Thread 21524162

Righto, today we're making some taco salad. A classic found at American potlucks and BBQs and I think it's time to spread the love.

This is not such an exercise in cooking as it is in assembly. Buckle up muchachos

>>21524162 (OP)
First we get the beef going. For burgers or regular tacos you can use fattie meat, but for this we really want the leanest mince you can find.

>>21524164
Again, because this isn't regular tacos or bolognese, we don't want to break the mince up super fine. We want it to at least have small chunks so you can get them in the fork

>>21524165
Gonna get some raw blended chirri paste in there to cook with the meat. Adds some colour and it's nice to have some fresh flavours in the meat which is otherwise just seasoned with powder

>>21524166
tum tee dum

>>21524168
lookin good, and this lean meat has just the right amount of grease

>>21524169
talko seasoning in

>>21524170
little cayenne pepper to kick it up a little

>>21524172
And that's that. Set it aside to cool while you get the rest of the salad ready to receive it.

>>21524174
1. Salad Mix

>>21524177
2. Tomaoes

>>21524182
Chéz

4. Taco slop

>>21524186
5. Broken taco shells

>>21524189
Mix it up and get everything all distributed

>>21524193
And now the magic ingredient. French dressing.

Now this shit does not exist in Australia but I had a friend smuggle it past Customs and Border Security

>>21524194
And a final mix

>>21524197
And that's that. Would be nice with some corn and beans but I didn't wan to open cans of veggies just to use a handfull of them in this.

It's delicious, a guaranteed crowd pleaser, and oh so comforting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjxf-eQWKoo

>>21524194
you had me until the end with the french dressing, nobody here would ever do that. taco salad is usually just topped with normal taco things, guac/sour cream, salsa, etc. I could see using something like the chicfila creamy salsa dressing working but dressing of any kind on a taco salad is strange. if anything i bet people would use ranch but even that is weird. picrelated is what most taco salads in the US would look like. and i don't know who told you this was a classic found at potlucks or bbqs lied to you, this isn't a common thing at all, in either the presentation you or I have shown. i'm sure it exists in some capacity but not even close to being considered a "classic". what you've made does however look very delicious, maybe skip the french on mine.

what's french dressing?

>>21524194
do you have australian dressing over there

>>21524208
No idea to be honest

>>21524206
Nah man it's the French dressing that actually makes it what it is. This recipe I got from a friend and every time he's brought it to a party everyone is stupefied at how good it is.

You gotta at least try a bowl with FD, it's hard to imagine how well it vibes

>>21524210
mhm

>>21524214
i googled a bit, seems like it's one of those weird midwestern things so it's possible it's a classic in those parts but i'm sure it's fine. the versions i'm seeing largely use doritos instead of the broken up shells, i think that'd be pretty decent. I guess I'd just refer to what you have as a "midwestern taco salad" because most people here would think of what I'd posted if you just said "taco salad"

>>21524221
It's trailer trash holiday food anon. Important not to imply anything that would resemble Mexican food or something you would pay for at a restaurant

You're supposed to put it in a taco bowl

>>21524238
those are a little harder to smuggle through border security anon

>>21524244
Can you get big tortillas? Even just small ones you can put it in a glass or metal bowl and bake it to make your own.

What's with your oddly high quality photos? What phone did you use for these taco shots?

>>21524258
too much work for a salad anon. it would be a nice touch if I was entertaining, but pigging out hungover on a sunday being a fatty fat pig fat alone doesn't require such preparations.

>>21524263
I use a camera anon with a 35mm prime lens. A Pentax KP to be exact. There are two things on weekends that I insist on because it makes me feel better:
>1. Taking all time I need for proper self care, diet, exercise, relaxation, and grooming.
>2. Going through the trouble to share things in as engaging and high quality as I can, rather than be lazy about it. Also I love photography and why not use my good kit.

>>21524169
Nice beef ya got there

>>21524219
kek

>>21524278
you're so autistic you think it's too much work to literally place a tortilla in a bowl and bake it. something that would take probably 1 minute to pull the items, set the oven, put it in the bowl, and put it in the oven on a pan, but you pull out a dslr and tripod, set them up to take high quality pictures of your slop, take out your sd card, put it into your computer, transfer them from one to the other (+whatever other steps i'm probably missing), all to post on the food subsection of a chinese frog breeding internet picture board. jfc man lmao you talk about taking pride in things but then contradict yourself lolol sloppa looks tas-tee though

>>21524293
I don't care about buying or finding raw tortillas, and making a bowl. This is a nostalgic dish that I made the way I've always had it. Who the fuck cares. Also photography is one of my hobbies, baking taco shell bowls is not even on the radar.

>>21524295
>raw tortillas
I'm betting you wouldn't know what a raw tortilla even is lol. You seem to be overthinking it and I'm fairly certain tortillas are readily available to you. Even if you don't have big burrito sized ones, which I'm sure you do, small ones work fine too.

>>21524206
my family used catalina dressing and apparently that's a not too uncommon use for it

>>21524304
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsNHeSoABYQ

>>21524293
Why are you gay?

>>21524307
after a quick google search I actually feel like Catalina would be better, sounds nice with the addition of Worcestershire. alas, that is not available here either so I'd have to make it, which I might do someday

>>21524206
Can confirm french and catalina are both taco salad classics. My mom used to make this for us often as kids.

>>21524200
This is perfect for me, corn & beans is an overkill.

>>21524221
This, I’ve bought packaged “taco salad” before that was like OP’s with French dressing and broken up chips, was actually pretty good

>>21524200
I wouldn't have added that disgustingly sweet dressing at the end. I'd even go bleu cheese or Italian, but really I want salsa and maybe sour cream.
French is grosser and sweeter than 1,000 island. I think taco salads are different and don't really require a mayonnaise-based dressing. The fatty beef is saucy enough with cheese and tomatoes. Maybe taco sauce.

>>21524323
Are you also in Australia or something?

>>21524206
This anon is right. The have the taco salad at every diner/family style restaurant in America. Just like a Cobb salad or Chef salad. The fried flour tortilla bowl, the guac/sour cream/salsa, the hot taco meat, the iceberg lettuce.
It's a restaurant staple. It's at most Tex/Mex places in the USA too. It's in every small town.

And no one uses sweet dressings on it. That's really cool that it's a thing down under. Like "dimmies", it kind of takes on a life of its own there, but it sprang from something/somewhere else well established.

>>21524214
I don't see it achieving "vibes" with the classic taco salad. I can taste it in my mind using memory math, and it's not good. I don't like French dressing at all. I don't like Catalina or Russian either. I can barely tolerate thousand island. They all seem unwelcome and weird on taco salad.
But that's really cool how it's a picnic thing for you guys. Reminds me of that Filipino type stuff where they just add fucktons of sugar to spaghetti and other dishes that would gross out even Americans. I think it's neat that cultures fuse things together.

>>21524162 (OP)
>>21524295
>>21524310
>let me fuckin arrange all my shit together and make a mise-en-scene for /ck/ retards
>"hey put the tortilla in a bowl"
>wow that's a LOT of work mate and honestly it feels like a personal attack as well. I bet you yanks forgot it's COLD right now in Australia. Winter, essentially. I need to conserve energy and while I can take pictures with my DSLR, tortillas in a bowl is hard mate
lmao retardo

>>21524464
Sadly my friend brought Creamy French Dressing and it should have been the normal kind but I didn't want to complain, he traveled a long fucking way, pretty much from the antipole of where I live.

Anyway, plain french dressing isn't mayo or cream based so it's more appropriate

>>21524482
do you complain in every thread if people don't garnish or plate their food the way you think they should? if someone doesn't use strawberries on their pancakes you bitch and moan about how easy it is to put strawberries on pancakes and they're retards for not doing it, even if they don't have strawberries?

just get over it you pretty dropkick

>>21524491
Hold still while I bird U cunt

>>21524499
goodness

>>21524200
Nice. My Midwestern mom has been making this for decades, she calls it Michigan Taco Salad. Her version also calls for a jar of chunky salsa, canned sliced black olives and nacho cheese doritos rather than taco shells like yours. Also my folks went vegan a decade ago, so they use whatever soy taco meat slop instead.
But the creamy French dressing is a must! Sweet and thick to bind all of the disparate ingredients together in an unholy union.
It's always a crowd pleaser at parties, but she'll just make it for dinner a few times a year too.

>>21524508
Excellent. This is the first time I've had any discussion about peoples' taco salad experiences and this is all very interesting.

The taco kit did come with salsa but I didn't end up using it, I might mix some in when I eat the leftovers

For me it's KEN'S Steak House. Creamy French.

>>21524193
nice

It's even better the second day. Sure the shells are soft but they're full of dressing and also the clumps of beef and cheese are all established and the flavour has matured