V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 2V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 22/3/23 12:00 PM2/3/23 12:00 PMalso by ivy manning Weeknight Vegetarian: 80 Simple, Healthy Meals for Every Night of the Week Instant Pot Family Meals: 60+ Fast, Flavorful Meal for the Dinner Table Instant Pot Miracle 6 Ingredients Or Less: 100 No-Fuss Recipes for Easy Meals Every Day Instant Pot Italian: 100 Irresistible Recipes Made Easier Than Ever Easy Soups from Scratch with Quick Breads to Match: 70 Recipes to Pair and Share Better from Scratch: Delicious D.I.Y. Foods You Can Make at Home Crackers & Dips: More than 50 Handmade Snacks The Adaptable Feast: Satisfying Meals for the Vegetarians, Vegans, and Omnivores at Your Table The Farm to Table Cookbook: The Art of Eating Locally V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 3V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 32/3/23 12:00 PM2/3/23 12:00 PMV2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 4V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 42/3/23 12:00 PM2/3/23 12:00 PMa del icious guide to V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 5V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 52/3/23 12:00 PM2/3/23 12:00 PMWest Margin Press an iMPrint of turner Publishing CoMPany Nashville, Tennessee www.turnerpublishing.com Tacos A to Z: A Delicious Guide to Inauthentic Tacos Copyright © 2023 by Ivy Manning. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted un- der Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Turner Publishing Company, email: submissions@turnerpublishing.com. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents, and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular pur- pose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. Cover design by William Ruoto Book design by William Ruoto Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data TK Printed in the United States of America V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 6V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 62/3/23 12:00 PM2/3/23 12:00 PMCONTENTS Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 CHAPTER 1: FOUNDATIONS Homemade Corn Tortillas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Half and Half Tortillas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Homemade Flour Tortillas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 CHAPTER 2: THE ALPHABET OF TACOS Avocado Fry Tacos with Sriracha Mayo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Buffalo Chicken Tacos with Homemade Ranch Dressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Chocolate-Dipped Ice Cream Tacos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Duck Tacos with Orange Ginger Radish Salsa and Chili Crisp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 English Breakfast Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Fish and Chips Tacos with Pea Guacamole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Greek-Style Lamb Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Hawaiian Grilled Chicken Tacos with Spicy Pineapple Salsa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Irish Nachos Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Jerk Salmon Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Korean Kalbi Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Linguica, Kale, and Potato Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Mole Chicken Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 New Mexican Chile-Dipped Chicken Taquitos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Oyster Tacos with Celery Root Remoulade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Pork Tenderloin Tacos with Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Quinoa and Veggie Double Tacos with Guacamole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Royale with Cheese Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Seafood Ceviche Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 7V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 72/3/23 12:00 PM2/3/23 12:00 PMviii CONT E NT S That ’70s Taco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Umami Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Vindaloo Pork Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Watercress and Flank Steak Thai-Inspired Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 XO Shrimp and Cheese Toasty Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Yellowtail Tacos with Mango-Avocado Salsa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Za’atar Chicken Tacos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 CHAPTER 3: SALSAS, SAUCES, PICKLES, AND BEANS Pico de Gallo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Tomatillo Salsa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Roasted Tomato Jalapeno Salsa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Cilantro Lime Crema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Roasted Garlic Crema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Sriracha Mayo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Pickled Red Onions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Pickled Red Cabbage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Refried Pinto Beans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 A Batch of Really Good Black Beans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 8V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 82/3/23 12:00 PM2/3/23 12:00 PMINTRODUCTION My first restaurant job was in college, at Pasqual’s Cantina, a hip Tex-Mex restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin. I was eager to learn but had zero restaurant experience, so I started as a dishwasher. I scrubbed out massive bean pots that nearly outweighed me (that’s how you get black bean stains in the armpits of all your T-shirts, by the way), washed dishes, worked until I was giddy, and fell in love with working in a kitchen. After begging for what seemed like an eternity, I was finally allowed to enter the cooking side of the kitchen. There, I learned how to make salsas, pressure-cook dozens of pounds of chicken, stew beans from scratch, and manage dozens of tortillas at a time on the massive flat-top grill. I was schooled in the endless variety of dishes that could be composed from three kinds of tortillas, five different proteins from pork verde to chorizo, three kinds of beans, two kinds of sauce (green and red), a rainbow of salsas, and special-order tweaks. The sing-song barrage of orders called out in short- hand slang stays with me to this day—“three tacos blue, chicken, yellow chor, flour refry, and a flour faj pinto, no moo!” I was amazed by how many variables there could be in food, and how creative I could be not just in that kitchen, but every kitchen. The combinations of ingredients were endless! That first restaurant job sparked in me a love of cooking. From culinary school to catering gigs, fine dining restaurant jobs to teaching cooking classes, thirty years later, I owe a lot to that first job. So, when I sat down to write this, my tenth cookbook, it made sense to return to my first kitchen love: tacos. So, why the A to Z, and why inauthentic tacos? Well, while I have the utmost respect for the time-honored traditions that make Latinx cuisine great, my roots are not Latinx. There are more knowledgeable folks than I to write a book about authentic tacos. But like all genius ideas, tacos—essentially wrapping savory morsels of food in tortillas and eating them out of hand—is an idea that has inspired chefs all over the world to create their own spin on tacos, and I’m one of them. This book will look at tacos through that lens of creativity, approaching tacos as a springboard for meals inspired by cooking from all over the world, from Chaing Mai to Chattanooga. In fact, there are so many ways to fill a tacothat when I sat down to organize my thoughts, I found that I could easily cook a taco for every letter of the alphabet! So I did. V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 9V2_TacosAZ_MS6_020323.indd 92/3/23 12:00 PM2/3/23 12:00 PMNext >