Tim Dover is chef patron of The Roost restaurant in Bridge of Earn and regularly writes for The Courier’s food and drink magazine, The Menu. Here he shares a recipe for making crispy tacos
I don’t know about you but come January 1 I am craving foods that are less traditional, full of flavour and definitely with spice.
Not Christmas spices, lovely as they are, but chilli spice.
One good way to satisfy such cravings and create a fun dinner is to make tacos. Tacos are far more popular than ever before in the UK – there are great taco bars and restaurants all over the country, where you can try adventurous ingredients in bite-size portions whilst sipping margaritas with friends.
While restaurants and bars are currently unable to function properly due to hospitality restriction, you can easily create a taco evening at home.
I recommend using soft tacos – they are easy to buy in the supermarket and just need to be room temperature to serve. The other ingredients are up to you! Think of using fresh, seasoned raw vegetables, using lime and fresh coriander for flavouring as well as adding nuts, or crumbs for texture.
My suggestion would be to make a crispy fish or prawn taco (you can use any fish, coated in breadcrumbs and fried) crispy gem lettuce, salsa, lime and sour cream; then a chicken or pork taco – fry thin slices of meat, then place in the taco with a slaw made with cabbage and carrot, sriracha mayonnaise and some radish and coriander for freshness; for a vegetarian filling you could simply chargrill a root vegetable such as sweet potato, top with coriander and chilli or some tomato salsa with avocado.
So long as you have some tomatoes, limes, chilli and coriander you can make whatever you like – allow four tacos per person.
Roasted padron peppers are also great fun to use, as they are quite mild but there is an occasional very spicy one. I like to pre-prepare the fillings and have them out on the table in separate bowls so that people can make them up themselves.
Works as a dessert
It doesn’t end there; tacos can be served as dessert too.
Take a muffin tray and turn it upside down onto a rimmed baking sheet; lightly spray the underside with cooking spray. (If you don’t have a muffin tray you can improvise with rolls of tin foil). In a small bowl combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Spray both sides of tortillas with cooking spray (or brush with additional melted butter).
Using a fork, poke tortillas all over on one side for steam to escape. Turn tortillas over and sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture all over one side to coat.
Fold and nestle tortillas, cinnamon sugar sides facing out, in the space between the muffin cups to form ‘shells.’ Bake in a preheated 180C/Fan 160C/350F/Gas Mark 4 oven until crisp, golden brown and slightly puffed, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool. These can be kept until it is time for dessert.
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Clementines are just perfect for creating a Christmas cracker of a dessert
