Beef & Chicken Tacos

If I could visit one other country in Latin America, it would have to be Mexico.

Living in Argentina, I’ve visited Uruguay, which is just a couple of hours by ferry from Buenos Aires, and I’ve seen Brazil’s famous Rio de Janeiro city and walked on some of its beautiful sandy beaches in Buzios. But I’ve never gone further north than Brazil. I’d love to visit Cuba for its hot and sexy salsa dancers, or Puerto Rico, where many of their locals have made it big on the music scene. Colombia calls with its national parks and naturally-breathtaking beaches too, but still..

It is Mexico which stands out from the crowd.

Not really because of my fond memories of Speedy Gonzalez, the cartoon of “The fastest mouse in all of Mexico”, nor because of the extremely cool “sombrero” hat Mexicans traditionally wear. Maybe it’s because of the beautiful Teotihuacan’s Mesoamerican pyramids, whose glory is definitely more astounding in real-life than in photos.

Plus, a really good friend of mine, LSY, an avid traveller and probably the most well-travelled person I know, had stayed in Mexico for a couple of months, and fell in love with the country. According to her, it’s more developed than most people would expect, the people are very friendly, and contrary to general perception, it’s not as dangerous as the movies make Mexico out to be.

But really, I’d like to visit it for tacos – the Mexican snack made famous all over the world.

And so what if there may be the danger of drug rings and mafias (if the movies are accurate in their description of Mexico)? I’m still keen on visiting it one day.

Even if the only thing I do is to eat tacos.

Lots and lots of them. Whether with yellow corn tortillas or cream-colored wheat tortillas.

It doesn’t really matter.

I can’t even remember when I first fell in love with these Mexican tacos – these baby wraps are just so fun and easy, and finger-licking delicious.

And I imagine, in my make-believe version of Mexico, that Mexicans could possibly be among the happiest people in the world, eating their tacos all day long. (Of course, I may actually have a distorted reality of Mexico, and perhaps Mexicans don’t even eat tacos that much. But really, can you tell me tacos don’t make you happy?)

While preparing the ingredients can take up quite a bit of time, the colors are definitely a sight for the eyes.

You can mix and match ingredients, use all kinds of sauces, spicy or not. You get to decide what kind of meat to fill your tacos with, or if you’re vegetarian, scrap meat altogether. It’s like a game where everyone sits around a table crammed with bowls of colorful ingredients, waiting for you to pick and choose. Corn or wheat tortillas? Completely your choice. Guacamole alone or guac with tomatoes and onions? Your choice again. With cream cheese or not? Shredded cheddar or some other variant of cheese – everyone gets to decide for themselves, and put together their own made-to-order taco.

I’m not sure eating a meal could get any more fun than that! ENJOY!

P.s. don’t you just love the taco racks I used? They’re so incredibly practical! Your taco just stays impeccably neat and pretty! These were the lovely taco racks that I won in a giveaway hosted by Lindsay from Normal Cooking!

BEEF & CHICKEN TACOS
(Serves 4, makes 16 tacos)

Ingredients:

1) 1kg of beef tenderloin,stripped of fats
2) 1kg of chicken breasts
3) 1 large carrot
4) 1 large red bell pepper
5) 1 large green bell pepper
6) 1 medium-sized onion
7) 1 large tomato
8) 2 avocados
9) 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
10) 200g of shredded cheddar cheese (or any cheese you like)
11) 200g of cream cheese
12) 1 small bowl of chopped spring onion
13) 16 tortilla sheets (I used wheat tortillas, but you can also use corn tortillas)

Steps:

1) Slice carrot and bell peppers into slim 5-10cm slices
2) Dice onion and tomato and chop spring onion
3) Cut chicken breasts and beef tenderloin into cubes of roughly equal sizes
4) Stir-fry carrot and bell pepper slices with a little oil in a pan until they are soft (you  should be able to poke through them without much effort)
5) Stir-fry chicken cubes until white and cooked
6) Stir-fry beef cubes until browned and cooked
7) Peel the avocados, and mash the flesh with lemon juice
8) Mix the mashed avocados with half the amount of diced onions and tomatoes to form guacamole
9) Toast tortilla sheets in oven at about 180 deg cel for 3-5 minutes (until slightly rigid but not completely hard)
10) Make your tacos as you deem fit (with any or all of the following: cream cheese, vegetables, guacamole, chicken or beef, cheddar cheese, spring onions)

Ingredients to be cooked/used:

Cut vegetables:

Cut chicken and beef:

Stir-fry carrot and bell pepper slices with a little oil in a pan until they are soft:

Stir-fry chicken cubes:

Until white and cooked:

Stir-fry beef cubes:

Until browned and cooked:

Serve the ingredients:

Create your own made-to-order taco!