Taco Chicharron de Queso

 

Eva Longoria introduced me to this recipe, not personally but in her TV programme Searching for Mexico. She went to this restaurant called Tacos Los Alex where the chef made Taco Chicharron de Queso. 

Chicharron is pig skin, or pork scratchings but here the chef fries a cheese to a golden brown crisp finish to resemble the crackling. He then filled it with Huitlacoche, a fungus that grows on corn and is often described as Mexican Black Truffle! 

This corn truffle can be found tinned from specialist Mexican Grocers on-line, or you could use mushrooms. 

It looked amazing and I had to try it at home. 

Ingredients
makes 8

for the corn taco  x 8 (10cm) 

225g masa harina 
300ml water

for the topping

200g Manchego, grated
2 Avocado, small & ripe 
150g Huitlacoche (tinned),  chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 Manzano chilli, finely sliced (or mild large red jalapeno chilli)
75g whole fresh Tomatillos (I used yellow/red cherry tomatoes)
1 Red onion, halved and very thinly sliced
3 tsbp red wine vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar
salt
veg oil
Salsa Taquera roja (our your favourite salsa)
Fresh coriander, roughly chopped
4 Limes

Method

Make your tacos before hand.

Prepare the toppings. 
Pour the red wine vinegar into a small bowl, add the sugar and mix well to dissolve. Add the sliced onions and set aside in the fridge for a few hours.  

Cut the tomatillos in quarters. Season with a pinch of salt and lime juice. 

Then in a frying pan, over a medium heat, add the veg oil and fry the white onion until softened. Add huitlacoche.  Stir well and reduce the temperature.

Meanwhile in another frying pan, add half the grated cheese. Continue to cook as it melts, bubbles and browns. As soon as the base has formed a solid crust then it's ready. 

Remove from the frying pan, place on a chopping board and cut into four rectangles. 

When you're ready to serve replace the cheese into the frying pan to make them more pliable again and add a good portion of the huitlacoche or black truffle/mushroom. 

Then gently roll the cheese over the fungus mix creating a pipe. Make sure its filled with the mushrooms.

Begin to assemble the tacos. 

On a warm taco put a tablespoon of your favourite Mexican salsa in the middle, then place two pieces of avocado wedges (1/8th) on top, either side of each other to create a place to hold the cheese roll you place in between.

Top with some tomatillos, red onion slices, a sprinkle of chopped fresh coriander and a pinch of chopped red chilli.

Serve immediately with lime quarters.