If there’s one food that Americans have adopted from another culture and changed to their own liking it’s the taco.  In fact, most Americans wouldn’t know a real taco if it bit them.  We’ve changed them too much.  Chain restaurants have buried the simple and noble flavors under mounds of lettuce, yellow processed cheese goo and whatever else they can come up with.

In the end, that ain’t a taco.  At best it’s a Tex-Mex bastardization on a theme that can be enjoyed on its own merits.  At worst it’s steamed mystery meat and ultra processed and pasteurized atomic yellow hell sauce with added capsaicin for heat and all the nutritional value of eating waxed paper. (Which would taste better in my humble opinion).

This dish is an attempt to bring something a little closer to an actual taco to my kids’ dinner plate.  The lettuce and sour cream were simply there to make them more familiar to a pair of kids who thought Mexican food came from that place with a mission bell in the logo and summarily declared all Mexican and South American food as evil and grotesque.

These tacos didn’t stand a chance.  One bite in and my two haters of all things South American descended on them like a pack of ravenous jackals on a wounded wildebeest.  It was at once rather disturbing and very rewarding to see them enjoying something at least closely related to what real Mexican food should be. (And note… There ain’t no yellow cheese to be found!)

Please note, this is still a very much Americanized recipe, but it’s a lot closer to real Mexican-American food than my kids have ever been exposed to.  I’m using recipes like this as a stepping stone to get them acquainted with flavors before going “all the way” to authentic dishes.

But these were good.  Very good.

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Waking up in the morning should not be a dull affair.  Anything with a copious amount of Mexican chorizo can never be dull.  See where I’m going here? why not start your day with a zesty punch of flavors that will keep you going all day long. (Or at least until lunch time.)

This dish was directly inspired by my friend Ben at What’s Cooking and his recipe for Huevos a la Mexicana. One look at that glorious image and I wanted something similar as soon as I could get it cooked.

My version relied on what I had hanging out in the house.  I’d bought some Mexican chorizo and Anaheim peppers a few days before. I had some salsa and I always have cilantro, tomatoes and seasoning blend vegetable mix in my freezer, so I was on my way to a dish that I’ll most definitely make again.

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Weekend breakfasts are one of the things that my family looks forward to.  Weekdays are a grab-and-go affair with the school bus showing up before 7:00AM and three kids to get out the door, so taking the time to sit and enjoy something together in the morning is something special.

Of course that doesn’t mean I want to spend hours making that breakfast. Weekends have a way of being more work than weekdays.  There’s always something going on, whether it’s for fun or just cramming everything out hat couldn’t be done during the week.

This recipe is one of my favorites for a quick yet satisfying weekend breakfast.  It’s been a favorite of mine in restaurants for years but it’s so simple to make that I rarely see a need to spend that kind of money on it.

I will say in advance that my Mexican friends and readers will probably take offense at my use of chunky salsa over a standard warm salsa rojo. In my defense, I grew up in Northern California where the standard salsa is a Pico de Gallo, a chunky salsa, so it fits for where I am in the world, and it’s available anywhere.  The more traditional version is wonderful as well.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

This is definitely a case of cooking by the seat of my pants.  I was thinking about flavor combinations the other day while snacking on leftover pork roast with caramelized apples when all of a sudden, someone was making some kind of empanada or other. I don’t know of too many flavors that go together like pork and apple, and that’s what gave me the seedling of an idea that grew into a profound, soul consuming, kind of demoniacal need to make this dish.

Unfortunately, as far as I know I’m the first one to try these combinations as an empanda. I scoured the web and all my favorite food blogs looking for something similar or even remotely similar, but there was nothing that I could find as a jumping off point.  I was on my own, which in my case is always the best way to be in a situation like this.

I knew the combination of flavors would work.  The trick was in how much I wanted to bring the traditional flavors of cumin and chilies in with the apple.  Did I want to add some cinnamon to elevate the apple flavor? Why yes. Yes I did.  Cilantro?  Probably should… But in what amounts?  It would be very easy to take this particular combination way to far, and in the process take a great flavor pairing and ruin it completely.

Luckily, I guessed right. The apple and cinnamon pair wonderfully with the more traditional pork filling.  It actually came out tasting a little like i’d used Chinese Five-Spice powder in preparation, but I didn’t.  They were moist, succulent and savory in ways I have to revisit again. And Again.  And again. And… Well, you get the point.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

This Halloween dish may not be as whimsical as some I’ve made, but what it lacks in cuteness, it more than makes up for in flavor. The black beans are the star of the show in this one, the chorizo and shrimp merely sing harmony.  Black beans are a flavor explosion, while the chorizo tickles the taste buds and the shrimp play the finale, leaving just a hint of their passing on the back of the palate. The orange isn’t just shelf dressing, either.  As you delve down into the dish, the citrus flavor becomes more pronounced until finally it comes into its own on the very last bite.  A perfect concert of flavors that I really didn’t expect when I started.

I just loved the idea and I hope you will as well.

While the bowls in the photos are done up “Halloween” style, this would be just as wonderful in orange bowls that are sliced straight across, and it would be a lot easier to make. These took a little practice, and two oranges gave their lives needlessly in the filming of this production.  We believe it’s a Halloween curse, but there is no proof of that at this time.  Our lawyers won’t let us say any more about the matter than that.

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I thought these little gems up while I was working out my guest blog post over at What’s Cooking? I had decided to do a bit of fusion cooking, mixing Asian Techniques with Mexican flavors. I called this little creation Jerry’s Tex-Mex Fried Yellow Rice (amarillo arroz frito). It seems to have been quite a hit.

Since the method was Chinese, I thought of the foods I usually order when I’m going for take out. One of the items that always hits my list is fried wonton, so I wanted to simulate that as well, but with ingredients fitting the flavors of Mexico. The first thing that came to mind was flour tortillas, and I gotta say they were the perfect compliment.

These little guys are so simple to make that you’ll want to be sure to have them around all year long, but with Cinco de Mayo coming around the corner, these will make a perfect addition to the snack table.

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I’d like to take a moment to introduce our very first guest author Ben Herrera. Ben is the author of “What’s cooking?” a blog focusing on wonderful Mexican recipes. Please give him a huge round of applause! ~ Jerry

I have to admit that I got nervous when Jerry asked me to write a guest post for this blog. I wanted to write a post that would blow his readers away. I literally sat in front of a blank page for hours trying to come up with my greatest post ever. After all, this is not just any blog, we are talking about the Cooking by the Seat of my Pants blog.

However, I am not really good at complicated things and after several attempts and a bad headache I decided to keep it simple, just like the side dish I chose for this post. I love to cook. I learned about food and cooking at my parents’ restaurant in Mexico City where I literally grew up. I would spent a couple of hours after school every day helping with anything I could, from washing dishes to prep work and waiting tables.

I learned a good deal about food and restaurant management in those years, but when I am in the kitchen making dinner for my family I like to keep things simple. Simple doesn’t have to mean boring and flavorless. Using just a few ingredients, as long as they are fresh and of good quality, I have been able to come up with delicious dishes. A lot of single ingredients contain a lot of flavor, aroma or just that special kick that can make a dish memorable.

One of those ingredients is the humble, yet delicious, Poblano pepper. Poblano is a mild pepper and one of the most popular chiles grown in Mexico and the American southwest. Their flavor is so rich that they are perfect for chiles rellenos and just about any dish they are used in, like this creamy Poblano rice:

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When I heard that my friend Susan, The Well Seasoned Cook was hosting a roundup of legume recipes because she’d seen that it was National Bean Day that morning on “Your Morning Cuppa“, I was not only honored and flattered, but I knew I just had to be a part of it.  I thought about making several different things, from a 5 bean soup, to several varieties of bean-based salads and even a relish, but in the end, there are really two ways I think of beans most commonly.  The first is my mother’s recipe for beans and bacon, the second is frijoles refritos, what americans have incorrectly dubbed Refried Beans.  Since I’ve already made the first variety from my mother’s own recipe, I had no choice but to make the latter, and as a Texan, I was bound and determined to do it right!

This recipe is the culmination of several hours worth of searching the web.  It seems there are as many ways to create frijoles refritos as there are to make pancakes, which shouldn’t surprise me, as this simple dish is a staple in Latin, Latin American and Southwestern homes, which leaves a lot of room for interpretation.  In the end, I took what I liked from several recipes, and left out what I didn’t.  The result was a pretty good batch of beans, if I do say so myself!  So here you have it, my Entry for The Well Seasoned Cook’s Legume Love Affair Roundup, the humble refried bean.

(Note: Refried beans are not refried at all.  They are boiled or stewed enough to soften the beans, and fried once. Technically, they should be called “well Fried Beans” as the term refrito is an emphasized version of the Mexican frito, or fried. Refrito simply means “Well Fried” or “Very Fried”.  We just got it wrong in translation.)

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