Beef Fajita Nachos Compuestos #FoodieExtravaganza

Crunchy fried tortilla triangles topped with refried beans, fajita beef, cheese and jalapeños, these beef fajita nachos compuestos can also be made with store-bought chips.

Before we get going here, let’s familiarize ourselves with what nacho compuesto means. A basic nacho is a tortilla chip with cheese melted on top and a slice of jalapeño. Simple to make, so easy to eat. Compuesto means compound, so: things that are put together to create a different thing. It is a deliberate act, not a hodge podge of ingredients that may or may not go together. Those ingredients become something else. Like a chemical compound.

A proper nacho compuesto is a singular item. It should not be crowded or otherwise cramped unduly by its neighboring nachos. It sits nicely with them on the hot plate but can be picked up without disturbing, nay, even touching a neighbor.

That said, I am a complete fan of the sheet pan method of nacho making, but even then, I make sure that every chip gets some topping. Those restaurants that serve a big pile of chips heaped with toppings should have their nacho license revoked. No one wants the chips underneath so they are thrown away. What a waste.

When I was growing up in Houston, Texas, a plate of nachos compuestos was often my go-to order at any Mexican restaurant. They have many of the ingredients in a taco, in a much easier to eat format. Usually made with ground beef, the nachos compuestos of my youth were also topped with refried beans and cheese with a slice of jalapeño. Sometimes there were chopped tomatoes and onions or even salsa added after the nachos were cooked.

Today, I am hosting an event for my Foodie Extravaganza friends in honor of National Nacho Day. I’ve upped the ante on nachos compuestos by making them with fajita meat instead of ground beef. Make sure you scroll down to see the other creative nacho recipes the group is sharing.

Beef Fajita Nachos Compuestos

This recipe can also be a main course, as it was for me years ago. You can totally add some shredded lettuce if it makes you feel better about making this a full meal.

Ingredients
For the nachos:
1 lb or 450g trimmed skirt steak (weight after trimming of fat and sinew)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons taco seasonings
1 teaspoon meat tenderizer (Ajinomoto)
freshly ground black pepper
24 corn or corn/flour tortilla chips (or fry your own!)
1 can (16oz or 454g) refried beans
4 oz or 113g extra sharp cheddar
2 whole jalapeños, fresh or pickled

For the pico de gallo:
1/2 small onion, chopped finely
2 fresh jalapeños
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 roma tomatoes
Pinch fine sea salt
Pinch sugar
A few grinds black pepper

Method
Sprinkle the beef with the lime juice, taco spices and tenderizer, along with a few generous grinds of black pepper. Rub the seasonings all over. Use a meat mallet to pound the skirt steak.

Make sure you season and pound on both sides. This helps break down any tough bits and works the seasonings into the beef. If it’s all about the same thickness, it also cooks more evenly.

Place the beef in a Ziploc bag or reusable plastic container. Refrigerate until ready to use, but preferably at least one hour.

To make the pico de gallo, chop the onion and jalapeño finely. Put them in a bowl and sprinkle on the lime juice, salt, sugar and pepper. Chop your tomatoes in small cubes and mince the stems of the cilantro. Chop the cilantro leaves roughly. Mix the tomato and cilantro into the onions and jalapeño. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Slice the jalapeños for the nachos in rounds. Set aside.

At this point, I cut six corn and flour tortillas (called mitad y mitad here in Houston, they are made with both corn and flour) in quarters and fried them until golden in a little canola oil. If you are doing the same, make sure you drain them well on a layer of paper towels with a wire rack or newspaper underneath. Otherwise, store-bought chips will work.

Meanwhile, open the can of beans and give them a good stir to loosen them up.

To cook the fajita beef, heat a grill pan or frying pan over a high heat. Once it’s hot, place the pounded beef on it, a piece or two at a time, making sure not to crowd the pan. We want this beef to sear and sizzle, not steam. When a nice brown crust forms on the bottom, turn the beef to the other side and leave it to brown as well.

Repeat until all of the beef is browned on both sides. I like to turn it to make some lovely crisscross grill marks. Remove the pieces of beef to a carving board as they are ready.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Lay the fried tortilla chips out on a large baking pan, in single file, making sure no points overlap.  I saved a space in the middle of my platter, leaving room for the pico de gallo in the middle. I have two identical platters so I split my two dozen putting 12 tortilla chips on each.

Spread a generous spoonful of refried beans on each tortilla.

Slice the fajita beef against the grain.

Top the chips with a couple of pieces of fajita meat on top of the beans. Next comes the grated cheese and finally, add a slice of jalapeño to each nacho.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until the meat and beans are heated through and the cheese has melted.

Serve with the pico de gallo and some sliced avocado, if desired.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other tasty nachos we are sharing today! How are you celebrating National Nachos Day? 

• Beef Fajita Nachos Compuestos from Food Lust People Love
• Beer Brat Nachos from Palatable Pastime
• Breakfast Nachos from Tara's Multicultural Table
• Chorizo Nachos from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Garam Masala Lamb Naan-chos from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Homemade Deep Fried Nachos With Cheese Sauce from Sneha's Recipe
• Leftover Turkey Nachos with Cranberry Salsa from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pizza Nachos from Making Miracles

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!

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Tiny Taco Bites #MuffinMonday

These tiny taco bites are made with oven baked tortillas filled with spicy ground beef and extra sharp cheddar, then topped with a fresh pico de gallo made with onions, tomatoes and jalapeños. They’d be great as an appetizer for your next cocktail party, especially if you are serving margaritas.

Saturday night we were invited over to my brother-in-law’s home for an early birthday dinner of fajitas and margaritas. (He turns 50 on Thursday!) Of course, I always ask what we can bring. “An appetizer,” came the response. It just so happens that my Muffin Monday friends are going rogue this month, that is to say, using our muffin pans for deliciousness other than actual muffins. Otherwise I’d have made some savory mini muffins. Perhaps even my artichoke dip mini muffins. We all LOVE those. I also considered my sincere pumpkin patch cheese ball, because Thursday is Halloween, after all. It's not just adorable but tasty too.

But I’ve long been wanting to make tiny taco bites using Tostitos scoops. They are already perfect little bowls! I floated that idea by my younger daughter and she shook her head. Apparently she finds Tostitos too salty. And anyway, I thought that was an idea for another day, since it didn’t use a muffin pan. Then inspiration struck. I could make the tiny taco bowls myself with fresh tortillas and a mini muffin pan, killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

As with most of my other fabulous ideas, when I checked the interwebs, there were almost 4 million results. It would seem tacos in a muffin pan are a thing. Never mind. These are delicious and bite-sized, and everyone at the dinner party loved them! Make sure you scroll down and check out all the other fun non-muffin recipes you can make in your muffin pan.

Tiny Taco Bites

For the taco seasoning, I use a brand called Tone’s. It comes in a large container so I just scoop out how much I need when seasoning taco and enchilada beef and even fajitas, rather than buying those little pouches of spice mix. Such a waste of packaging. You can always make your own, of course. Plenty of recipes online. For the tortillas, I love the ones at my local grocery store here in Houston, called mitad y mitad: half and half, by which they mean half corn and half flour. This is Texas, after all, where many aspire to be bilingual. They are flavorful because of the corn and supple because of the flour. Use whichever fresh tortillas you can find or your personal favorite.

Ingredients
For the beef filling:
1 lb or 450g ground beef (I used ground sirloin. Because it’s lean, you don’t lose much weight as it cooks. More to eat!)
2 tablespoons olive oil – if your ground beef is fatty, you might not need as much
1/4 cup or taco seasonings
2/3 cup or 156ml water

For the tiny taco bowls:
16-18 (6-in or 15cm) soft corn, half corn/half flour or flour tortillas
2-3 teaspoons canola or other light oil for greasing the muffin pan

For the pico de gallo:
3 ripe Roma tomatoes (approx. 1 lb or 450g in weight)
1/2 large onion
2-3 fresh jalapeños
Small bunch fresh cilantro
2-3 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Pinch fine sea salt
Pinch sugar
Freshly ground black pepper

For topping:
4 oz or 113g extra sharp cheddar, grated finely

Method
Brown the beef in the olive oil over a medium high heat, breaking it up into little pieces as it browns. When it’s well browned, even crunchy in places, add the taco spice mix and the water.

Pop the lid on and lower the heat to simmer. Simmer covered for 5-7 minutes. Remove the lid and simmer uncovered until most of the water has evaporated, another few minutes. Remove from the heat and tip the pan to one side so any oil drains off and collects away from  the beef.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 325°F or 163°C. Grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan with a little canola.

Cut the tortillas into 3 in or 7cm circles using a cookie cutter. (Save all the scraps for making your favorite tortilla soup recipe!) With a 3 in (7cm) cookie cutter, I got 3 taco bowls per tortilla. They don’t hold much so the seasoned beef was enough for 54 tiny taco bites! The perfect bite-sized appetizer, truly.

Use the bottom of a small glass or jigger to press the circles of tortilla into the mini muffin pan. I find it helps them release if you also grease the jigger.

Bake the tiny taco bowls in your preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through so they brown evenly. Watch them closely so they don’t suddenly burn. Remove them from the oven. Some of them will be puffy and not so bowl-like anymore.

As soon as they are cool enough to handle, use a folded towel if you need to, pick the puffed ones out of the muffin pan and put the glass or jigger back in it and press the bowl back into the muffin pan. Place to cool on a wire rack. Cute, right?

Continue cutting and baking all of the tortillas, until you have about 50 of them.

While they bake, cut the onion into small bits. Stem and chop the jalapeños small as well. When chopping the jalapeños, remove the membranes and seeds if your family and friends aren’t chili lovers. At our house we say, the hotter, the better.

Put the chopped onion and jalapeños in a bowl with the fresh lime juice and a pinch of salt, a pinch of sugar and a few good grinds of black pepper. Stir well and set aside.

Cut the tomatoes in half and remove all the seeds and juice. We don't want the pico de gallo too wet or it will make the taco bowls soggy. Chop the tomatoes finely. Remove the hard stems from the cilantro and chop it roughly. Add the tomatoes and cilantro to the onion/jalapeño bowl. Mix well.

Turn your oven temperature up to 350°F or 180°C. In a large baking pan, arrange your tiny taco bowls and divide the spicy beef between them.

Top with the grated cheese.

Bake the tiny taco bites for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the beef is hot through. I actually made these through this step and then baked again for 10 minutes at 350° or 180° when I arrived at my brother-in-laws, just to warm them again. These guys are very forgiving though, delicious even at room temperature.

Top with pico de gallo or set the pico out with a spoon and let everyone top the tiny tacos themselves so they don't get soggy.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to Sue of Palatable Pastime for her fun suggestion that we go rogue for Muffin Monday and use our muffin pans for other delicious recipes. This just might be a more regularly scheduled theme, if feedback is positive. Check out the other great recipes below:

• Green Eggs No Ham (Egg Bites with Spinach and Parmesan) from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Individual Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Mac and Cheese Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Mini Cheesecakes from Making Miracles
• Mini Pumpkin Pies from Palatable Pastime
• Tiny Taco Bites from Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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Herb Butter Poached Wild Salmon #FishFridayFoodies

Herb butter poached wild salmon is tender and flavorful. The herbs complement the delicate flavor of the fish, and the simmering butter ensures that it won’t overcook or dry out.

I’m a fan of all salmon but I especially love the flavor of wild sockeye salmon. This is going to sound odd perhaps, but it reminds me more of crab than of its relation, farmed salmon. Aside from cost, the only problem with wild salmon is that it is so lean that it’s easy to overcook, if you are not careful. Nobody wants dry fish. Fish should be tender and flaky, and even, (dare I use the hated word?) moist.

Poaching to the rescue! One can, of course, poach seafood in all sorts of liquids. As a matter of fact, if you scroll on down past my wild salmon, you’ll find links to several recipes since that’s this month’s theme for my Fish Friday Foodies group. While researching methods, I came across a recipe for butter poaching fish and thought, sure. Confit duck is essentially duck poached long and slow in duck fat. No good reason why we can’t poach fish in butter. It just hadn’t occurred to me.

Wild salmon is perfect for poaching in herb butter. It cooks relatively quickly, even on a gentle simmer, and turns out so very - here I go again - moist. I’m not sure I can cook it any other way now. Such a treat.

I mean, really. Look at that color. Delicious as it can also be, farmed salmon cannot outdo wild salmon for color. Some people even say it's better for us.

Herb Butter Poached Wild Salmon

Do not worry about all the “leftover” butter. It can be used to flavor vegetables, in another seafood dish or chill it and pop it in an airtight bag in the freezer to keep for the next time you poach fish.

Ingredients
4 wild salmon fillets (about 1 lb or 450g in total)
1 1/2 cups or 340g butter
A few sprigs parsley
A few sprigs thyme
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Ground cayenne pepper
To serve: slices of lemon

Method
Remove any hard stems from the herbs and chop them finely. Season the fish fillets with a sprinkle of salt and the two peppers, on both sides.

Melt the butter in as small a pan as will fit your fish, with high enough sides to contain butter to cover. As it warms up, add in the minced herbs.

Gently add the fish fillets to the herbed butter, skin side down. Poach the salmon over a low heat until it flakes easily, about 10 minutes. If the butter doesn't quite cover it, spoon the simmering butter over it occasionally.

Remove the fish fillets from the herb butter. Serve with a spoonful of the herb butter over each fillet and a slice of juicy lemon.

Enjoy!

Check out all the lovely poached fish recipes my Fish Friday Foodie friends are sharing today. Many thanks to our group creator and organizer, Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for this great theme and all of her behind the scenes work that keeps this blogging event running so smoothly.

• Chamomile-Poached Sand Dabs with Candy Caps from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Herb Butter Poached Wild Salmon from Food Lust People Love
• Poached Cod Cantonese-Style with Chiles from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Poached Prawn Cocktail from Sneha's Recipe
• Poached Salmon with Bourbon Cream Sauce from Palatable Pastime
• Poached Sole with Caper Sauce from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Tomato Basil Poached Fish from Making Miracles
• Tomato Poached Cod over Egg Noodles from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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