Taco Beef #1 in Cooking with Timmy!

  • May 12, 2014, 7:38 p.m.
  • |
  • Public

Was heading into the gym, thinking about what odds and ends I wanted from the grocery story. I thought about how I wanted taco stuff afterwards. I have seasoning powder, but for once, I decided to try making it sans premixed seasoning.


    ~1 lb of beef
    1 medium sized yellow onion
    1 jalapeno pepper
    2 habenero peppers
    6 cloves of garlic
    2 teaspoons cumin
    1 teaspoon coriander
    1/2 teaspoon oregano
    2 teaspoons rosemary
    1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
    1 teaspoon brown sugar (or sugar and an iota of molasses)
    1 tablespoon vegetable oil
    salt
    1 can black beans

I minced the onions and peppers first. I used two pans, one to mostly brown the meat, one to toss the onions and peppers. Oil veggie pan with vegetable oil, toss in onions and peppers. I was improvising and didn't have all the ingredients, so I added half a cup of water to help the spices marinate. Toss in the spices and salt. Stir and stuff. By the time the meat was mostly brown, I strained it, and tossed it into the veggies. Strained a can of black beans under water, and tossed it in. Stirred.

Total prep and cook time: 65 minutes.

As usual, slathered the bottom of a giant bowl with sour cream, a bed of romaine, some crushed tortilla chips, and cheese. Piled meat-stuff on top and ate with a fork.

Let's see how it comes out.

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Result: 2/5

Heat kind of outweighed the blandness. It tasted good, but it felt like it was missing something. Guess I do need tomato stuff after all. In laziness, I may just use "taco seasoning", because I can cook that in a quarter of the time. But if I want more... healthy and tasty, I'll try again in the future using a different or full recipe. Live and learn. I still ate my giant bowl of it.

Seed recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/americas-test-kitchen-beef-tacos-314504


AnOrangeZebra May 12, 2014

Yay for cooking! That looks delish!

Deleted user May 12, 2014

A can of stewed tomatoes would have been perfect.

Timmy™ Deleted user ⋅ May 13, 2014

Definitely think that's what was missing.

Fawkes Gal May 13, 2014

You could also try a couple of tablespoons of chili powder to give the meat that "taco" kick. It doesn't add much heat, but it adds a certain Tex-Mex flavor.

Timmy™ Fawkes Gal ⋅ May 13, 2014

Of all the things not to have, I didn't have chili powder.

Life.Uncommon May 15, 2014

I echo chili powder, and maybe a touch more cumin (well, that's my personal taste).

Timmy™ Life.Uncommon ⋅ May 15, 2014

Cumin was the overriding spice. I'm favoring using what I did for the sausage that one time.

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