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Cooking: Tacos de Chaya con Huevo



People are always asking me about things I make - I love using local foods and experimenting with my cooking.

I recently needed a Take Along dish for an event, and being lazy as I am I didn't want to have to run to the Super or around the neighborhood looking for inspiration for something to make.  Instead I decided to use what I had on hand:


Since I have a chaya plant I decided on a tray of Tacos de Chaya con Huevo.
(Chaya is a green leaf vegetable quite similar t spinach but with just a bit more body)

I gathered, cleaned, de-stemmed, and chopped about 2 cups of fresh chaya, chopped a medium onion, minced 2 cloves of garlic, shredded 2 carrots, and cut a zucchini into quarters lengthwise and sliced.  All of this was lightly sauteed in a bit of olive oil with only salt and pepper for seasoning.



To this I added 8 whole eggs well beaten


Cooked completely
stirring the whole while


I then added a generous scoop of filling to each warm fresh tortilla


fold the tortillas, spoon over with salsa de tomate  (recipe below), y voila!


My tomato/tomatoe plants were producing more tomatoes than we could eat so I was making lots of fresh tomato salsa. Chopped fresh tomatoes, a few cloves chopped garlic, some chopped onion to your taste, no need to add liquid as the tomatoes have plenty – Cook over a low heat till reduced. This is a pretty standard Salsa de Tomate. I like a little spice in mine so I also put a slice in a small habanero and cook with the tomatoes but remove before using the salsa. If you roast all your veggies before making the salsa then you have a Salsa de Chiltomate which is really the best! Some folks run this through blender before using, but I prefer the chunkiness.





For the Take Along I just rested the tacos against each other and took the salsa on the side, when ready for service I oven heated them, and as they were placed on a plate the salsa was added, they were a bit messy by this point but held their shape for plating, eating was best done with a fork. Next time it may be better presentation as a layered dish cut into pie wedges.




Along with what Tom and I ate before I prepared the Take Along, I bet this made about 25 tacos.

And boy were they good!!!