Oklahoma · Main
Oklahoma Indian Tacos
- Intermediate
- 1 h 30 m
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a warm current of chile, settling low and earthy.
Ingredients
- For fry bread: 400g flour, 2 tbsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 300ml warm milk, oil for frying
- 700g ground beef
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin
- 400g pinto beans
- Lettuce, tomato, cheese, salsa
Equipment
Deep-fry pot
The skills inside
Deep fryingSearing: the hard crustShaping by handResting dough: the pause that does the work
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Mix the fry bread dough and rest 30 min. Pat into rounds and fry in 180C oil until puffed and golden. 30 min
- Brown the beef with the onion and spices, stir in the beans, and simmer 10 min. 10 min
- Spoon the meat and beans onto each fry bread.
- Top with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and salsa.
- Serve open-faced and eat with a fork.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Resting dough: the pause that does the work 71 recipes
- It actually rested, covered, for the time stated, not cut short because the rest of the schedule was tight.
- It rolls and shapes without fighting: it stays where it is put, and it does not spring back or shrink on the bench between passes.
- The surface is smooth and supple rather than dry, cracked, or skinned over.
- It is at the temperature the next step needs: cold where the fat must stay solid, cool and relaxed where it must be rolled thin.
- Baked, it holds the dimensions it was shaped to rather than shrinking back from the edges of the tin or the rim of the dish.
Where it goes wrong The rest was skipped or shortened, so the gluten was still tight: the dough fought the pin and sprang back thick and uneven, then shrank down the sides of the tin in the oven.
Shaping by hand 85 recipes
- The pieces match: weighed, or judged against each other rather than by dividing the mass by eye, so that no piece is half again the size of its neighbour.
- Surfaces are smooth and unbroken with no cracks, tears, or dry patches, and the seams are sealed and sitting underneath.
- The shape is defined and it holds while the tray waits: it has not slumped, spread, or relaxed back out of its form.
- Nothing is trapped that should not be: no air pocket where filling should be, no filling breaking through the surface, and no excess flour greying the outside.
- They finish together in the heat: no piece done while another is still raw, which is the only test that the first mark was met.
Where it goes wrong The dough was worked past its point or shaped without a rest, so it fought back: the pieces spring out of shape on the tray and bake tight, uneven, and torn along the surface.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec
- Also Right
- Tempranillo (Rioja Reserva)
- From the Taps
- Amber ale
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water, make room
Tannin binds to seared protein and fat: each bite softens the wine, each sip resets the palate: the steakhouse equation.
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