Cuatro Tacos for Cinco De Mayo-5/5/10

I'll begin this post by apologizing. These four tacos look exactly the same but you must believe me, they are not! Last night, I invited several families from our church small group over for Cinco De Mayo. I guess I started the margarita part of the evening a little early (while cooking, of course). In all the rush of cooking, hosting, and ... uh...bar tending, I didn't take any pictures. This picture was taken by Richard at lunch the next day. Pretty good looking leftovers if I do say so myself.
This month's Taco World article in Food and Wine magazine has seven taco recipes but I didn't think I could pull off all seven. Three of the tacos I made for the party involved premaking a marinade and simply grilling the meat before serving. That's a pretty easy way to do a party. I had very little to do once people arrived. I just lit the grill and let the charcoal do its thing. I did have a vegetarian friend coming so my fourth taco was the tofu variation.
The Chili-Spiced Skirt Steak Tacos were a two-hour marinade with ground spices and lime juice. It smelled wonderful and grilled up well. Next time, I might let this marinade sit overnight like the pork and chicken. The recipe called for skirt steak, a cut that I find unreliable. Sometimes it's really good and sometimes it's very chewy and tough. I used New York Strip and sliced it after grilling. It was delicious but I would have liked a bit more depth to the marinade.
The Grilled Chicken Tacos were an overnight marinade. The marinade didn't look great but I thought it was the best flavored of the three marinades once grilled. The chicken thighs grilled beautifully and smelled wonderful. The last minute addition of parsley and paprika added an extra kick as well.
The Tacos al Pastor or pork tacos marinaded overnight as well. The marinade was the most work but I almost thought it was too busy, almost too many flavors to really get a strong feel for any one thing. The recipe called for boneless pork shoulder. I bought picnic shoulder and I'm not sure this was the same thing. The pork seemed fatty and tough before grilling but it grilled up pretty well. The grilled onions and pineapple suggested with this recipe were great additions to all the tacos.
The Crunchy Tofu Tacos had promise and I'm actually glad I waited a day for Richard's picture. We had the leftovers for dinner tonight too and both Richard and I thought the tofu was better today. Yesterday the fried coating was almost soggy and didn't have the strong flavor one would expect from chili powder and chili paste. Today, I still found the flavor a bit weak but the coating had dried out and had a bit more crunch.
I also, or should I say, my friends and I made the Pico de Gallo and Avocado Salsa recommended with these tacos. Both were traditional accompaniments and added fresh, authentic flavors to the tacos. We cut the water out of the Avocado Salsa recipe because it just would have thinned the flavor. These are both simple to make and worked well. I will admit I made another batch of the bean sauce from the 5/3 post. Man, that stuff is good!

Chile-Spiced Skirt Steak Taco-B
Grilled Chicken Tacos-A-
Tacos al Pastor-B
Crunchy Tofu Tacos-C
Pico de Gallo-A-
Avocado Salsa-A-