Mexican Night- Zero Waste Style

Ok so steak fajitas:

Steak, zero waste- check! Had butcher put meat right into my glass container.

Veggies, zw -check! No packaging.

Cheese, zw- check! New Seasons cheese sliced into my container and I spread it.

Seasoning, zw- check! Bulk seasoning purchased.

Tortialls, zw--- uh, nope.

and

Salsa, zw---nope-er.

So I had to make Tortillas and Salsa. From scratch.

Seemed super daunting, but actually not as bad as I envisioned. The tortillas are super quick to make, but a little hard to get the shape right and constancy correct. The salsa was definitely a process and a ton of work, but easy to get right- so it was bit of a trade off there. In any event, the important thing I learned was this:

'when ones is making one's own tortillas and salsa, one must needs make a 'crap-ton' of it'

- because it was no small job to prepare for this meal friends.'

Tortillas- if you stick to corn tortillas, the only ingredients you need are the corn flour from Bob's Red Mill ( masa herina), water and course salt. That's really it! You mix and then kneed out an egg sized ball that you roll out between wax paper. Keep the wax paper as separators between each of your newly minted tortillas and you can throw then all in the fridge if you are not ready to fry them up yet ( which is what seals them up) If you make a crap-ton, then you when you fry them all up, you can store the fired ones in the fridge and enjoy tacos again another night(s). I indeed made a crap-ton, but I indeed lost about 1/5th when I tried to fry them up and found some of mine had the constancy way too thin or too thick and they fell apart and burned in the pan. Whoops. Now I know.

Here is where I got the recipe and they do a good job explaining about the consistency issues. It also tells how to make flour tortillas which are more steps and ingredients: http://m.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Own-Tortillas

Salsa- The cool thing with this salsa is that I actually had tomatoes up to my eyeballs from my garden in back, so that was a win. I did a lot of searching for the right recipe and then my awesome friend Alison Donin came over and helped me spruce up the recipe a bit and we taste tested a bunch. Guys, we have found the best salsa! I am so excited to share it with you: ( oh and this is a recipe for canning)

One batch = about 2.5 cups of salsa

4 tomatoes ( If you have an awesome kitchenaid mixer, then you can get an attachment that de-seeds and skins tomatoes for you, otherwise you will have to blanch and ice bath the tomatoes to get the skin off and then dig out the seeds when you slice them. )

1 onion

1 jalapeño pepper

1 tbs pickling salt/canning salt

1 garlic clove

1/3 cup white vinegar

You mix it all to a choppy pulp and then add a sprinkle of cayenne pepper - then taste to make sure it has the right kick for needs. Voila- your own salsa. If you want to can it up- be sure to add a tablespoon of lime into each jar for your preservative and then top the salsa with a few sprigs of cilantro before sealing at the jar and processing it. I made a crap-ton- and I hope it will last me for a good 8 months as we like a lot of Mexican dishes at my house.

So all in all, prepping for this zero waste dinner took a lot of work- BUT I have extra of the tortillas and a crap-ton of salsa for future endeavors- so bueno for me. My fam thought it was pretty bueno too.

#ZeroWasteChallenge #zerowasterecipe #makeyourowntortillas #makeyoursalsa #Mexicandinnerzerowaste