Hi Everyone and Happy Cinco De Mayo week!
So as you know, I am not Mexican or of any south American or Spanish descent but I do LOVE, and I mean LOVE, Mexican and South American food and especially tacos! I deem this kind of food my favorite kind of food to eat so any time I can recreate a Mexican dish or tacos I 100% am going to and what’s the best time to do it but Cinco De Mayo!
Now I know to most people Cinco De Mayo is an excuse to drink as many margaritas as you can, take all the tequila shots, and eat all the tacos and as I do enjoy all of that too, similar to St. Patrick’s Day, I just love that a heritage different than my own can bring me together with friends, family, and strangers and allow us to laugh, smile, and yes get a bit drunk all while enjoying each other’s company. So, I decided for this years Cinco De
Mayo I would recreate tacos I had during a recent trip I took to Florida. My mom and I were spending our day shopping on Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale and we stopped at this awesome restaurant called Rocco's Tacos and I had the most amazing vegan tacos, their Hongos Tacos, which were their mushroom tacos, and I said to myself, well now I either have to move here or recreate these myself. So, considering I wasn’t moving to Florida anytime soon I decided I’d recreate them, for me and for you! These tacos are buttery, flavorful, and oh so amazingly delicious I promise you will keep coming back for more and completely forget that you cooked the mushrooms in oil. This is a completely different way of cooking but I promise after you confit once you will want to try it again and again with all of your food.
So without further ado, here is my recreated recipe for mushroom confit tacos. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
Mushroom Confit Tacos
Servings: Approximately 7-10 street size tacos
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 30 Minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 Lb. of Mushrooms, use any kind you’d like. I have a mixture of baby bella and oyster, but use any that you’d like or could find!
- Olive Oil, enough to cover the mushrooms
- 3 cloves of garlic, slightly smashed with the side of your knife
- 3 Springs of Fresh Thyme
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 6 Corn Tortillas, I use the street taco size
- Any toppings you’d like! I stay simple with pickled red onions, a little cilantro and a flavorful hot sauce
Instructions:
- Add your mushrooms, whole and uncut, garlic, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste into a large sauté pan then add enough olive oil to the pan to cover the mushrooms. Some of the mushrooms may float but that is ok
- Turn the heat on to medium-low and let the oil come up to a slight simmer. You will see bubbles, that is the water escaping from the mushrooms, that is completely normal
- Once you start seeing small bubbles lower the heat to low and cook the mushrooms for about 25-30 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft
- Once the mushrooms are cooked allow them to cool in the oil for about 10-15 minutes
- At this point you can remove the mushrooms and cut them up and add them directly into your tacos or you can add them to a pan to crisp up a little before adding them into your tacos that is up to you! Then create your tacos and add all the toppings you’d like and then enjoy!
Notes
- Cut the mushrooms after they are cooked because they may lose mass while cooking and you don’t want to cut them before cooking or they may get too small
- I use olive oil because the oil plays such a big part in this dish, I think it needs to be a good one but you can use any kind of oil you’d like. It may taste slightly different with other oils.
- there are going to be a lot of bubbles as the mushrooms cook, don't worry about it, they aren't frying. mushrooms have a very high water content and as long as you have your heat on low all it is doing is cooking the mushrooms and making them release their water, it isn't frying them
- You can cool and reuse the oil after you’re done with it, I actually highly recommend it. With the thyme, garlic, and mushrooms it becomes so flavorful and earthy
- Here is the recipe I use for the pickled red onions, I love them!