I haven’t written about my passion for food before on this blog, but if you didn’t know; I love food. Homemade meals are my favorite thing ever, and goodness knows what I am going to do when I have to leave for college. I hope this post will be the beginning of many posts about my food adventures as I try new recipes and dishes. My english teacher encourages us to always “try the peanut butter pie” meaning if you are given the choice between trying/eating/doing/etc. something you know you like and something unknown, to try the unknown because that is how you develop new favorite things. Thus, this new section of Life as a Fish out of Water will be called “Trying the Peanut Butter Pie” and it will represent the adventurous foodie side of me.
I have hated sweet potatoes for as long as I can remember. Every year on Thanksgiving, I would eat a mandatory tablespoon size bite of them, just to avoid “the look” from my mother and to respect my grandma, who lovingly made them every year, much to my dismay. My grandma loved them, to her they were the best thing about Thanksgiving(food wise anyway, family was always her favorite aspect of the holidays). I never understood why she liked this mushy, orange, gloppy, mashed potato-impostor thing, called sweet potatoes.
These were my thoughts up until two weeks ago, when I had my first baked sweet potato. I was instantly addicted and wondered, “Why did I hate this amazing veggie so much?” It was simple, baked in the oven, cut open and served with a light sprinkling of butter and brown sugar. All of the objections I have to regular baked(and streamed) potatoes were gone. It was moist, flavorful, and nutritious. Since that eye-opening day, I embarked on a sweet potato craze. I have tried them in many forms(even pancake form), but my favorite so far has been Sweet Potato and Chorizo Tacos.
My sister found the recipe in the Sunset Magazine, and decided that we HAD to try it. We didn’t have chorizo on hand, so we substituted in a spicy sausage(not in link form, more like ground beef consistency) that we had in the freezer from a friend in Wyoming. Like I said before, they are amazing, and certainly have become a staple in our household.
Here is the recipe(from Sunset Magazine)
Ingredients
- 1 small white onion
- 1 medium orange-fleshed sweet potato (often labeled “yam”)
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 pound Mexican chorizo*, such as Silva brand, removed from casing
- 12 corn tortillas (6-in. diameter)
- 6 romaine lettuce leaves
- 1 lime, halved
- 2 ounces cotija (crumbly white Mexican cheese)* or feta
- 2 firm-ripe avocados
Preparation
1. Peel onion and sweet potato and dice into 1/2-in. cubes. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add onion, potato, and salt and cook until onion begins to soften, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until potato is just tender, 8 to 9 minutes.
2. Increase heat to medium-high and add chorizo. Cook, breaking up sausage with the back of a spoon, until cooked through, 7 to 8 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat tortillas in an oven or a microwave, or char over an open flame until warmed and softened. Wrap in foil or a clean kitchen towel to keep warm.
4. Stack and thinly slice lettuce; combine in a bowl with juice of a lime half and cotija. Halve, peel, pit, and thinly slice avocados; put in another bowl and toss with juice from remaining lime half.
5. Spoon about 3 tbsp. chorizo-sweet potato mixture into each warm tortilla. Divide lettuce and avocado among tacos.
*Find Mexican chorizo and cotija at well-stocked grocery stores and Latino markets. Avoid the very soft, bright orange chorizo–it’s too oily.
*Find the original recipe at http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-chorizo-tacos-50400000133216/
Life as a Fish out of Water 