MUSHROOM TACOS

It’s been a while since I’ve made tacos but seeing as we can’t travel there’s so many dishes that I’m missing and tacos are one of them. I used to make tacos all the time but these days I seem to have so little time. Setting up Palm Greens, keeping up and keeping it going through the pandemic, to be honest has felt like a real slog. I’m happy to say though that the one good thing that has come from this most recent lockdown is having a bit more time to cook at home again and start playing around with recipes and I’m aiming to get recipes up regularly again. 

For this, there’s a few things to make but none of them are complicated and all comes together fairly quickly for a fun and vibrant feast. 

The tortillas are really easy to make, they will take a little practice to get them perfect, but the actual process is much easier than you might think. And since we all have a little extra time on our hands these days, why not give it a go? If you don’t feel like it though, you can buy great fresh tortillas now in supermarkets and local shops. Cool Chile is my go-to brand for traditional shop bought corn tortillas. These are made from masa harina, which is nixtamalized corn, ground and used to make tortillas as well as other Mexican and Latin American staples. There’s a lot of corn/wheat tortillas on the market now though but couldn’t which is the best, I prefer the more traditional Mexican tortillas so I tend to stick to these.

I serve with quick pickled the beets, marinated lightly with fresh lime, I did the same with fresh chopped onion, I really like the acidity of lime and pickles to cut through on a taco. Traditionally you’d have chopped white onion & coriander but the quick pickling on red onion looks so pretty and takes the harshness off raw onion that not everyone likes. 

Other salsas I love to have with tacos are a salsa roja, a fresh tomato salsa. While I try to eat as seasonally as possible sometimes we all break the rules, and you can get delicious tomatoes still from Europe. As you’ll see, mine didn’t come out very red because I charred the jalapeño which really darkened the salsa, but it tastes great, so that’s okay with me.

These mushrooms are from the specialist producer the Organic Mushroom Farm I bought through Farmdrop. It’s a mixed selection and you can feel free to use your favourite mushrooms here. 

Mushroom tacos

serves 4

For the mushrooms 

500g mixed mushroom 

4 tbsp. ancho powder or 1 whole ancho ground

2 tsp. achiote paste 

2 tbsp. lime juice

4 tbsp. rapeseed oil

2 clove garlic, grated/minced 

2 tsp salt

Cut your mushrooms into even bitesize pieces. 

Mix all ingredients except the mushroom in a large bowl, add the cut mushrooms and mix well coating the mushrooms. Leave to marinate while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. 

For the quick pickled beetroot, finely slice your beetroot, a mandolin is really helpful to get them nice and thin. Squeeze over the juice of 1 lime and a good pinch of salt.

Green tahini 

100g tahini

30g coriander

100ml water

1/2 clove garlic

good pinch salt tsp salt

Juice 1 lime

Blend the ingredients for the tahini together to get a smooth sauce. 

Tomato salsa 

3 tomato - 300g 

1 jalapeno - charred

1/4 white onion 

1 clove garlic

15 g coriander, washed and roughly chopped

Juice 1 ½ - 2 limes 

½ tsp salt 

Charr the tomato, onion and garlic in a dry fry pan until slightly blackened. This should take a few minutes. The jalapeño I like to do straight over the flame, if you don’t have a gas stove you can include these in the pan with the other ingredients. 

Once the ingredients are ready either smash into a sauce in a pestle and mortar or briefly blitz in a food blender.  Set aside until ready to serve.

Diced Onion and coriander 

1 onion, cut into a small dice

10g coriander leaves 

Finely dice your onion, squeeze over the juice of half a lime, leave for a few minutes and then mix through the coriander. Set aside until ready to serve. 

For your tortillas 

150g masa harina 

150g water - approximately 

Mix the masa harina with the water, use a spoon initially then bring together with your hands, the dough should be soft and pliable but not wet. 

Roll the dough in your hands into walnut size balls. Line the top and bottom of your tortilla press with parchment paper and press to create beautiful round tortillas. You can also use a heavy flat pan to press the tortillas out, or a rolling pin. Make sure you use parchment paper with whichever method of pressing/rolling you use.

Place your mushrooms onto a parchment lined baking tray and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. 

While they’re baking, make your tortillas.  

Heat a large heavy based frypan. Transfer your tortillas from the press and parchment to the pan and heat for 2-3 minutes on each side. You’ll most likely need to do this in batches. Wrap them in a cloth to keep warm before serving. 

Once the mushrooms are ready and tortillas are done, you’re ready to serve. I like to lay out all the salsas and sauce along with the tortillas and let everyone make up their own tacos. 

Voila, instantly transported to a Mexican table.