Beef, Pork & Halloumi Spicy Tacos
Pretty standard traditional Mexican tacos, but with Halloumi and Labneh… Effectively the cultural and culinary combination of my dreams.
UN, call me.
They’re quick to make, easy to prep and perfect for dinner for one or to please a crowd in a dinner party. (You know I love nothing more than a taco night).
Choose your own adventure. And if you’re willing, throw caution to the wind (like I did, and like my dad did before me), and eat the Thai chiles whole, along with your tacos. As Jaffar from Aladdin once said: You’d be surprised what you can live through.
ingredients:
For the Meat & Halloumi filling:
500g ground beef (80 / 20 if possible)
500g ground pork
200g Halloumi (Hand torn into bite sized pieces)
2 garlic cloves (chopped)
3 shallots (quartered)
2 cup cilantro leafs
2 cup parsley leafs
Extra virgin Olive Oil
For the Chopped Salsa:
1/3 white distilled vinegar
Kosher salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 scallions
1 jalapeño chile (Chopped)
4 Thai chiles (Chopped)
1/3 cup cilantro stems (chopped)
1 Lemon (Juiced)
1 tbsp white distilled vinegar
For the Tacos:
Corn tortillas
Labneh
Lemon juice
Cilantro leafs
instructions:
Uncover both your beef and pork meat and season generously with salt and pepper, only on the top side. Let rest while you prep everything else.
Drizzle enough olive oil on your pan (Cast Iron is heavily recommended here. Essentially the hotter you can get your pan here, the better) enough to cover the surface. Place on medium high heat and let it slowly come up to temp. In the meantime, put your chopped salsa together.
In a bowl, combine your shopped scallion, jalapeño, Thai chiles & cilantro stems and mix the lemon juice, tbspn of vinegar and 1/4 cups of olive oil. Sprinkle a good pinch of salt and mix well. Let rest and make sure you wash your hands after chopping those chiles!
Once your pan is hot (I mean hot. Oil is shimmering, letting out whisps of smoke. That level of hot). Place both the beef and the pork side by side, salted side down and press down so that he meat is making as much contact as possible with the surface of the pan. The sizzle should be nice and loud! As you press down, make sure that you don’t break the meat apart or move it around. You want to keep the meat in direct contact with the heat, undisturbed for 5 minutes minimum, 7 minutes maximum. You’ll see that the meat begins to release juices. The reason why we’re not moving the meat around it’s because we want most of these juices to evaporate, instead of them steaming the meat. Be patient. Only press down. Put a timer. It feels like an eternity and you’ll fear you’re burning the meat. You’re not. I promise you.
Season the top side of the meat with salt and pepper and after the 5 to 7 minute mark, start breaking up the meat and moving it around. You’ll see that the bottom side has developed a lovely dark crust. You’re now free to break the entire thing up in small pieces and mix it all up so that it can all cook.
Mix in your quartered shallots and garlic and mix around once again.
Mix in your parsley and cilantro leafs with the torn halloumi. Season with black pepper and place into the pan with the meat, mixing well. Grill this mixture in high heat for 4 to 5 minutes until the entire pan starts smoking and you feel like the meat and cheese is getting stuck in the bottom of the pan.
Pour the 1/3 cup of vinegar and mix well. The moisture will deglaze the pan so make sure you scrape everything that’s stuck in the bottom with a spatula and give everything a final mix. Work quickly and confidently. Turn down the heat and let the vinegar evaporate for a couple minutes.
Grill your corn tortillas until you get nice charred spotting. On each tortilla slather a big dollop of Labneh. Spoon some of the beef, pork & Halloumi filling and top each taco with some Chopped Salsa and cilantro leafs.
