Beef Tacos

Another easy meal except this time I decided to make refried beans from scratch. Old El Paso Refried Beans taste great but they are expensive so this is purely an economy measure. I soaked the beans for hours then boiled them for 90 minutes, drain. I had to use an immersion blender to process them but they smoothed out fairly well. I tried frying that with some oil and didn't get anywhere so I added some water. That helped. I added beef stock powder, fresh lime juice, sour cream and tabasco sauce. Definitely not as good as OEP but edible at least and probably better than the budget brand can.

I browned a diced onion, garlic clove and celery stick before adding the beef. When the beef was browned I sprinkled taco seasoning all over the pan. I use bulk taco seasoning which gives just as good a result as the expensive kits. Cook the spice in for a minute before adding a teaspoon of beef stock powder and half a cup of water or maybe a bit more. The water needs to boil off and leave a nice glistening mixture than won't make the shell soggy.

Guacamole

1 avocado mashed

2 tsp lime juice

salt

1 tbsp sour cream

few drops Tabasco

Mash and whip with a fork. Choosing a soft almost mushy avocado helps here. Avocado turns black when exposed to air but acid from lemon or lime stops this process. So have lime or lemon juice ready when you slice an avocado.

Salsa

1 jalapeno finely diced

2 tomatoes diced

1 slice red onion diced

1 tbsp chopped parsley or cilantro (Fern doesn't like cilantro)

fresh lime juice

olive oil

salt

black pepper

Grate some cheddar cheese. Warm taco shells in toaster or oven. Spread grated cheddar down the centre of a taco shell. Spoon meat mixture over cheese and roll up shell. Plate beans on one side, guacamole on the other and salsa beside the taco. Spread sour cream over the taco and sprinkle a little cheddar cheese over all to garnish. I put a little salsa on the beans to pretty them up, not sure it helped.

Fern said twice that it was really good, except the beans. Neither of us finished our beans but we cleaned up everything else. Next time I'll use Old El Paso beans again and pay more attention to how they taste before trying to make from scratch again. Part of the problem could be the quality of raw beans available but I won't know for sure till I try again.