Wesley Avila

After my mom passed away, my aunt used to make us tons of tacos de papa dorados—basically mashed potatoes inside a tortilla either folded or rolled up like a flauta and fried—and leave them in big bags in the fridge. My friends and I would grab a few, microwave them, smother them in tart, fresh, bright-green tomatillo salsa, and wolf them down while watching episodes of Richard Bey. It’s a casero-style (homemade) snack, sort of like a Hot Pocket. You wouldn’t really see these on a menu anywhere. So when I first got the cart, I figured why not make this taco with a few modifications.

Be careful when roasting chiles de árbol, or the dried versions of other smaller spicier, because when you start roasting inside your house, the air gets spicy quick. Growing up in southern California, my mom would make chile de árbol by roasting them with a little bit of lard. We’d be such dramatic little kids; it’d be like pepper spray in the house, and we’d have to kneel down and go through the kitchen because it was too spicy. We’d be coughing up a storm and our eyes would be watering.

Tomatillos can be used raw or prepared in one of many ways – roasting, boiling, simmering. That way I like to do them is roasting them over fire – especially if you have an open fire-pit outdoors. You can make makeshift an open fire-pit indoors with a grate placed over gas stove burner, then give some color to your tomatillos. This recipe specifically uses oven-roasted tomatillos for ease of preparation. Use fresh or store refrigerated for one week.