. Remove all bones if your meat has them.
8. Once the meat is tender and falling apart easily, take off lid and simmer until most of the liquid has reduced and meat is just a bit saucy.
9. Optional to let meat mixture sit (cool) and skim off fat at this point.
10. Serve in tortillas or on a bed of lettuce with your favorite accompaniments (cheese, salsa, guacamole, etc).

Sautéing the onions, peppers, and garlic

The broth and vegetable mixture before pureeing

The pureed broth mixture, ready to cook the beef in now.

The meat when finished cooking. Super tender and falling apart! Yum!

I made myself a taco salad

My favorite margarita recipe — makes 2

• 3 oz tequila (I like Patron Silver or Corazon)
• 4–6 limes
• small squeeze of honey or agave syrup (hearing that agave is not so healthful anymore so getting hesitant to use it)

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, combine ingredients into the shaker, shake vigorously for a minute or so, strain into a martini glass (salt-rimmed if you choose). So simple and besides the tequila, healthy. Enjoy!