If I were this minute to ask either of my children what they would like for dinner, I could state confidently that there is at least a 90% chance they would ask for tacos. (I can’t actually ask them right now, as HOORAY THEY ARE BACK AT SCHOOL SO I FINALLY HAVE PEACE TO WRITE AGAIN WITH NO ONE PESTERING WHAT’S FOR SNACK, WHAT’S FOR LUNCH, WHAT CAN I EAT!) Sorry, overcome there for a moment. I love them, and I love feeding, but the constant interruptions get quite wearying. Anyway, back to the tacos….
It is in part the glorious, messy, ritual of it. They feel short changed if there isn’t cheese, sour cream, lime pickled red onions, avocados (tossed in lime or guacamole, they aren’t fussy), salsa on the table. I am trying to pare this down as I think less is more when it comes to tacos, but they are resistant. They want to see a colourful table heaving with bowls full of contrasting flavours, they don’t really mind what the main filling is. I will pressure roast squash or cabbage or sprouting broccoli (or see Modern Pressure Cooking for a Brussels sprouts version) and serve with black or pinto beans, as they come or refried, shred up some leftover chicken and fry in spices, flavour up no end of left over stews. But my current favourite is to serve with birria.
A birria is a Mexican stew – originally goat or lamb but now frequently beef. The word birria means“worthless” – which is apparently how the conquistadors felt about the pungent goat meat they felt was only fit for the indigenous Mexicans to eat. The indigenous Mexicans of course made it more than palatable by long, slow cooking and lots of aromatics. There is also a fun origin story about it being invented during a volcano when the meat was accidentally cooked in a steam filled cave. I can’t confirm the veracity of this, but I like it - it is entirely appropriate to pressure cooking.
The broth is endowed with all kinds of magical properties and I totally understand why as it is more rich, oleaginous, intensely savoury beef elixir rather than a thin beef extract tea. I get quite obsessed with rich broths of this sort; they are multilayered, satisfying every taste bud whilst also feeling so good for you. I have been making versions of birria for quite some time, playing around with chilli combinations and different spices, as well as cuts of meat. I have been especially interested in figuring out what shortcuts I can take, especially with regard to pressure cooking, without compromising on flavour or texture.
My usual method is to dry fry dried chillies (ancho, chipotle, guijilla) and a halved onion in a skillet or frying pan (please not non stick if dry frying/toasting). Then I sear beef, put in the pressure cooker with the chillies, onion and garlic a load of ground or whole spices (cinnamon bark, cumin seeds, allspice berries) and leaves (bay leaves, oregano, thyme), add enough water, or chicken or beef stock so that the meat is covered, season, add tomato puree and cook at high pressure for as long as the meat needs – anything from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on the cut of meat.
I have had a few missteps along the way and cut a few corners too. Fresh or tinned tomatoes out, tablespoons of tomato puree in – I wanted the depth of the latter, without the flavour being overwhelmingly tomatoey. No rub or marinade - it doesn’t make any difference when pressure cooking as the flavour is pushed right through the meat anyway and any rub ends up burning to bitter when seared. I was glad of this, as it saves so much time and effort. I also abandoned the hydrating of chillies post toasting, before adding them to the pot. I’ve never understood the point of this. Why do you need to do so when you are adding to a pot of liquid anyway? So I don’t bother. I have swapped out whole spices for ground purely because I often throw in a load of beans to cook at the same time. Whole spices swell up and soften quite a lot when they are pressure cooked and they are not always the easiest thing to remove unless you put them in a bouquet garni bag. I don’t often do this as I’m not sure the flavour disperses quite so well. Not a problem to leave them whole and loose if you are straining the liquid and discarding the solids, a bit of an issue if you are cooking beans or anything else in the same liquor.
I have ended up with a base recipe which I am not sure has settled into its final, book ready form yet. I’m giving it to you now, because I am very happy with it - but as I make it very regularly, there may be a time in the near future when I realise that a different combination of chillies works better, or that a bit of dark chocolate works better than the coffee (both are entirely inauthentic, but I am not pretending to be authentic, just inspired by cuisines I love, and always working with what I have and what I like). Please be mindful that you can simplify as much as you like. The main way in which you may want to do this is with the chillies. I have on occasion added jars of paste or chillies en adobo in place of whole chillies and the results are still good, although you may need to add more (some of the own supermarket brand chilli pastes are very low on actual chilli, high on fillers like oil and tomato puree). Chipotle pastes are ubiquitous now and usually have a much higher chilli content - and using these on their own will still make a very fine birria even if the flavour is quite what I personally want - I have come to love the subtler ancho more. If you love playing around with different chilli combinations, there are plenty available on line. The Cool Chile Company has an excellent selection of whole, flaked and powdered chillies as well as pastes and en adobos, The Spice Shop in Notting Hill does mail order and usually has a good selection and my personal favourite, but mainly because of their excellent home made tacos, is Otomi in Clifton, Bristol.
A word on meat – you can use any cut you like, but I am after two things – plenty of connective tissue, which will add depth and texture to your broth, and a decent length to the meat fibres so you get long strands if you want to shred. I like brisket, but also ox cheeks, shin, bavette, and lamb or pork shoulder. You will have to adjust the timings accordingly, but the flavour of the broth is better with the longer cook, so go for bigger pieces if you can. And if you want to cook beans in the pot, if you are going for a short cook time (20 minutes), best to soak first.
And finally, on the tortillas. Corn out of preference. I usually make my own and buy masa (blue being my preference) in order to do so. I invested in a tortilla press years ago. When I rope the children in for pressing and cooking we can knock 30 or so out very quickly. If you would like my recipe, please holler. Otherwise I buy the blue tortillas from The Cool Chile Co, when I can’t get the homemade ones from Clifton.
Birria Tacos
The chillies:
4 ancho chillies, deseeded
2 guajillo chillies, deseeded
1 chipotle chilli, deseeded
The spices:
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp dried oregano (Mexican or regular)
For the broth:
1 onion, halved
1 head garlic, separated into peeled cloves
1 tbsp olive oil
750g-1kg meat, in one piece or large chunks (see intro), at room temperature
3 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp soft light brown sugar
3 bay leaves
A large sprig thyme
100ml strong black coffee
1.2 - 1.5l chicken stock or beef stock (or a combination of the two)
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
Optional extra:
250g black beans, unsoaked
To serve:
Corn tortillas
Any extras you like including:
Avocado, sliced and tossed in lime juice and salt
Red onion, sliced and tossed in lime juice and salt, or finely sliced spring onions, including the greens
Sprigs of coriander
Wedges or lime (or sour orange or green mandarins as shown in the above photo)
If you must:
Sour cream
Grated cheese
First heat your skillet or frying pan – or use your pressure cooker if you like – and add the deseeded chillies (the easiest way to do this, btw, is to cut the tops off with scissors and pour the seeds out. If any are recalcitrant, cut down the side and butterfly the chilli out, then scrape the seeds off). Toast on a medium heat, turning at intervals until they are giving off a rich aroma, but keep watch as they can burn quickly and that will give a too bitter note to your broth. Remove and add the onion, cut side down. Dry fry until lightly charred and remove. Briefly toss the garlic around in the same pan.
Heat your pressure cooker then add the olive oil. Season your meat with salt and pepper, and sear on all sides. Remove from the cooker and stir in the spices, tomato puree, sugar, bay leaves, thyme and coffee. Stir to make sure the base is deglazed, then return the meat to the cooker. Add the onion, garlic and chillies.
Pour over the stock - 1.2 litres if cooking without the beans, 1.5 litres if with - and season with salt and pepper. If you are cooking the beans at the same time, add them too.
Close the lid and set on a high heat to bring up to high pressure. Reduce the heat to maintain pressure and cook for an hour. Allow to drop pressure naturally.
At this point, you have options. You can remove the meat from the cooker and leave it to cool in a large piece. It will firm up as it cools and be very good sliced, either cold or hot in sandwiches. Last week I broke a couple of thick slices up, warmed them through with a little broth and stirred through loads of grated cheese and coriander to put in a sloppy Joe for Adam.
Or, you can shred the meat which makes them ideal for tacos – I normally shred, fry in a little oil and again, ladle over a little of the broth to moisten.
The hour long cooking time is a long one for the beans, but because of the tomato puree, salt etc., they keep their integrity wonderfully while being perfectly creamy within. If you are using smaller cuts of meat, you can reduce this to 45 minutes. The beans don’t unduly flavour the broth, just thicken it very slightly which is a good thing. Once you have removed the beef from the broth, strain to remove the beans, then remove the chillies, bay, onions and garlic cloves from the beans. The garlic cloves can be mashed into the broth.
If I am serving birria tacos, the traditional way is to shred the meat, heat the broth separately and dip the tortillas very briefly in the broth before flash frying. This has a dual purpose - it soaks up some of the fat which will have risen to the top of the broth which you don’t necessarily want to drink through - and will usually coat the tortillas a bright orange oil. For frying, I add a bit of beef dripping if I have it, otherwise lard or olive oil. Then the broth is served separately in cups which you can drink or use as a dip or – in my case – both.
The meat is usually enough for 2 meals for 4 people or 1 meal for 4 and leftovers for things like sloppy joes. And the broth usually keeps me going for a few days. There is usually some kind of broth in my fridge - often chicken or beef on alternate weeks. Both excellent pick-me-ups and guaranteed to make you feel better when you are a bit under par.
I have been working on all sorts of pressure cooker recipes recently and this recipe notwithstanding (not hard to put together but a lot of ingredients), the emphasis is on SIMPLE.
As always, please let me know if there is something you are desperate to pressure cook but aren’t sure how. I shall be going through all the comments this week.
Love this recipe - and love the writing! And also pointing up how good beef is for you! Thank you!
The first paragraph could have been written by me! The others, not so much. Thank you - a really interesting recipe, and one I will make very soon.
Given that my wife is wheat intolerant, we have made proper nixtamalised corn tortillas for a while now, and I adore the actual flavour of them. They are so much more than just a wrapping for something else. I have been using my pressure cooker to make 'slow cooked' shreddable beef/chicken for a while too, with a variation on recipes I have used conventionally.
There are twists in yours that I cannot wait to try!
Thank you so much, this newsletter is always such a joy to read. It is a real bonus to Modern Pressure Cooking, which is in my paw at least a couple of times a week.