The Best Thing I Had In My Mouth - El Paso Veggie Burrito

This past weekend I stopped by one of my favorite Mexican joints called El Paso Taqueria.  I love going to the El Paso Taqueria location on 104th and Lexington for lunch or dinner, but for a while there has been a smaller place called El Paso Deli Restaurant for take-out and delivery right across the street (which is actually their original location for the restaurant).  Kind of confusing, I know.  I like to go to the taqueria for a real sit-down feel, but the deli is great for a grab and go, or just a casual, cheaper experience.  I got the vegetariano burrito and fried-to-order chips and salsa.  Muy bueno!

Smokey, Spicy & Tangy Hot Salsa

A couple weekends ago I made some delicious hot salsa from Rick Bayless' Mexican Everday.  It was a cinch to make and I ended up using it on everything - quesadillas, scrambled egg tacos, and of course chips.  I love the smokiness of dry roasting the ingredients, the tanginess of the tomatillos, the spiciness of árbol chiles.  You can find the chiles at Fairway, Whole Foods, or a Mexican grocery store.

Mexican Scrambled Egg Tacos

Last night I made these delicious scrambled egg tacos for dinner.  They are so simple to make, you are done in 30 minutes - promise.  The recipe is from Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday (my favorite).  Rick's original recipe calls for 1 pound of ripe tomatoes, but when one is in the dead of winter I go for the can of fire-roasted tomatoes when I can find them.  And yes, I left out the cilantro because I hate it, but please add it if you like.

Ingredients for Mexican Scrambled Egg Tacos, adapted from Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday, serves 4:

-3 garlic cloves, peeled
-Fresh hot chiles, 2 serranos or 1 jalapeno (I used jalapeno), stemmed, seeded (if you want), and each cut into 3 or 4 pieces
-1 medium white onion, roughly chopped
-2 tablespoons vegetable oil, olive oil, or fresh pork lard or bacon  or chorizo drippings (I used olive oil)
-1 pound ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into 1/4-inch cubes, or one 14-ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
-8 eggs
-Salt
-1/2 to 2/3 cup (loosely packed) chopped cilantro
-1 ripe avocado, pitted, flesh scooped from skin, and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
-12 warm corn tortillas, store-bought, click here for heating instructions
-3/4 cup roasted tomatillo salsa (click here for recipe), or bottled salsa or hot sauce for serving


Begin by dropping chiles and garlic cloves, one piece at a time into a food processor.  Let each piece get finely chopped before adding the next.  Then add the onion, and pulse into the pieces are no larger than 1/4 inch.

Heat oil in a very large (12-inch) skillet, preferably non-stick, over medium heat.  Add the chile-onion mixture, and stir regularly, until starting to brown, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Raise the heat to medium-high and add the tomatoes, or can of tomatoes (including juice) and cook.  Stir frequently, until all of the tomato liquid evaporates and oil separates out again, about 4 minutes with fresh tomatoes, 8-10 for canned tomatoes.

While tomatoes are cooking, crack the eggs in a bowl and season with 1 teaspoon salt and beat with a fork until eggs are roughly blended.  Chop avocado up and heat tortillas.

Pour eggs into skillet with tomatoes.  At first I thought this looked wrong and gross, but eventually the eggs cook up.  Slowly stir, scraping up the cooked eggs from the bottom of the skillet until the eggs are as done as you like.  I cook mine until everything looks almost dry.

Scoop eggs into two stacked tortillas, sprinkle with avocado, hot sauce, and cilantro.  Enjoy hot!