Forest Hamrick, the chef de cuisine at La Hacienda at the Fairmont, has a thing about tacos: keep it simple.
"As long as you have the flavors that just kind of explode, the simpler the better," Hamrick says. "The more stuff you pile into it, it really takes away and you don't really know what you're eating."
Today, he shares his simple but delicious recipe for tacos de langosta, but make sure to get quality ingredients so the taste pops.
"It's all about quality," Hamrick says. "You got good quality, you got good stuff."
Read on for his recipe...
Tacos de Langosta What you'll need: 6 oz of burre monte 3 3-inch flour tortillas 3 oz lobster meat, pre-poached ½ oz chipotle black bean puree (see recipe below) ½ oz chile de arbol sauce (see recipe below) 3 cilantro leaves 3 1-inch avocado slices
What you'll do: Heat the lobster meat in the burre monte, for a few minutes.
Heat the tortillas.
Place the tortillas on a plate and top with the chipotle bean puree, lobster meat, chile de arbol sauce, cilantro leaf and avocado slice.
Plate, serve and enjoy.
Chipotle Balck Bean Puree What You'll Need: 3 oz Lard 3 oz Yellow onion, roughly chopped 4-½ lb Vegetarian black beans 3-½ oz Chipotle in adobo 30 oz Black bean juice ½ oz Epazote herb
What You'll Do: In a sauce pan, heat up the lard and sautee the onions until translucent. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Then turn off stovetop. Combine all ingredients in the blender and puree. (You may have to do this in batches.) Blend until smooth.
You may want to cut this batch down for your at home cooking, unless you're planning to use the puree in something else, because this recipe yields more than four pounds... and you need all of half an ounce.
Chile de Arbol Sauce What You'll Need: 4 Tbsp of blende oil 2 Spanish onions (large dice) 6 cloves garlic 6 chiles de arbol (toasted) 10 black pepper corns 1-½ cup of tomato paste 1 qt chicken stock 2 cups heavy cream Salt and pepper to taste
What You'll Do: Sauté the onions, garlic in oil for 3-4 minutes. Add the tomato paste, chiles, pepper corns, and cook. Add the chicken stock and heavy cream and reduce for 10 minutes remove from heat and puree.
These little guys serve up a big flavor. Just remember to keep it simple, like Hamrick does. Too much complexity confuses your palate.
No time to poach lobsters? Swing by La Hacienda and leave the cooking to Hamrick.
(This is the third installment of our Chef Chat with Hamrick, check out parts one and two to hear more about his cooking techniques.)
