Chipotle Shrimp Puffy Tacos

This is the last Mexican-themed post for at least a week....I promise. It will be hard, but I will do my best to refrain!!! The dish pictured above is my version of Chipotle Shrimp Puffy Tacos. It is inspired by two places: Nick's Cripsy Tacos (a San Francisco must!) and Throwdown with Bobby Flay (a show I would highly recommend). Similar to the tacos in Ben's last post, this dish is also a child of needing to go to the grocery store.

These tacos have three components, which I will write about individually: the Chipotle shrimp, the slaw, and the puffy tacos.

Chipotle Shrimp

• 2 Chipotles in adobo sauce
• 1-2 tablespoons Honey (or more to taste)
• 1/2 Lemon
• 1 Lime
• 1 cup Cilantro
• 1 teaspoon Salt (or more to taste)
• 1-2 cloves of Garlic
  

To make the sauce, combine the chipotles with some adobo sauce (be cautious, though, it is spicy), the lemon, the lime, garlic, cilantro and salt in a blender and mix well. Add honey and taste. If the sauce is still too spicy for your taste add some more honey to balance the heat (you could also use sugar, but I like taste of honey on shrimp).

Toss the sauce (which I use as a marinade and a cooking sauce in the shrimp and put in the refrigerator while making the other ingredients.

Homemade Corn Tortillas

• 3.75 cups of Masa
• 1 cup plus a little more of hot Water

You can also use store bought tortillas, but making them fresh tastes better and gives a certain satisfaction. Masa is Spanish for dough. I think of it as a cross between cornmeal and flour. Generally it comes in a large bag and you can store it in your pantry for use whenever you want fresh tortillas.

Knead the Masa and water until it is smooth and well combined. Cover the the mixture for 15 minutes. We'll come back to the dough once it is ready to prepare. At this point, it is probably a good idea to start heating up vegetable oil dutch oven or a strong bottomed pot -- you will want to put enough oil to completely submerge the flour tortilla (probably around 3 cups or so depending on the size of the pot/dutch oven).

The Slaw

• 2 Cabbage
• 1-2 tablespoons Honey
• 1 tablespoon Rice Vinegar
• Salt & pepper to taste
  

Toss the ingredients. It is delicious -- It is a Bobby Flay inspired slaw, so you know it is good!

At this point, put the shrimp on the stove. I prefer using raw shrimp, but cooked shrimp will work as well. The cooking time will depend on which you decide to use, but the key is that you do not want to overcook the shrimp. When you bite into one, it should have a crunch (almost like a piece of asparagus). Cook the shrimp until the shrimp are nicely warmed. When you serve the tacos, you want them to be hotter than room temperature, but not extremely hot.

Now it is time to make the tacos puffy. The process begins as it would with any corn tortillas - by rolling golf ball sized pieces of the Masa mixture and placing it on a tortilla press (pictured to the right). This device is about $20 dollars and can be found at most places with a sizable cooking department (such as Bed Bath and Beyond). It is important to cover each side of the press with saran wrap or zip lock bags so the Masa mixture does not stick to the press.

The oil temperature should be between 300-350 degrees. Carefully drop the pressed tortilla into the oil (be careful because oil has a tendency to splash), and using tongs or another kitchen utensil, shape the tortilla like a saddle (how you would see a store bought tortilla).

Repeat until you have used all of the Masa mixture.

Once the tortillas have cooled a bit, build the taco by first placing the slaw, then the shrimp. Add cilantro and avocado for garnish. Enjoy!