Being a Virginia boy, culturally appropriating anything Texas could get me in trouble, but I just thought the name was appropriate.
I was convinced to try white corn tortillas after telling someone here I didn't like soft corn tortillas. Well, that trial made me love dry fried white corn tortillas, so I made some tacos and all was great; but those packs of 6" tortillas come with a lot of tortillas, so in the freezer the rest went. I wanted to play with them doing something different and my mind started thinking frying my own chips and making nachos.
I have been making individually topped nachos for a long time. I had no idea Texas stakes the claim for inventing them! Looks like they are traditionally made without a meat protein. Looking around at how other people were making nachos online (this is like the chili toppings question, the ideas seem endless), there was all the usual suspects. Then I ran across this guys method over at Chili Pepper Madness. He claims these are Texas Nachos (the Texans in here will likely confirm or deny). The idea of using half tortillas, to me was a game changer. It's tedious to top tortilla chip sized nachos and its a challenge to eat tostadas, those first couple bites especially, unless you are like me, an ignorant person who used a knife and fork the first time I ate them!
That's why my recipe/method in my binder is titled "Textadas", a hybrid of the two...plus, even bieng from Virginia, I still didn't think "Virgintadas" sounded right!
I decided my Chorizo would be a good start, so I cooked up some and broke it up finely with the Pampered Chef Mix And Chop. I'm not a huge gadget guy and believe in using my knives to do most of the work in the kitchen, but this little tool is something I wish I had all my life. This is my take on chorizo the way I want to use chorizo...just as you see it. It's pork, with all the chorizo spices and vinegar, but able to make crumbly like ground beef.
I cut the tortillas in half with a rotary pizza cutter and took them out to my Ultimate EZ Clean Deep Fryer I leave set up year round out in my garage. I set it outside as much as possible for any sizeable fry's but this was just tortillas. Fried them up crispy and firm but not too browned, and fine salt on them right out of the oil.
I warmed and smeared refried beans on them, that acts as a glue to hold the crumbled chorizo, then topped with shredded cheddar in this pic (I had a partial bag of this thick grated "sawdust cheese" as I call it that needed using up) and finally pickled jalapeno slices.
Baked for about 8 minutes at 350. Here's a batch with the thicker shred
Here's a batch with finer "fiesta blend" cheese"
The earlier batch, I had a regular tomato that needed using, so I did that, much like what the guy did in that link above. So some guac, some sour cream and some chopped tomatoes all sprinkled with Tajin.
More recent batch I had some nice grape tomatoes. I cut those in to pieces and laid out on paper towels and topped them with Tajin before placing on the Textadas. Again, some guac, spread out more this time, some sour cream and finally the tomatoes. I was tempted to make pico but thought that would make the whole thing more messy to eat. Some raw onion wouldn't suck though.
I know, no miracles happened here, but this is now a regular rotation thing for me. It's still a bit tedious but fun to eat like nachos with a little less work. And they held up through the whole plate, not one has gone limp or crumbled in the hand when lifted. 6 halves topped like this make a hearty dinner for me.
As Alton Brown used to say..."Good Eats!".
I was convinced to try white corn tortillas after telling someone here I didn't like soft corn tortillas. Well, that trial made me love dry fried white corn tortillas, so I made some tacos and all was great; but those packs of 6" tortillas come with a lot of tortillas, so in the freezer the rest went. I wanted to play with them doing something different and my mind started thinking frying my own chips and making nachos.
I have been making individually topped nachos for a long time. I had no idea Texas stakes the claim for inventing them! Looks like they are traditionally made without a meat protein. Looking around at how other people were making nachos online (this is like the chili toppings question, the ideas seem endless), there was all the usual suspects. Then I ran across this guys method over at Chili Pepper Madness. He claims these are Texas Nachos (the Texans in here will likely confirm or deny). The idea of using half tortillas, to me was a game changer. It's tedious to top tortilla chip sized nachos and its a challenge to eat tostadas, those first couple bites especially, unless you are like me, an ignorant person who used a knife and fork the first time I ate them!
That's why my recipe/method in my binder is titled "Textadas", a hybrid of the two...plus, even bieng from Virginia, I still didn't think "Virgintadas" sounded right!
I decided my Chorizo would be a good start, so I cooked up some and broke it up finely with the Pampered Chef Mix And Chop. I'm not a huge gadget guy and believe in using my knives to do most of the work in the kitchen, but this little tool is something I wish I had all my life. This is my take on chorizo the way I want to use chorizo...just as you see it. It's pork, with all the chorizo spices and vinegar, but able to make crumbly like ground beef.
I cut the tortillas in half with a rotary pizza cutter and took them out to my Ultimate EZ Clean Deep Fryer I leave set up year round out in my garage. I set it outside as much as possible for any sizeable fry's but this was just tortillas. Fried them up crispy and firm but not too browned, and fine salt on them right out of the oil.
I warmed and smeared refried beans on them, that acts as a glue to hold the crumbled chorizo, then topped with shredded cheddar in this pic (I had a partial bag of this thick grated "sawdust cheese" as I call it that needed using up) and finally pickled jalapeno slices.
Baked for about 8 minutes at 350. Here's a batch with the thicker shred
Here's a batch with finer "fiesta blend" cheese"
The earlier batch, I had a regular tomato that needed using, so I did that, much like what the guy did in that link above. So some guac, some sour cream and some chopped tomatoes all sprinkled with Tajin.
More recent batch I had some nice grape tomatoes. I cut those in to pieces and laid out on paper towels and topped them with Tajin before placing on the Textadas. Again, some guac, spread out more this time, some sour cream and finally the tomatoes. I was tempted to make pico but thought that would make the whole thing more messy to eat. Some raw onion wouldn't suck though.
I know, no miracles happened here, but this is now a regular rotation thing for me. It's still a bit tedious but fun to eat like nachos with a little less work. And they held up through the whole plate, not one has gone limp or crumbled in the hand when lifted. 6 halves topped like this make a hearty dinner for me.
As Alton Brown used to say..."Good Eats!".
