Sweet Potato Tacos Baja Style
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Sweet Potato Tacos Baja Style

Baja California gave us a particular style of fish taco in which strips of fish are breaded and deep fried and presented in a flour tortilla with condiments. This is the veggie version,, which calls for roasted sweet potato chips, rather than deep-fried fish.
Serves
8
Difficulty
Easy
Total Time
30 Minutes
Ingredients
1 huge or 2 smaller sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into about 5mm chips
1 tbsp of cornflour
4 tbsp of vegetable oil
16 flour tortillas
To serve:
¼ white cabbage, finely shredded
Tamarind sauce
Habanero cream sauce (see below)
Pico de gallo (see below)
For the habanero cream sauce:
4 habanero chillies, dry-roasted and cleaned
½ a small onion, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled but left whole
250ml of avocado or other vegetable oil
1-2 tbsp of lime juice
Salt
For the pico de gallo:
2 ripe tomatoes, cut into small cubes
½ a small onion, finely chopped
2 coriander sprigs, roughly chopped
1-2 serrano chillies, cleaned, deseeded and finely chopped
A pinch of salt, plus extra if needed
Juice of 1-2 limes
Method
Step 1

To make the habanero sauce, place the chillies in a blender. Add the onion and garlic, season with salt and add just enough water to make the blender go round. Blend well, then push the mixture through a sieve into a bowl. Discard the contents of the sieve and scrape the contents of the bowl into the blender. With the blender running, drizzle in the oil to thicken up the sauce. Taste carefully (it’s spicy!) and add more salt, if necessary. Stir in the lime juice, a little at a time, to taste.

Step 2

To make the pico de gallo, mix everything except the lime juice together in a big bowl. Then, slowly add the lime juice, stirring and tasting all the time, until it is as sour as you like. If you add too much lime (easy to do!), just balance it out with another pinch or so of salt (or vice versa).

Step 3

Now, onto the tacos. Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6.

Step 4

Place the sweet potato chips in a single layer in a baking tray and sprinkle them with the cornflour. Roll them around a bit to coat evenly, then sprinkle over the oil and roll them around again. Spread them out so there is lots of space between them and pop them in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, then flip them over with a big spatula and bake for a further 10 minutes.

Step 5

When the chips are about 1 minute from being done, soften the tortillas and place two on each plate. Remove the chips from the oven and distribute them equally over the tortillas. Serve with the cabbage, tamarind sauce and salsas alongside for your guests to garnish and fold as they wish.

Recipe courtesy of Mexico: The World Vegetarian by Jane Mason

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