COME BY THE CULINARY ARTS DEMONSTRATION TENT FOR TACOS THAT ARE ... How it’s done
Free and easy
If you’re able to make it out to the Festival of the Arts during lunch Wednesday to check out some of the new (and classic) food items for sale, save room for one free taco.
As I mentioned last week, I’ll be demonstrating how to fry tortillas for your homemade tacos and filling them with a few of my favorite ingredients.
Last week, I shared recipes for Pollo Asado and Salsa Aguacate, traditional friends of the fried tortilla in Mexico. Today we’re heading north across the border for the gringofication of the taco.
On the subject of authenticity, the older I get the less I worry about point of origin when it comes to culinary expression.
In a world where we can reach for creative inspiration in two clicks and an hourglass, it seems less and less genuine to be a stickler for the heritage of a dish as long as the creator grasps and respects it.
I don’t believe in culinary birthright. You don’t have to be born in El Reno to make great fried-onion burgers, but it’s impossible to master them if you don’t appreciate and immerse yourself in the tradition.
With that said, I’ve eaten and made enough tacos to appreciate all kinds. A lengua taco from Tacos San Pedro is welcome any and every day, but so, too, is a Super Taco from Taco Casa in Norman.
The two aren’t equal in any way and would never be confused for kinfolk, but that doesn’t mean one is good and the other is bad. We do gringo tacos as regularly as the kind sold on the streets of Tijuana at my house. Sometimes we serve Mexican street tacos alongside the kind Glen “Taco” Bell made popular at his first California roadside taco stand called Taco Tia back in the early 1950s.
Making gringo tacos can be done in less than an hour with a homemade taco mix or a little longer by starting with what’s called a sofrito.
Sofrito is a concentration of flavors that comes from slowly sauteing onions, garlic and tomato (plus a few other fresh ingredients) that can be used to lay the foundation of your tacos.
Both versions are crowd-pleasers, but if you’re interested in learning about how to build flavors, I suggest using the sofrito-based recipe.
Some of us cook because we have to feed people, while others of us cook because we must, to satisfy an inner drive. Of course, people who fall into the latter category also find themselves called to action by the former.
Sofrito is also available at grocery stores like Uptown Grocery Co., which was kind enough to sponsor this recipe and the demonstration I’m doing Wednesday at the Festival of the Arts.
I’ll also have some chorizo filling for the tacos. This isn’t the pepperoni-like chorizo of Spain but the ground pork sausage sold in bulk that is more traditional in Mexico. You can’t make your own chorizo as easily as you can make your own breakfast sausage, but when we’ve got all these great Mexican markets — like the two Buy For Less owns — the only reason to make your own is to say you did. If you want to make your own chorizo, my good buddy Able Blakely has a terrific chorizo seasoning at Savory Spice Shop.
Come by the Culinary Demonstration tent today for a taco, but check out the schedule to see all the great local chefs who will be sharing their delicious art with you all week.