Home made Crispy Beef Tacos

A taco is a traditional Mexican dish composed of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, chicken, seafood, vegetables and cheese, allowing for great versatility and variety. Tacos is generally eaten without utensils and is often accompanied by garnishes such as salsa, avocado or guacamole, cilantro, tomatoes, onions and lettuce.
This post seems longer than usual since I have added steps on how to make your own Taco seasoning and Crispy Taco shells at home .If you choose to buy those ingredients from the store , a Taco is something that you can put together in less than 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

1. ground beef - 1 lb
2. fresh salsa - 1/2 cup (finely chopped tomatoes, onions,cilantro,green chilly , vinegar and salt)
3. shredded cheddar cheese - 1 cup
4. shredded lettuce - 1 cup
5. small corn tortillas - 12
6. oil - to fry tortillas
7. Taco seasoning mix - 2 tbsp
8. sour cream - 2 tbsp (optional)

Method:
Heat a frying pan to medium and add the ground beef to the hot pan (You dont need any oil , since the meat has enough fat).
Use a spoon and breakup the ground meat into small bits and continue stirfrying until the meat starts to brown slightly.
Sprinkle enough taco seasoning on the meat and mix well.
Fry for another minute.
Add a cup of water to the meat mixture and bring to a simmer.
The corn starch in the seasoning will thicken the sauce , turn the dlame off when the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
If you are using fresh onion and garlic , add it along with the meat and fry before you add rest of the taco seasoning.

To assemble the Tacos:
Add ground beef mixture into the taco , top off with shreaded lettuce, salsa , cheddar cheese and sour cream.

To make your own taco seasoning mix:

1. onion powder - 4 tbsp
2. garlic powder - 2 tbsp
3. chili powder - 2 tbsp
4. paprika - 2 tsp
5. dried oregano - 1.5 tsp
6. pepper - 1/2 tsp
7. cornstarch - 2 tbsp
8. ground cumin - 1 tsp
9. salt - 1 tbsp

Method:
Mix all the dry ingredients together and store in a clean bottle.Use as needed.
If you do not have onion powder and garlic powder ,you can substitute with finely chopped onions( 4 tbsp) and minced garlic (2 tbsp)

To make your own crispy taco shells at home:
Making crispy taco shells at home is not difficult at all.You can even make the crispy taco bowls at home in a much healthier way that the restaurant version.Taco Bowl is for another post, but here are the steps to make crispy taco shells at home.

You need home made corn or flour Tortilla or store brought soft tortilla.
Heat oil in a frying pan (pan should be wide enough to hold the tortilla.There should be an inch of oil in the pan.
Place a tortilla in the oil, after a minute or so, flip it.
Use a fork to hold the bottom half of the shell down in the oil and use another fork to fold the tortilla in half. Hold the top half over the bottom half and allow the shape to set as it cooks.
Turn the shell over in the oil after about 30 to 60 seconds. The half of the shell that was out of the oil is now submerged and the part that was in the oil is now out of it. Continue to use the forks to hold the shape of the shell as well as to hold the bottom half under the oil.
, then take it out. You'll have to experiment to see how crispy you like your shells, the longer you cook them, the crispier they will get. If you make them way ahead of time, don't make them too crispy, then you can warm them in the oven just before you're ready to eat without them getting too hard.
Place your shells on a paper grocery bag or a bunch of paper towels to soak up the excess oil.