Tacos with Hatch Chili's and local Goat's Milk Jack

Sean came home last night! Yay! I knew he'd be hungry when he got home, but not up for anything really heavy so late at night, so I mulled for a while over a suitable dinner. Looking in the freezer, I remembered that many months ago, he received a ginormous pile of fresh green New Mexican Hatch chili peppers from a co-worker. He and our good friend Brett set about roasting them, and at the time, put a number of them in a big batch of corn bread. There was too much to eat all at once though, so they froze the rest, and they've been sitting in the freezer ever since. I thought of it in time, the night before, so left them out to thaw, and they were ready to be peeled for dinner last night.

I had some Sonoma-made corn tortillas on hand, that were on sale at the grocery store, and a wee bit of goat's milk Jack Cheese I sampled from the market last week, from the fine people of Achadinha Cheese Company (basically a small family outfit: mom makes the cheese, dad and kids sell it at market)from Petaluma, CA.

Before leaving for the airport, I peeled the skins off the chili peppers so they'd be ready to go when we got home. After getting back, I minced and sauteed a clove of garlic in olive oil in a frying pan, sprinkled in some ground cumin and coriander, chopped fresh cilantro stems, and dried oregano, letting it meld for a minute or two, then dumped in a can of black beans.

I turned the beans down to low, and covered the pan to let the beans heat up slowly, while I sliced the peppers into long strips, and then laid the strips on top of the black beans, to warm up slightly (keeping them covered so nothing would dry out).

While the beans and the peppers warmed up, I chopped the last of my cilantro bunch, sliced a lime, and pulled out Sean's home-made Habanero sauce (another spicy joint venture with Brett). Last of all, I placed the corn tortillas on top of the beans and peppers, covered them again, and let them warm up for a minute, while I crumbled the cheese.

I then removed the tortillas and put them on plates, and scooped the beans and sliced peppers onto them, gave it all a squeeze of lime, sprinkled on the cheese and cilantro and a dash of Habanero sauce, and it was good to go...ready in about ten minutes.

Simple, light, quick and delicious!


The picture turned out a bit grainy...I need to work on my food photography techniques!