Mini Taco Cups [ Taco Cupcakes ]

Everyone loves tacos, they’re delicious, they’re easy to make and everyone gets to choose their own toppings so they’re a definite crowd pleaser. But sometimes you get bored of serving normal tacos, plus at a party, they can be hard to position in an appetizing way. I personally am a hard shell taco person. I’m all about the crunch. Sorry softies... No hard feelings.

The only advantage that soft tacos have over the hard ones is that soft tacos don’t get soggy! With hard shells, most of the time, the taco toppings fall all over the plate and you’ve gone from a beautifully filled taco shell to a soggy taco with all its toppings OUTSIDE of the taco in no time. Let’s for a minute not pretend we’re pros at taco presentation.

These mini tacos or taco cupcakes are delicious and look amazing. You simply cut out circles of tortilla bread and bake them in a muffin pan till they get all crunchy and irresistible. Fill in your favorite toppings and ta-da! You end up with the cutest things to serve at a dinner party.

Recipe                                                                                                            
                                                                                                      
Ingredients

ground meat
uncooked flour tortillas
refried beans

Toppings:

lettuce, chopped
tomatoes, diced
cheddar cheese, grated
sour cream
salsa
guacamole
tortilla bread

& a muffin pan

Instructions

Preheat oven to 200°C or 400°F. Using a round cookie cutter or a cup, cut out circles from each tortilla and place into each well of the muffin tray. Poke each tortilla circle with a fork to prevent bubbles from forming in your tortillas. Bake for about 5-8 mins, or until tortillas are lightly browned and crunchy.

Spoon toppings into tortilla cups and serve!

                                                       Serve with love!

The Perfect Scrambled Eggs

                           


Gordon Ramsay may be known as anything but the ‘nicest’ chef around, but I promise you, you will only wish good things upon him once you try his recipe for scrambled eggs, and also once you know that his lucky (and surprisingly not fat) wife gets to have them multiple times a week & IN BED too. No kidding. She marries one of the most celebrated chefs in the world and casually wakes up to a breakfast cooked by him on most days of the week. No big deal.

Me? No. Sadly I am far from having breakfast in bed. My breakfast happens on my lovely desk at the office 5 days a week till the most amazing thing happens. The weekend arrives.

One of my favorite things about the weekend is the chance to have a proper breakfast. You know the old saying; eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a peasant. Eat breakfast like a king? OK. Hey, I just do what I’m told.

For breakfast this week, I decided to go for Ramsay's version of the perfect scrambled eggs. I personally don’t like my eggs dry, I like them creamy and cranked up a notch. No boring eggs for me please. And well, his recipe delivers.

 You might be thinking, how perfect can they be? They’re just scrambled eggs. But please, let me stop you there. These are not just eggs. They are the eggs.

In fact, here’s an interesting piece of info: Whenever a chef joins one of Ramsay’s restaurants (or his shows), the first thing he asks the chef to make is a dish of scrambled eggs. To him, they are the basis of a good chef. His theory is:  if you don’t know how to make good scrambled eggs, you shouldn’t be cooking at all. So please, master your scrambled eggs people.

Recipe

Adapted from a Gordon Ramsay Recipe                                                            Serves 2

Ingredients

3 eggs

cherry tomatoes on the vine

portobello mushrooms - or any whole mushrooms

chopped chives, substitute for green onions if you're out of chives

1/2 tbsp crème fraîche

1/2 tbsp butter

extra virgin olive oil

bread, sourdough bread or toast

grated parmesan - optional


Instructions

Drizzle olive oil in a pan and add the mushrooms, flat side down, & the vine tomatoes. Season with salt & pepper. Sauté on low heat for a few minutes.

Crack the eggs in a pot and add the butter, stir well and then place on generous heat and stir constantly. Don't stir the eggs before hand.

Stir for 30 seconds, then remove off heat and continue stirring for 30 seconds. Place the pot back on the heat and stir for another 30 seconds, and again off the heat for 30 seconds. Repeat this until the eggs start to thicken.

Once the eggs start to thicken, remove off the heat (they will continue to cook off-heat), and add the crème fraîche. Season with salt & pepper. Fold in the chives/green onions. If you're going for the parmesan, add now.

Drizzle olive oil on the toasted bread and spoon the eggs on top. Serve the mushrooms and tomatoes on the side.

Serve with love!