Grandma Haynie's Famous Sunday Tacos - Finally The Secret Family Recipe!

I lived eight years of my childhood in Mexico.  That simple geographic reality has shaped my life in so many ways.  For instance I am a hugger because I grew up giving and getting big "abrazos".  Also I'm fluent in four languages and I credit the early experience absorbing Spanish with my lingual facility.  I feel a deep affinity and affection for Latino culture and people and, most relevant to this post, I LOVE Mexican food, much of which is based on ancient indigenous foods passed down from the Mayans, the Toltecs, and the Aztecs.  Tortillas and tacos are one of my favorite examples of timeless indigenous foods that have stood the test of time.  For a little history on tortillas look here, and for some background on tacos look here.

  Somewhere along the way while we were living in Mexico my mother began making fresh hard-shelled tacos every Sunday.  They were so good that Sunday Tacos became the meal we all looked forward to each week.  The whole family (and frequently our dinner guests) would gather together after church and create an assembly line to make these ambrosial wonders.  Each of us would take a job that had to be done just so.  I started out setting the table, moved on to shredding lettuce and dicing tomatoes, graduated to frying up and spicing the meat, and eventually got my advanced degree in frying the taco shells.

They became such an ingrained family tradition that the occasional week without tacos put us all into withdrawal.  I remember one Sunday when we had been invited over to the home of some family friends for Sunday dinner.  We were a large family so their mother planned and worked for hours preparing what must have been a wonderful chicken dinner with my mother in the kitchen helping.  When they called us to dinner each of my siblings and I asked as we came to the dining room "what, no tacos?".  Though our hostess just smiled graciously my mother was deeply embarrassed and scolded us quietly.  Her humiliation was complete when my dad walked in last of all and said "well I guess we're not having tacos today".

Even after we moved to the US the tradition continued through all my years at home, and even after we were married and moved away Grandma Haynie's Sunday Tacos were one of the highlights of going back to visit my parents.  They became famous with countless dinner guests who came to visit over the years.  I made them occasionally for my own children but, ironically, our own family tradition of tacos every Sunday began after we moved to Brazil where you couldn't get tortillas (rice is the staple grain there).  Absence must truly make the heart grow fonder because on our first trip home we took empty duffle bags and returned with over 100 lbs. of tortillas which we froze and then fried up for tacos every Sunday.  Our Sunday tacos continued for many years as well.  When our older children were in college they would bring their roommates home for Sunday dinner and we'd invite local cousins.  Many of those Sundays we would feed 25 people.  That's a lot of tacos!  For a long time our son held the record for eating the most of tacos at one sitting (15), but we invited some new neighbors over an their petite little daughter put away 17!

I know that I tend to wax hyperbolic but the reality is that this particular combination of flavors and textures perfected by my mom and handed down over generations have made these tacos instant favorites for everyone I know that has ever had them.  There are really really good, and now I've decided to share the family recipe so you can have some too!

Here's how to make Grandma Haynie's Famous Sunday Tacos

What you need to fry the shells:

• Thin Corn Tortillas - get these as thin as possible--I go to a local tortilleria at a Mexican Market and special order "tortillas para chips" which they sell to restaurants to make fresh corn chips.  The reason thinner is better is that they flash fry which is not only faster but absorbs less oil.  Plan on 5 tacos per person, but make more so you'll have leftovers.  
• Medium Sauce Pan - for deep-frying the shells.  It shouldn't be much bigger in circumference than the tortillas themselves so you can put in three inches of oil without using up tons of oil.  I have an old well-worn pot that I use as my fryer.  Since it spits oil and makes a mess I fry my tortillas outside over the propane flames of the burner on our grill.
• Vegetable Oil - you can use corn, canola, or soybean oils.  You'll need enough to fill the sauce pan with 3 to 4 inches of oil.
• Utensils - I learned to fry shells using a wooden spoon (to press the tortilla to the bottom of the pan and to hold it open so it frys with about an inch gap) and metal tongs (to grasp the top of the folded tortilla and hold it in place until it fries hard.  Recently I found some special taco shell tongs (see the lower left photo above) which make this process even easier.  You can buy them fairly cheaply online.  I have two so that I can be loading a tortilla on one while I'm frying a tortilla with the other.

Heat the oil on medium high until it sizzles when you drop a tiny piece of tortilla into it.  While its heating lay out a cookie sheet spread with napkins or paper towels.  Fry the tortillas into a bent shell open about an inch at the top (so you can fit the meat and other ingredients in--see pictures above) until they are lightly golden.  They will continue to brown after you take them out of the oil.  Hold them over the sauce pan to drain as much oil as possible back into the pan, then place them on cookie sheet to cool.

Making the meat:

• Lean Hamburger - 1/2 lb. per person
• Onion powder - 1/2 Tbsp. per person
• Ground Jalapeño Peppers Sauce - 1/2 tsp per person (any medium hot green pepper sauce will do)
• Salt - to taste 
• Flour - 1/2 Tbsp. per person
• Water - 1 Tbsp. per person

Decide how many people you plan to serve and calculate/set out the amounts of the ingredients above.  In a large frying pan fry the hamburger until juices evaporate and drain the fat.  Stir in the salt, onion powder, flour, and jalapeno.  Fry for about a minute and pour on the water (this deglazes the pan and moistens the meat which gets a bit dry after you drain the fat).  Fry until the water is evaporated/incorporated into the hamburger.  Put a large spoonful of the meat into each taco shell, line them up on the cookie sheet in rows and place them in the oven heated to 170 degrees fahrenheit to stay warm until its time to serve them.

Finishing touches:

• Diced Tomatoes
• Shredded Lettuce
• Ranch Dressing - make it fresh using dried mix and equal parts of mayonnaise and buttermilk/kefir. 

Shred the lettuce (see pictures above) and dice the tomatoes.  Mix up some fresh ranch dressing--don't leave this out, it's one of the key ingredients to this unique flavor combination!

Serve with diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, ranch dressing, and dollop on more hot sauce for good measure.  Serve with ice cold agua-de-sandia or agua-de-melon.  May look complicated but get some help putting it together and try it--it will be a never-to-be-forgotten experience that you'll want to make into a tradition of your own!