In pursuit of some non-political thinking, submitted for your pleasure.
Last weekend I had the pleasure of being in Austin and having another encounter with their famous breakfast tacos. The sublime experience was delivered by Torchy’s Tacos and their sauces. I brought some extra sauces home and am now trying to recreate something like them before they go bad and I no longer have reference tastes.
And so of course I thought to mention them here, in case anyone’s cracked the code(s). My understanding is that it would take 24 or more hours to make their sauces because of many secret ingredients that take time to prepare such as special pepper sauces. So it’s not truly possible to recreate them at home, but getting close is more than enough reward.
But let me back up a step or two.
For those not in the know, Austin has a fantastic tradition of breakfast tacos; they are enjoyed throughout central Texas, including Dallas, but reach their pinnacle in Austin. They are a mix of eggs/cheese/chilies/veggies/meats and are served on a toasted corn or flour tortilla, and accompanied by sauces. Truly, this type of breakfast food is more than just eggs and stuff on a tortilla; there’s an art to these things, and every aspect contributes to the final result, especially those sauces.
Austin’s standard sauce is a creamy jalapeno-based sauce that is much milder than you might think. Some places fry or roast peppers before adding them and a neutral oil to make a creamy emulsion. As for Torchy’s, I enjoyed their chipotle and advocado sauces and those are what I am trying to recreate. They are both moderately spicy, and the chipotle sauce is white, and has a hint of the tang of ranch dressing, so that may be one secret. But the avocado sauce is a mystery though I expect its base is the standard Austin green sauce with some extras, including some avocado. It’s so good it hurts.
Having spent my early childhood in Texas, and almost a decade recently in Southern Colorado, I’ve grown to relish this type of Southwestern breakfast fare and make such things more than once a week. My signature ingredients include home-canned sliced jalapenos and frozen New Mexico or Pueblo (Colorado) green chilies I procure, process, pack, and freeze for individual thawing. I also make a mean green chile and am perfecting my posole this winter.
With my greatly-increased knowledge and skill in cooking and love of DIY sauces, trying to nail these sauces down is a new passion. They’re that good, and I’m hoping to share the love and perhaps get some much-needed help!
Basic Austin Green Sauce
Clean, slice, seed, and remove white veins from 6 jalapenos
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
3-6 cloves garlic
4 tbs lime juice
3/4 tsp salt
Process all ingredients except oil in food processor until smooth.
Then gradually add oil until the mixture emulsifies.
I like to put in fridge to let it set before eating, but that’s purely texture-aesthetic.
Please feel free to offer any tips, to discuss other delicious treats, and to otherwise offer something that goes good on the table to block out tension, second-guessing, and endless agitation. 8 more days until we make history…again.
Wapiti
My wife spent three years in Austin and became a serious salsa snob for a while. They do salsas well there.
p.a.
Looks gooood. A recently closed :-( Columbian place near me did egg-filled corn empanadas.
Poopyman
Hey, that’s the first time I’ve seen a pic when I scroll over the gray (New Post) bar to the right. Is that a new feature, or just one no one’s used before?
Or am I just slow?
albertZ
“non-political thinking”? Sorry but it’s the 2016 Presidential Election. Even tacos have become politicized.
Shell
Dammit, whens a taco truck coming to MY corner?
Keith G
A Torchy’s Taco place is two block from me and their goods are indeed tasty. My area of Houston has several family-run taquerias (and even a truck) so there are a couple of places for family-made goodness. My problem is that since I live in one of the whiter areas of the central city, I have fewer options nearby than I would like.
Helen
@Poopyman: It’s new for me, too. Just noticed it today.
John Revolta
Migas!!
It ain’t breakfast without ’em.
eclare
I expect a taco truck on my corner November 9th.
MomSense
Yum. I better get a taco truck on my corner after this election or Hillary’s worse than Obama she sold us out.
laura
@eclare: I’m considering painting the curb to designate it as taco truck parking.
Who’s with me on the hot-n-delicious orange sauce?
Love it, but no idea about the ingredients
Brachiator
Sounds really, really good.
Now, to find the best equivalent in Southern California…
kdaug
1.) Nobody in Austin knows what grapeseed oil is. Just use olive oil.
2.) Hatch, when in season. Get ’em roasted, or roast ’em yourself. Every damned HEB/Central Market devotes August to them. They freeze just fine (peel the black char off, first.)
3.) If you’re going to use japs, don’t cut out what makes them good. If you’re scared of heat, use food coloring. And get off my lawn.
– TX Native, Austin resident since 1987 (as fast as I could)
Grumpy Code Monkey
Keep wanting to try Torchy’s, but we always wind up at Taco Deli.
Back in the early ’90s we had some clients from Boston come down and we ordered breakfast tacos for one meeting. One guy just refused to process the concept of “breakfast” + “taco” – he kept picturing your stereotypical crispy taco with meat, sour cream, and shredded cheese, and couldn’t understand how you could eat that for breakfast.
Villago Delenda Est
Are you sure you didn’t get that recipe from John Podesta’s hacked by wikileaks emails?
hitchhiker
random ice cream snack:
plain vanilla ice cream
handful of those little mini pretzels
maple syrup
crunchy + creamy + salty + sweet = goodness.
The Moar You Know
There is no reason you can’t eat tacos at every meal and I have done it and lived to tell the tale.
Of course, I live in San Diego and if there’s one thing we are not short on, it is Mexican food. Really about the only thing keeping me here.
Went to NH a few years back for the first time and was gonna make lobster tacos. Ah, my shock. Not a “Mexican” food aisle in the store. No Mexican items save for a shelf with four bottles of Tabasco on it. All the spaghetti sauce was labeled “ethnic food”. That was some eye-opening scary shit.
SenyorDave
OT, but this pretty unfortunate:
CNN cuts ties with Donna Brazile after hacked emails suggest she gave Clinton campaign debate questions
If I were Trump I would switch to this from the e-mails immediately. There is no context for this one
Betsy
@hitchhiker: wo/man after my own heart.
Important: If, in eating your bowl of goodness, you run out of pretzels first, you have to add more.
Same for the ice cream.
This process is iterative and ideally can go on for a long time.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@SenyorDave:
CNN and Trump are both paying Lewandowski who is also under an NDA, but both sides, I guess.
SenyorDave
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: It isn’t going to play the same to a casual observer, plus its inexcusable on the part of the Clinton camp. I don’t see how you spin it, and I think it qualifies as a bombshell.
RoonieRoo
Alain, you have to do Taco Deli for lunch on your next Austin trip.
Corner Stone
@SenyorDave: Wait a second…you’re serious?
I hate to admit weakness, I mean beyond my inherent weakness for all things Salma Hayek, but my snarkmeter just can’t take this shit any longer.
SenyorDave
@Corner Stone: So you seriously don’t think that cheating in a debate in this fashion isn’t a big deal?
Ferny
Tacos are always political! In particular, Austin has claimed the national narrative as the place of ‘breakfast tacos’, particular served as restaurants that are owned by whites and predominantly serve whites.
This is contradicted by the lived reality of breakfast tacos – the best are available outside of Austin in San Antonio, Houston and the Rio Grande Valley – and are a staple food of Mexican-Americans, who have been written out of the narrative of tacos.
Josie
Alain: Here is a good guacamole recipe that can be halved or expanded. It sounds weird but is really tasty and works with any flavor of tacos.
4 large avocados, cut into small chunks
juice of 2 oranges
juice of 2 limes
8 T. red onion, chopped small
8 T. cilantro
8T. each of pico de gallo and medium salsa (either one purchased or homemade)
Corner Stone
@SenyorDave: What exactly is it you believe Donna Brazile is guilty of doing? And the HRC campaign itself is guilty of? Here, I’ll tee this up as a helper for you:
“after hacked emails suggest she gave Clinton campaign debate questions”
Larkspur
Friends of mine moved from Northern California to Austin (her home town) about ten years ago. They drove with two poodles and one cat, then flew me there with the second cat (she was a very good kitty and only bit me once, and not very hard). Then I helped them unpack and they took me around to see the sights and eat the glorious delicious food. Yum.
PS: Austin was good for her husband, too. Within months he’d turned his back on George W Bush, and eventually ended up marching around with one of those “I STAND WITH TEXAS WOMEN” signs.
Couldn't Stand the Weather
Food is now political.
Whatever.
Time for waaaay too much candy (and tacos, but after the candy; cuz Priorities).
piratedan
@Corner Stone: anyone with a functioning set of brain cells had a pretty decent idea on what questions were going to be asked. What topics were going to be explored. For fucks sake, each of the networks gave the categories and topics to be discussed before the debates began.
SenyorDave
@efgoldman: Inside baseball nothingburger, assuming it’s even true
I will vote for Clinton no matter what, and, to steal a Simpsons line, I would vote for an inanimate carbon steel rod over Trump, but I would think this sort of thing would actually bother people if true. It might be relatively small potatoes, but I actually do expect a fair amount from the people who represent me, such as basic honesty.
One thing I love about Obama is that he seems to have surrounded himself with people who are honest (I assume if there was even a hint of wrongdoing, there would be hearings immediately, given the Republicans propensity for witch hunts).
SenyorDave
@piratedan: Its different than using your position at the network to feed info. Its obviously different since it got her fired!
catclub
@SenyorDave:
Slightly more accurate now.
Pamoya
@SenyorDave: The email has Donna Brazile letting the Clinton camp know that they might get asked a question about the Flint water problem… in a Democratic primary debate held in Flint, Michigan. Duh. I don’t think this qualifies as “cheating in a debate” as you call it. Plus the earlier Russian email hacks already had info on this and no one gave a crap back then either.
Chyron HR
@SenyorDave:
“If true” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
Corner Stone
@SenyorDave: One of the many problems here is you have no idea what HRC did with this information. If it’s even true or within boundaries of being true. Which we also can’t know.
Do you imagine HRC solicited DB for some kind of heads up? Do you think DB saw the exact questions in order and slipped them over?
You’re letting Wikileaks and CNN do a hell of a lot of work for you, here. Your concern, citizen. It has been noted.
SenyorDave
@Pamoya: How is this not cheating? It is using inside information, and it certainly was not supplied to both sides. You must have a very different idea of basic honesty than I do. Brazille used her position to supply inside information. That’s what it is, and I don’t understand how anyone could find that acceptable. I think CNN did the right thing by firing her. I would fire someone who works in my company if they released confidential information in a heartbeat.
Corner Stone
@SenyorDave:
Tells us more about CNN than any hint about DB. But we already knew about CNN seeing as how they kept Lewandowski on air after it was proven he was still being paid/retained by the Trump campaign.
Brachiator
@catclub:
From a CNN report
As Hercule Poiroit might say, “the gun, she is smoked.”
This “scandal” is minor, and it is beyond shitty that the Wikileaks asswipe is using this material as part of a personal vendetta against Clinton. But unfortunately, this stuff is probably not all fake.
Alain the site fixer
@RoonieRoo: will do. Also did Maudie’s and Flores. It was all good! But that’s on the list for my next visit.
Ian
How dare you?! The best breakfast tacos come from San Antonio.
Alain the site fixer
@Josie: thanks, orange sounds interesting!
Pamoya
@SenyorDave: I’m sorry, that is ludicrous. It is total concern troll to suggest that this raises serious questions about “basic honesty” and “cheating.” DB: Hey, you might want to prepare for a question about the Flint water crisis at a debate held in Flint Michigan. HRC campaign: Umm…. thanks? (I’m sure they were politer than that). And how on earth do you know no one gave the same “tip” to Bernie Sanders? No Russian spies have been hacking his email. This doesn’t tell us a single thing about HRC or her campaign.
SenyorDave
@efgoldman: It might, for people who don’t remember 1980, when Georgy Porgy Will did debate prep with Sanctus Ronaldus Magnus at the same time he was fellating Ronnie in his columns.
Sounds like relative morality, I may be a liar but its not a big lie. Can’t something be wrong just because its basically wrong?
hitchhiker
@Betsy:
That’s been my experience. It’s a bit like the business of even-ing out the row in a pan of brownies. You have to keep working at it until it’s perfect.
John Weiss
Alain,
White chipotle sauce? Maybe they’re using liquid smoke instead of chipotle peppers, which are smoke-dried jalapenos and are rather brown.
SenyorDave
@efgoldman: I’ll leave it that you and I have a very different sense of right and wrong. And it doesn’t come down to overdue library fines or parking tickets. Donna Brazille would have been fired for her actions at any reputable company. And while I’m glad that this story so far does not seem to have any legs, I am surprised.
KenZ
Austin is not the pinnacle of breakfast tacos. They won’t even go mano-a-mano with San Antonio. Johnney Hernandez operates some of the finest Mexican restaurants in the US. Austin and up is really just Tex-Mex country
http://www.mysanantonio.com/food/article/Texas-Taco-War-a-forfeit-Austin-didn-t-show-up-6884179.php
Keith G
@SenyorDave:
It can be, but in this hyper partisan world, morality matters shit compared to team membership. I agree with Cheryl Mills and John Podesta that much of this was an own goal that could/should have been handled better. My wish for a better Hillary matters little when compared to the planet-ending alternative that we are facing.
Alain the site fixer
@John Weiss: I know, right? I can see the flecks of smoked chipotle pepper bits, no idea if adobo is in the sauce or if perhaps they wash off the adobo and just use the pepper.
Chipotle is how it was labeled and I don’t think it’s really a cream sauce, just that hint of ranch tang to make me think that there’s a tiny bit of ranch in it and perhaps that and something else suspended in the oil makes it white. And it’s not mayo-like. I do think it’s like the above green sauce with some ranch and chipotle/smoked jalapeño but with the adobo omitted.
Just dipped my finger in it again. Mmm
Kay (not the front-pager)
@SenyorDave: You seriously believe that submitting a suggestion for a debate question, then telling a candidate you think it might be asked, is a big deal?!? Sorry, can’t go there.
And the Clinton campaign – what is it you think they should have done in response? I’m trying to come up with a snarky suggestion, but I can’t even do that.
catclub
@SenyorDave:
Why does this bring to mind the whistleblower (who was given a huge reward because the Government sued and made a huge recovery),
who was the only person in the whole thing to go to jail.
catclub
@Kay (not the front-pager): Is that what it was? Even less of a nothingburger.
Virginia (fka Abo Gato)
@Ian: Thank you. As a San Antonian I must insist that ours are far better.
Here is how I make my green salsa:
Half pound jalapeños, stem end off and roughly cut into chunks. Keep the seeds in for christ sake
One onion, peeled and chunked
Several garlic cloves, peeled and chunked
Half a bunch cilantro, stems and all
Put this in a pan and add water to cover, then bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer till the jalapeños are no longer bright green.
Remove from heat and blend it up with an immersion blender. Taste and then add some salt and the juice of a lime. If you want, add a bit more cilantro leaves, chopped.
Eat this shit on everything and use as a dip for tortilla chips.
Favorite breakfast tacos in SA: chilaquiles with cheese, bean cheese and bacon, carne guisada, barbacoa, lengua. All fine on either a good flour tortilla or a nice home made corn tortilla.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@catclub: That was the claim back in the summer when this first came to light (I think it was part of the pre-DNC convention wikileaks dump).
I wrote a whole diary at the GOS re: what Clinton should say if Trump confronted her about Bill’s infidelity at the second debate. A lot of people really liked it. I didn’t, but I could have sent it to the Clinton campaign as a suggestion for how she should answer. If I had, and if she had used it, I don’t think either of us would have been guilty of cheating. YMMV, SenorDave.
Villago Delenda Est
@SenyorDave: The problem is the double standard. Lewandowski gets to skate on all this shit.
Corner Stone
Ouch! My pearls have been clutched again! Clutched so fucking hard!
Kay (not the front-pager)
Well dammit, I got distracted by this stupid Donna B issue and forgot to ask about the breakfast tacos. They sound delicious, but I need more information. I’m pretty good at sauces, but how do you make the tacos themselves? I do have a bag of Hatch’s chilis in my freezer from last year’s 1/2 bushel (a 1/2 bushel of chilis is a lot of chilis to char, peel, and freeze BTW). I have 12 quarts of fermented jalapenos in the fridge that should last me through the winter and into the summer when jalapenos are abundant again. I can get ingredients from local ethnic markets, but I don’t have access to the kind of restaurants (and no taco trucks on my corner) from which I can suss out the ingredients and techniques. Any recipes you ccan share?
Virginia (fka Abo Gato)
@Kay (not the front-pager): Can you get your hands on any good flour tortillas? Breakfast tacos can have anything you desire in them. Scramble a couple eggs, stir in a little chopped onion and fresh jalapeño. Add cilantro and cheese then serve it in a tortilla with plenty of salsa. Eat. Repeat. Scramble those eggs, add some chunked up leftover potatoes, add cheese. There ya go, potato egg and cheese taco. For chilaquiles, basically the eggs with onion and jalapeño with added crunched up corn tortilla chips. (Chilaquiles are made without eggs in Mexico, just the corn chips cooked in a salsa like sauce). Get a can of refried beans and heat it up, cook some bacon, slather the tortilla with the beans add cheese then a slice of bacon. Lots of that salsa and you have the bean, bacon and cheese taco, my very favorite. Oh, in all these applications, the tortilla should be warm, not cold.
John Weiss
@Alain the site fixer: That’s interesting. I’ve never used canned chipotle before; I only use the dried peppers, mostly for chili or barbecue. I’ll be interested in your home-grown experiments.
Theodore Wirth
I am partial to heuvo rancheros for a proper breakfast.
Larkspur
@Theodore Wirth:
Absolutely. Breakfast of champions.
JR in WV
@SenyorDave:
Dude, it was a warning about a question about polluted drinking water at a debate in FLINT MI – where the water has been contaminated with lead for months now, due to a Republican state administration. This could hardly be more (or less, depending on your visual perspective) or a nothing-burger!
My only question is why Ms Brazile thought she needed to pass this warning about “the sky is blue today!” anyway. Nothing-burger!
mrmike
A buddy of mine makes a killer avocado based sauce with lime, sofrito, avacado and jalapeno.
The exact proportions are a secret, but those are the major pieces. You can buy ready-made sofrito at some ethnic markets.
Raphael Kearns
Alain:
Posole! This word magically transports me to Santa Fe, home of the best Posole on earth. We have visited somewhere around 8-9 times and always make it a point to go to La Choza for the best Posole on earth.
La Choza is also my favorite restaurant in Santa Fe. It is also owned by the family that owns The Shed, which we’ve never eaten at. It used to be a small place off Cerrillos Road near the New Mexico School for the Deaf. It has been enlarged and sadly has lost some of it’s charm but retains it’s great food..