It wasn’t long ago that my wife and I went to a street fair close to our house. We had high hopes and expectations with the fair being in the biggest winery city close to us. We planned on spending the entire day out there, enjoying wine and music; alas, the fair was horrible!  The vendors were few, the wines were just semi-decent, and the music was not our style. However, we walked, like we do, everything else one bite at a time. As we walked, we saw your typical fair food, like sausage on a stick, corny dogs, and nachos, but we were looking for the truly unique food. What we found was true Mexican (not “Tex Mex” style) tacos. Wow! They were good! No cheese, just meat, onions, some sort of salsa, and lots of cilantro and lime, all wrapped in a homemade corn tortilla. Well, after watching Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations down in Mexico on the Travel Channel,  it was time to finally take a stab at true Mexican tacos. . . from scratch, all the way down to the corn tortillas.

True Tacos

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 8-Ounce Round Steak

1/4 White Onion, chopped

1/2 Cup Cilantro

1 Lime

1 Large Avocado

1 Tablespoon Garlic

Sour Cream

Salt and Pepper

For Tortillas

1 Cup Maseco Corn Flour

2/3 Cups Water

1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

Directions

1. Sprinkle steak with salt and pepper.
2. Pound Steak into submission (thin).
3. 1/8 Thick and set aside and let rest.
4. Chop onion and  cilantro, place in small garnish bowls and set aside.

It’s time to make the corn tortillas.  I have to tell you that my wife really impresses the hell out of me sometimes. I mean, she is an amazing wife and I could not have been luckier finding her, but sometimes she just kicks it up a notch. I was trying to figure out how to make these tortillas without a press. As you might now there is a cool device that makes perfectly flat, round tortillas. Well, I have a ton of kitchen gadgets; however, this is not one, but it is one that I will be adding. Check out the pic below, and I’ll explain why my wife is so brilliant.

1. If you don’t have a tortilla press, get together 2 cast iron pans, some cling wrap, and a rolling pin and play some Macgyver music.
2. Mix Maseca, water and salt and stir until its crumbly
3. Place one piece of cling wrap over cast iron pan bottom
4. Roll dough into 1 to 1.5 inch balls
5. Place a second piece of cling wrap over the bottom of a second pan
6. Press both pan together
7. (Who needs a tortilla press? Thanks, Baby! Brilliant idea!)
8. Roll the dough flatter with a rolling pin. (I couldn’t just push them together flat enough and just the rolling with a pin didn’t work.)
9. Unwrap from plastic and place in a skillet over medium high heat and cook for 50 seconds both sides. Repeat for the rest of the dough
10. Set Aside and finish and get ready for steak.
11. Place cast iron pan on high heat and prepare to get smoked out.
12. Once pan begins to smoke, sear both sides of the steak about 2 minutes each side and let rest for 5 minutes.
13. In a bowl mix avocado, garlic and salt; stir and set aside.
14. Chop steak into tiny 1/2 inch pieces.
15. Set up your assembly line of toppings.
16. Build your tacos and top with lime juice.
17. Enjoy!