Nachos of Epic Success
Monday, December 22, 2008 at 12:00PM Aashay is my hero. He is the mastermind behind the site name, which ended up being much more well received than the original candidates, Stash's Stomach and Gastrome. Without him, there are many doubts to whether or not I would have gotten the push needed to come out of the culinary closet. As a result, I make a point to construct vegetarian dishes so he can enjoy the site with everyone else. In the spirit of giving this week, I am fixing him up with [Veg] Nachos of Epic Success, which would probably be a lot better covered in chorizo or shredded beef. Here is what started it:
Dude, I made an amazing recipe tonight, I think you should feature it on your blog. Check this out.
Epic Fail Nachos:
In short:
- 1 Can of refried beans (preferably generic, to add to the Fail)
- A handful of Ortega Taco shells
- 1 Cup of any mexican shredded cheese blend
- Your favorite taco sauce
- 1 Tbsp Chili seasoning
- The last little bit of salsa that sticks to the bottom of the jar
- Two slices of bread
- Blend beans, an arbitrary amount of taco sauce, and the chili seasoning into a small pot
- Stir over heat until it becomes some sort of diarrhea-like goop.
- Put taco shells in a preheated oven to crisp them. Pay no attention to the fact that the oven was preset to 400.
- Go update twitter, read blogs, and watch a podcast or two.
- Come back to realize that your taco shells have been burnt to almost ashes.
- Salvage whatever remnants you can of the taco shells and break them into little pieces onto a plate
- Pour the bean goop onto the broken burned taco shell bits
- Toss a bunch of cheese on top, and shove the whole thing in the microwave
- Pour salsa remnants over it, and use the two slices of bread to consume any remaining bean goo that you can't eat with the taco shells.
- Cry yourself to sleep.
No photos unfortunately, but it's probably a good thing in this case.
I don't know anyone that doesn't love nachos- if you don't love nachos then you don't love puppies. Just how it is. Nachos are one of the few dishes where I believe that more is more. No two bites will ever taste the same and they should all be a wild whirlwind of flavor.
I'm not an authority on Mexican food, but I do know some tasty authentic bites that you're probably unaware of. These are going to be the focus of the dish since I think nachos are becoming more and more full of ingredients that aren't indigenous to Mexico and dumb the dish down.
Cebollitas
The first of these special ingredients are cebollitas, which will be used for Cebollitas Asadas (Grilled Baby Onions with Lime). This simple preparation brings out a wonderful grilled, smokey flavor from the onions. The lime brightly cuts through. They make a wonderful topping for steak, but this time they're going to get diced to top the nachos- just be careful when doing it.
The second onion for the dish will be Escabeche de Cebolla, or pickled red onions. These delicious treats are easy to make, and are full of unexpected flavor. They're sweet, sour, and briny all at the same time. I can't think of anything that they aren't good on. Ice cream and escabeche de cebolla- could definitely happen.
Escabeche de Cebolla
These can be found in some grocery stores, but just in case, here is Rick Bayless' recipe that I showcased a couple months ago. They were a delicious addition to my take on the popular Vietnamese sandwich, banh mi. The only major difference when I prepare them myself, is that I double the amount of garlic and spices, with a generous pour of cider vinegar.
The basics of the dish are to thinly slice a red onion, par boil in water, drain, season with pickling spices, cider vinegar, add water to cover, bring back to a boil, then remove from heat and let rest for several hours. Easy.
The other fun toppings are going to be roasted poblano peppers, hot sauce, black beans, homemade salsa, and homemade guacamole. If you feel like being a dirty cheater, feel free to buy the latter two. Just be sure to check the ingredient label on guacamole, since many store brands include potato filler. But please, do yourself the favor and make your own, fresh.
Mexican 'hot' sauce
I usually don't endorse brands, but when it comes to hot sauce, an exception has to be made. Truth is, what we define as hot sauce is grossly different than what is used in Mexico. Mexican hot sauce is not about maximizing Scoville Heat Units (SHU). It's about great flavor. They also aren't vinegar based, like our favorite 'T' guys, and are much less sodium laden.
Pictured, is one of two brands recommended by Rick, who is the number one authority out there. My favorite version is the extra hot. The sauce is extra hot relative to the base product, which means this ranks about average on the SHU scale for the American palette.
With all the toppings taken care of lets delve into the foundation of the dish- chips and cheese. Nachos need fresh, crisp, triangular chips. I like plain ones, because honestly the super salty ones are just plain silly.
The cheese has to be an excellent melting cheese. The most fatty, delicious, and authentic one I can think of is chihuahua. It's the white stuff that Mexican restaurants use for queso and about everything else.
While the oven is pre-heating to 300 Dg, the most important thing to do is to keep in mind layering. Nobody wants a dry unloved chip. Put down a layer of chips. Cover with cheese. Put down a layer of chips. Cover with cheese. Eventually these will be a glorious pyramid ready for demolition.
Once built, the pyramid goes into the oven for about 10 minutes. Make sure all the toppings are on hand, because nobody wants the cheese to get cold while a slowpoke is spooning on salsa. Carefully pull out the platter, and begin layering the flavors. Remember, more is more in Nacholand.
Nachos of Epic Success
Even though Nachos are an easy dish, appropriate for chefs of all ages, please excercise caution, especially if making all the toppings from scratch. Though I have to say, it was pretty cool to cut completely through my thumb nail- never done that before. Another good Shun plug.
Pain. Nachos are more dangerous than they seem.
Cebollitas Asadas, Escabeche de Cebolla, Nachos in Recipe, Stash Responds 
Reader Comments (3)
idk Stash. I'm gonna have to say diced finger nailis are a bigger fail than vegi nachos. Not just in flavor. But in the whole preperations and everyrthing!
Diced fingernails = epic success!
Oh man, so sorry about that finger...how bout a link to my site in that first sentence eh? Lord knows I could use the traffic, after being such a huge fail and not writing anything there X_X