Carolina Taquitos with SoCal Slaw
Makes 12 taquitos - 4 entrée servings or appetizers for 6-8 people
We love having folks come to visit. Full stop. It’s like combining the best of two worlds - our wonderful area here in Durham, with friends and family from SoCal, work friends from around the world, our son (who now lives in Florida). You name it. We’ll take it. We love having company.
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| A taste of home - both SoCal and North Carolina |
With this as a backdrop, you’ll understand how happy we were when our SoCal friend Sheryl (and my BFF from Cal State Fullerton) decided to come for a long weekend. This was her fourth trip in the nine years (!) we’ve live here, so she already knows the drill. But as Durham continues to evolve, we continue to have new places to go, areas to explore. It’s a blast.
Her arrival also gave me an excuse to try out a recipe I’ve been writing, which transforms the vinegary and slightly sweet and spicy pork barbecue that is common here into crispy crunch taquitos like the ones we loved in SoCal, served up with a refreshing lime and cilantro coleslaw and guacamole. Oh yeah.
We made the dish last night. It earned a Steve Barnett “Home Run, Honey!” In fact, he said it might just be a grand slam! So here it is for you.
Here's how you do it.
For the taquitos
12 corn tortillas (try to get fresh corn tortillas from a Mexican market, but packaged tortillas from the store will do.
1 pound of barbecue pulled pork (we get this from the barbecue place up the road)
1/2 cup Carolina vinegar-based barbecue sauce (if your pork comes unseasoned with sauce)
Corn oil to fill a skillet to 3/4 of an inch
toothpicks for securing the taquitos while frying (2 per taquito)
Garnishes - take your pick, or do them all:
Guacamole - fresh or pre-made (for a quick guac, mash a ripe avocado with the juice of 1/2 a lime, about a TBS each of diced onion, and cilantro, plus a good pinch of salt and a bit of your favorite hot sauce or salsa)
Sour cream
Mexican queso fresco (dry white cheese that crumbles well) or shredded cheddar cheese f
Method:
- Break up the barbecue into thin bite sized pieces and mix in the sauce. Set aside
- For each taquito,
- Warm a tortilla for about 10-seconds per side over a gas flame or dry frying pan to make them pliable and easy to roll.
- Put about 2 TBS of the barbecue mixture on a tortilla, towards one side. Then working from that side, roll the tortilla over the barbecue like a cigar. Push two toothpicks through to secure, leaving long on one side.This will come in handy when frying.
- To fry, heat the oil in a heavy skillet until a piece of a tortilla that is placed in the oil begins to bubble. Then use tongs to carefully place 3 taquitos in the oil, seam side down and long end of the toothpick up, into the oil. Fry until golden brown (about 45 seconds) then pull out the toothpicks and flip to fry the other side until done (about 30 seconds). Remove to drain on paper towels.
- Serve with a small pile of the slaw and garnishes of your choice.
For the slaw
1/4 cup sweet onion, quarter-inch diced
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 lime, juiced (about 2 TBS)
1 1/2 TBS jalepeno, seeded and diced
1/4 tsp kosher salt
15 grinds black pepper
1/4 level tsp coriander
1/4 level tsp cumin
1 14 oz bag of tricolor coleslaw mix (red and green cabbage with carrots - no dressing)
2/3 cup cilantro, finely chopped
Method
- Mixture first eight ingredients in a large bowl until well combined.
- Add the bag of cabbage/carrot slaw mix and the cilantro
- Stir well and chill at least 30 minutes
Enjoy.
