Mexican Meatball Fry Bread Tacos



 

I didn't grow up with the tradition of celebrating Cinco de Mayo, but I'm more than happy to adopt a celebration day that involves the eating of tacos.

 

Mexican Meatball Fry Bread Tacos

Makes 6

For the Fry Bread:
adapted from here
2 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/3 cup milk powder
1 cup water, plus extra if needed
2 cups sunflower oil, for frying

For the Meatballs:
2 slices of white bread, crusts removed

2 tablespoons milk
500g ground pork and veal (or 250g ground pork plus 250g ground beef)
1 egg
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ancho chilli powder (or your favourite chilli powder)
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 garlic powder
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil, for frying
1/2 cup flour, for dusting

For the Chipotle Sauce:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1 chipotle chilli in adobo sauce (or more if you like it hotter)
1 cup chicken stock
Sea salt to taste

To Serve:
Sour cream
Lime: wedges, juice and zest
Coriander
Avocado, diced

Make the Meatballs:
Tear the bread into small pieces and blitz in a food processor until they are fine crumbs. Empty them into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle with the milk. Set side for 5 minutes.

Add the ground meat, eggs and herbs, spices, sugar and salt to the bread mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined. Pinch off tablespoons of mixture and form into balls. Sprinkle the flour onto a baking tray and roll the meatballs in the flour to coat.

Heat the oil in a large, deep, frying pan. Shake off excess flour and fry the meatballs until golden. It is not necessary to cook them all the way through at this point. Remove them from the pan and set them aside while you make the sauce.

Make the Sauce:
Put the oil, onion, tomatoes and chillies into a blender and blitz until smooth. Pour into the same pan you cooked the meatballs in. Bring to the boil, add the chicken stock and some salt and simmer for 10 minutes. Return the meatballs to the pan and simmer for a further 10  - 15 minutes, turning the meatballs in the sauce to coat them all over. The sauce will thicken as it cooks.

Make the Fry Bread:
Put the flour, baking powder, salt and milk powder into a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add enough water to bring to dough together into a ball using your hands. You may need a little more than a cup of water.

Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes. The dough should be smooth and soft. Put the dough back into the mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to rest for at least 10 minutes.

Heat the oil in a deep, medium-sized saucepan.

Cut the dough into 6 even portions and roll each portion in to a ball. Roll each ball out into a disc about 3mm thick. When the surface of the oil begins to shimmer, carefully lower a disc of dough in, cooking one at a time. Fry on one side till golden brown, then flip and fry the other side. They will only take a minutes or so to cook. Drain on paper towels and keep warm until you have fried all the bread.

To Serve:
Put the sour cream into a bowl. Grate over some lime zest, squeeze the juice of half a lime and sprink in some chopped coriander leaves. Mix.

Serve warm fry bread loaded with meatballs and sauce, slathered with avocado, dripping with sour cream and sprinkled with extra coriander leaves and lime wedges.