Glowing, Showing You the Way

Stewed Pork Tacos

I had a five pack of tiny boneless pork medallions.  I only buy meat in these cuts for convenience. They're great to have around to cut up and be used in a soup or quick fried and thaw quickly.  In this case, they were cubed for stew meat. Leftover hot sauce, chicken stock, peppers, onions and garlic was used to get this pork nice and soft and infused with all the flavor. I toasted spices in the pan beforehand for the first layer.  The corn tortillas got a shmeer of oil and toasted in the oven with a bit of cheese. The cheese allows the taco to fold very easily but also stops the tort from getting soggy.

My mind has opened up in recent years to using homespun fillings in my tacos now that I have a great formula.  Also, in that same mental space I always believed there were just two types of tacos.  The store bought, hard-shell kind your friend's mom would make for taco night and the real deal, soft tacos served to me in a styrofoam container with carne and lime from a real Mexican.  Now I see that almost everything can taste wonderful with a hug from a crisp corn tortilla.  And by the way, Duh!  How can I be so slow to realize such obvious truths?

My unwillingness to waste these giant packages of corn tortillas helped me to experiment with fillings and stop being such a traditionalist.  Tacos of course are only one use. Cutting them up and frying them for a crispy topping in soups is quick and easy.  Using them for migas or chilaquiles with egg is awesome.  One more idea is to use them raw to thicken soup.  They magically dissolve in the broth.