When Judy, Tony, and Tomas visited last month from Phoenix, they brought a bounty of Mexican ingredients for us, including unbaked tortillas that you warm up in briefly in a skillet, fresh chorizo (the raw Mexican kind, as opposed to the cured Spanish kind), and Arizona Gunslinger hot sauce. Andy eats tortillas with a lot of meals, so he's been going through those at a rapid clip, but the chorizo went right into the freezer until inspiration struck. Where I of course forgot about it until yesterday. Out came Rick Bayless's wonderful book, Mexican Everyday, which I also kind of forgot I had—a few months ago, I had done one of those offers where you get 5 cookbooks for $1 each if you buy one at full price, so a stack of 6 cookbooks was gathering dust in the den where I'd placed them out of the way when we had company.
I decided to make Zucchini-Mushroom Tacos with Chorizo. Bayless says you can also make them without chorizo. Ha ha ha. They were delicious. This recipe was supposed to serve 4, which is ridiculous. Andy and I alone polished off every last morsel and probably would have eaten more.
For the record, Andy knows that I've been trying to serve vegetarian meals once in a while, and he said that in his mind, this qualifies. Huh? I said, "But ... it has chorizo in it. You know, pig meat." He proclaimed that less than 1/8 of a pound of meat per person is a "trace amount" and thus doesn't count. So there you go.
4 oz. fresh Mexican chorizo sausage, casing removed (Ours was bulk, so already casing-free.)
1½ Tbsp vegetable or olive oil, if necessary
1 medium white onion, sliced ¼" thick (I had only a yellow onion.)
3 oz. fancy-shmancy mushrooms (like shiitake, oyster, or portobello), stemmed and sliced about ½" thick
One 15-oz. can Muir Glen fire-roasted diced tomatoes in juice, drained
1 chipotle chile (from a can of chipotle chiles en adobo), seeded, plus 1½ tsp of the adobo sauce from the can
2 medium zucchini (about 12 oz. total), cut into ½" cubes
Crumbled queso fresco, feta cheese, or goat cheese (We had feta in the fridge, so we used that.)
Warm corn tortillas (We prefer flour tortillas and had on hand the ones Judy brought; moreover, I can't find really good corn tortillas around here.)
Hot sauce
Cook chorizo in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring regularly and breaking up clumps, until cooked through, about 4 minutes (it took us a little longer than that). If the chorizo has rendered considerable fat, tip off and discard all but enough to lightly coat the pan; if it has rendered very little (or if you're not using the chorizo, ha ha ha), add the oil to the skillet and raise the heat to medium-high. Add the onion and cook, stirring regularly, until beginning to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook about 2 minutes more, stirring regularly, until their liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms are beginning to brown.
While the mushrooms are cooking, pour the drained tomatoes into a food processor or blender, along with the chipotle chile and the adobo sauce; whirr until smooth.
When the mushrooms are ready, add the tomato mixture and cook, stirring regularly, until the mixture has thickened to the consistency of canned tomato sauce, about 3–4 minutes. Add the zucchini and continue to cook, stirring every once in a while, until the zucchini is cooked through but still a little crisp, 8–10 minutes. Taste and season with salt if necessary.
Scoop into a bowl and garnish with the crumbled cheese. Serve with the warm tortillas and hot sauce.
Karen, if it's new to you, how do you know it's really wonderful? Not being contentious, but just hesitant to acquire any new not-wonderful cookbooks.
Posted by: Wendy | March 12, 2008 at 07:39 PM
I bought it because a friend has it and highly recommended it; I have also made a few of Bayless's recipes that I found online or in magazines and always had success with them. Each recipe in this book has endless variations, which makes it a very flexible resource. Maybe take it out of your library first and give it a test drive before purchasing?
Posted by: Karen | March 12, 2008 at 07:45 PM
I am proud of my friends and their Mexican cooking! And Rick Bayless is great with Mexican recipes!
Posted by: Laura | March 12, 2008 at 10:02 PM
Unbaked tortillas for sale? Eenteresting! Never heard of them. You have nice friends.
Ever try flour tortillas from scratch? There's a baking powder version that's easy and so much nicer than store-bought, but the artisan yeast dough would probably do better yet, if one has patience to roll them out extremely thin (I imagine they would want to puff in a hot pan).
The filling sounds wonderful!
Posted by: mommyralf | March 12, 2008 at 11:13 PM