First, it is very important to locate the "B-Side Players" channel on Pandora and pipe it through the house with a glass of your favorite spirits.
What You'll Need:
- 1 large sweet potato
- 1/2 sweet onion
- cilantro
- real sweet cream salted butter
- sea salt and NO, iodized is NOT okay
- pepper corns
- real maple syrup
- white corn tortillas
- Taco Truck Salsa or Taco Truck Red Sauce
- Good stereo with a fair amount of bass
Peel and slice the sweet potato leaving some skin on here and there. Line a cookie sheet with foil and grease the sheet with butter. Dice potato into 3/4" cubed pieces and cook them in the broiler until tender on the inside and a bit crispy on the outside turning them once or twice in the butter. Do not season! Remove and let cool. Cut the onion into 1/4" X 3" strips and saute' them in the skillet. While you are sauteing them in butter, add sea salt, grind peppercorns and fry them until they are soft with a few crispy edges. Now stir in the potatoes, add more butter and a 1/2 cup of real maple syrup and crank the heat up and caramelize. Remove from heat and cover with a tight lid.
Heat a separate NONSTICK pan to Med/High. Heat 8 corn tortillas as follows; The authentic way to do this is without butter or oil. They will alter the taste of the meal. If you do not have a tortilla dish with a lid, you can go old school East LA style and use a bath towel which actually works great. Put the tortilla in the pan until it starts to change color just a bit. About 10 seconds or less depending on the heat of the stove. Then with your fingers, quickly squeeze the tortilla and flip it over for 5-10 seconds. With your fingers, quickly grab it out of the pan and put it into the tortilla container or between the towel and fold the towel over it. The tortilla should be soft and very flimsy.
Note #1: Tortilla flipping. This isn't for everybody!!! It's ok to flip it with a spatula if you have to. Just don't let me or anyone of Latin descent see you do that.
Note #2: The type of white corn tortilla DOES matter. I use Ole. You will have to experiment to see what works best, but the key is finding them when they are still very soft. I DO NOT recommend using flour tortillas for this recipe however.
Put the sweet potatoes into a serving dish with a lid. Only open when you are scooping. Same with tortillas. Keep them covered. Chop up some onions, fresh cilantro and fresh limes. Garnish tacos with all 3. Ladle on some Taco Truck Salsa or Sauce, Pour a South American Malbec or Cabernet. Chilensis is an amazing red for about $8.99 at Vine N Brew and goes very well with this meal. Malbecs and Cabs can both be all over the board and some..well...flat out nasty. The Chilensis is very smooth and well rounded.
Change the music to Dave Brubeck or Frank Sinatra and enjoy!