• Capital: Mexico city
• Population: about 127 million
• Area: 1 972 550 km²
• Currency: Mexican Peso

For my Mexican recipe I made tacos. Tacos are a street food you can find pretty much anywhere in Mexico. It’s a corn tortilla filled with pretty much any sort of meat, vegetables, cheese and sauces. This recipe basically contains everything you need to make a taco feast!

Tacos

Ingredients:

For the meat:

• 1 pound skirt steak
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 jalapeno
• 1 lime
• 4 or 5 sprigs of cilantro
• 3 cloves garlic

For the corn tortillas:

• 1 cup masa
• Water
• 1 pinch of salt

For the hot sauce:

• 2 ancho chiles
• 2 tomatillos
• 1 cloves garlic
• 1 serrano pepper
• 1 squeeze of lime

For the guacamole:

• 1 avocado
• 2 or 3 sprigs of cilantro
• 1/4 to 1/2 jalapeños
• 1 tablespoon chopped white onion
• 1 pinch cumin
• 1 pinch garlic powder
• 1/2 lime

For the pico de gallo:

• 2 tomatoes
• 1/2 small white onion
• 3 or 4 sprigs of cilantro
• 1/4 to 1/2 jalapeños
• 1 squeeze of lime

Other ingredients:

• Queso fresco
• Mexican crema

Directions:

First start by preparing all your ingredients. Chop the white onion and the tomatoes. Remove the seeds and finely chop 2 jalapeños. Cut the ancho chiles and the serrano pepper in half lengthwise and remove all the seeds. Cut the tomatillos in large chunks. Finely chop 3 cloves of garlic. Remove the cilantro leaves from the stems.

Now that all the ingredients are ready, begin with the meat marinade.

In a large bowl, squeeze the juice of 1 lime. Chop the leaves of about 4 to 5 cilantro sprigs and add them to the bowl. Add 1 jalapeño finely chopped and the 3 garlic cloves finely chopped. Finish by adding 1 tablespoon of cumin and 1 tablespoon of oregano. Add a large pinch of salt and pepper.

Stir the marinade and add the meat. Ensure that the meat is thoroughly covered with marinade. Reserve for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

After preparing the meat marinade, prepare the homemade tortilla dough.

To do so, in a large bowl, put 1 cup of masa and a large pinch of salt. Start by adding 1 cup of water and mixing with your hand. Gradually add water until the dough becomes one ball and has a playdough consistency and is slightly sticky. Cover the bowl and let sit for 30 minutes.

Now for the hot sauce. Heat a dry cast iron skillet on high heat. Put the ancho chiles in it and grill them on both side until they are slightly darkened. Once the ancho chiles are done, in a large blender add the 2 tomatillos, serrano chile, ancho chiles, garlic and squeeze a little bit of lime in it. Blend until smooth. Add salt to taste.

For the guacamole, take 1 avocado, cut it in half, remove the seed and with a large spoon scrape out the flesh into a bowl. Mash the avocado with a fork. You can mash it until it’s smooth or keep it a little chunky, up to you!  Once the avocado is mashed, add 1/4 to 1/2 finely chopped jalapeños depending on how spicy you want it. Add the chopped leaves of 2 to 3 cilantro sprigs, 1 tablespoon of chopped white onion, 1 large pinch of cumin and 1 large pinch of garlic powder. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lime, add salt and pepper to taste.

For the pico de gallo, in a bowl add the 2 chopped tomatoes, the chopped leaves of 3 or 4 cilantro sprigs, 1/2 small white onion chopped and 1/4 to 1/2 finely chopped jalapeño. Squeeze a little bit of lime juice in the bowl, add salt to taste.

Now that all the sides are ready you can cook the meat that has been marinating.

Take the meat out of the marinade and remove the bits of marinade stuck to it. Heat a cast iron skillet on high heat. Once it’s hot, add the meat and grill for a few minutes on both sides. You want the outside to be grilled and the inside to stay slightly red or pink depending on how you prefer your meat. Once it is cooked, set it aside and let the meat rest for a few minutes.

To finish it all, make the tortillas. Take a sandwich ziplock bag and cut the sides open to have 1 piece of flat plastic or just prepare 2 pieces of saran wrap. Take the dough and divide it in golf ball size balls. Take each ball and place it on one half of the open sandwich bag and fold the other half over. Using a heavy bottom pot or a cast iron, press the dough balls as hard as you can. You should end up with perfectly round tortillas.

In a cast iron skillet, on medium high heat, cook the tortillas for 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side or until they are slightly browned. Reserve the cooked ones in a towel while cooking the other ones.

Thinly slice the meat and you are all ready to make your tortilla feast. Put all the ingredients on the table and let everyone assemble their tortillas with a little bit of everything. You can finish the tortillas with a little bit of crumbled queso fresco and a little bit of Mexican crema.

Buen provecho!