Breakfast Tacos with Chorizo and Fried Eggs

One of my friends has the most insane stories from her office, almost daily. Recently she was telling me about her coworker from Texas (Dillon/ East Dillion I’m assuming). He was talking about the things he misses most about the lone star state, particularly breakfast tacos (followed closely, I'm sure, by Tim Riggins). And the rest of the coworkers didn’t believe him that breakfast tacos exist. Seriously!? Who are these heathens! I want nothing to do with them. And everything to do with breakfast tacos (and Tim Riggins).

Date & Chorizo Kale Salad

We don’t usually have salad at our Thanksgiving feast, do you? I’ve always felt like, who wants to fill their plates and bellies with lettuce when there are already too many other good things to get through?

But this year, I’m throwing this salad option out there for you, just in case you want a dose of something green and leafy. And it’s kale, so really, no worries about that whole lettuce issue I mentioned above.

Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Recipes

It's fiesta time! Here's a little roundup of some of my favorite Mexican-inspired recipes for Cinco de Mayo! 

Having a Cinco de Mayo brunch? Serve Baked Tortilla Cup Huevos Rancheros and these awesome Black Bean and Chorizo Egg Tortas!

Every fiesta needs BEBIDAS! Put out a bucket of Mexican beers, Jarrito & Tequila To-Gos, and of course, whip up a batch of Coconut Margaritas! 

For snacks, put out a big bag of tortilla chips (my favorite are Juanita's!), some Totally Grilled Guac, and some cheesy Aperitivo de Frijol!

Taco bar? Be sure to add this spicy/tangy shredded beef for Machaca tacos! 

It turns out, I don't have any Mexican dessert recipes on the blog! Crazy! You know what else is crazy? I've never had tres leches cake. Like, ever. Never even one bite. I'm thinking of changing that real soon, and here are a few contenders:

• Shutterbean: Coconut Tres Leches Cake 
• The Candid Appetite: Classic Tres Leches Cake
• Chez Us: Coconut & Lime Three Milk Cake
• How Sweet Eats: Banana Bread Tres Leches Cake 

Tortas with Chorizo Scrambled Eggs

Cinco de Mayo is on Sunday, which means you should make Cinco de Mayo brunch. You'll probably wake up hungover on Sunday anyway, a bit hazy from all those margaritas and Coronas the night before. And tequila shots. 

I'm here for you. I've got your back. And I've got tortas! You're in luck, because the best thing for a hangover is Mexican food. And bread, to soak up all that booze. A torta—a Mexican sandwich—is the best of both worlds. Basically a burrito, in bready sandwich form. 

You gotta start out with the bread. If you can find bolillo or telera rolls, use those. If not, you can use soft-ish French rolls, like I did. You can press the whole sandwich, panini style, but I like to just grill or toast the bread instead. 

Since this is a breakfast torta, we're using eggs. Eggs that are scrambled with chorizo (the raw ground kind, not the smoked link kind). That's all this is. Cook the chorizo, add the eggs, scramble it up. You also have to add beans. That's really what makes this a torta, in my opinion. I like refried black beans, with a splash of vinegar for some zing. You can buy the canned kind, or make your own. 

To balance out the rich beans, eggs, and chorizo, you need something fresh. Tomatoes and cilantro. You also need avocado. Because, well, it's avocado. You just need it. 

I like to add a little creamy kick with spicy mayo. This is just a bit of mayo and sour cream, mixed with hot sauce. You can use whatever hot sauce you're into right now. I went with Tapatio, it has a good flavor for Mexican food. 

Oh yeah. I almost forgot about the cheese! Use any cheese you want. I like to melt a little shredded cheddar and jack in with the eggs, and then add some crumbled cotija to the sandwich. If you're going panini-press style, you could use slices of cheese so that it gets all melty and holds everything together. 

To assemble, just layer it on! Spicy mayo and beans go directly on the bread, followed up the chorizo scrambled eggs, cilantro, tomatoes, avocado and cheese. It's so good you could almost go for another round of Patrón. Or not. 


PS. The awesome font on these photos is courtesy of www.mawns.com/wordpress

Sunday Part 2: Spontaneous Brazilian

...After making tacos (and ice cream) for the moving crew, Amanda and I kicked around town for awhile, and headed back to her house to make salads and watch Sex and the City. Lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, zucchini, and broccoli in the bowl, Amanda went out to the balcony to put the chicken on the grill. Sterling, a neighbor from a few doors down, came around the corner just in time to hear Amanda turn on the propane, and invited us over to sample some empanadas. We figured we'd just head over and have a quick taste, and come back to check on the grill. Little did we know, we were in for a spur-of-the-moment Brazilian feast.

As we entered Sterling's home (after accidentally knocking on the wrong door), we were greeted with glasses of champagne, and warm welcomes from Sterling's girlfriend Laurie, roommate Leslie, and a big group of their friends (who all happened to work at Greenlake Bar & Grill). Sterling loves to cook, try new recipes, and entertain, and was thrilled to have a random group of friends and neighbors over for his newest culinary endeavor: Brazilian. Their new roommate Leslie had spent some time living in Brazil, and had recently treated them to dinner at a local Brazilian restaurant. Obsessed with the delicious new flavors, Sterling was on a mission to recreate and perfect Brazilian cuisine. The menu: empanadas, collard greens, grilled chorizo with chimichurri, and my favorite part... a Brazilian condiment called farofa. Seeing the feast at hand, smelling the delicious aromas, and being handed glass after glass of champagne and wine, we decided it was time to turn off our grill, and settle in for a night of laughs and great eats with new friends.

Sterling took charge in the kitchen, and it was obvious that he had a passion for food and a zest for cooking. He was almost giddy with the excitement of the meal, and sharing his talents in the kitchen with new people. Laurie was the ultimate sous chef. To make the empanadas, she stuffed little rounds of dough with a mixture of top sirloin, raisins, and other tasty odds and ends that Sterling had mixed up. Once filled, the edges were crimped and the empanadas were brushed with egg wash and put in the oven to bake up to golden perfection. They were crispy on the outside, and full of flavor on the inside. Absolutely delicious.

The chorizo sausages were sliced lengthwise, doused in Sterlings homemade chimichurri, and thrown on the grill. Chimichurri is a basically a Latin pesto, a mix of garlic, oil, parsley, peppers, and other delicious ingredients, used as a marinade for the meat and condiment for the empanadas. Sterling's was full of fresh flavor, and he explained that in Brazil they said that meat marinated in chimichurri tasted as if it was 'pulled through the garden' with all of it's fresh garden flavor. The sausage was spicy and tasted amazing with an extra splash of chimichurri.

Sterling explained that Brazilian cuisine uses similar ingredients as Southern American cuisine (because of a similar history with the slave trade), but they use different methods of preparation. Case in point: collard greens. Well versed in southern cooking, Sterling said that he was used to cooking down the whole leaves until they were wilted and less bitter, but in Brazil, the common preparation involved removing the thick stems, slicing the greens into thin ribbons, and giving them a quick saute with garlic. After tasting his Brazilian greens, I'll take his word for it! Slightly crisp and chewy at the same time, the greens were like nothing I had tried before.

And finally, the bell of the ball... farofa. Farofa is a buttery, bacony flour mixture, made with manoic flour, which is often sprinkled over food, or eaten on it's own. I think I'm in love. I had never seen, heard of, or tasted anything remotely similar to farofa. We spooned it onto our greens, sausage, and empanadas, and then ate it straight from the bowl with spoons. Smokey, buttery, and amazing, I can't believe I lived so long without farofa in my life!

After too many glasses of wine and champagne, three helpings of dinner, tons of laughs, a shared love of food, and several hours, we took our to-go bags of tasty Brazilian treats, hugged our new friends goodbye, and stumbled out the door. By this point it was well past 10 PM. We put our measly little salad and chicken in the fridge for another time, grateful for the amazing feast we spontaneously happened upon. With fantastic homemade farofa on my mind, I hope to be back to Sterling's kitchen soon, to see what else he's cookin' up!