Sept 5 Chorizo Sloppy Joe Tacos or Slopos

I was all ready to make something completely different but life intervened, as it tends to do, and by 5pm I had eaten a late brunch with the The Neighbours, Shack had just grabbed a Lick's burger because he hadn't eaten all day and I brought The Kid home from his friends. Only Little Shack was interested in eating and he asked if there was any slop left over from last night's sloppy joes. Although I normally take offence to the word "slop" being used to describe a dish that I have served my family, I let it slide this time.

So, a small batch of masa harina to make 4 tortillas, some shredded cabbage, some guacamole and the kid is fed and happy. We called them Slopos.

Hank's Slopos
makes 4 good sized tacos

1/5 cup of chorizo sloppy joes
2/3 cup masa harina
2/3 cup warm water
1/4 cup thinly sliced cabbage
1/2 tomato, diced
1 1/2 key lime (you can just use one plain old lime - I had key limes)
pinch kosher salt
1 avocado
1 tbls onion diced fine
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 hot chill, seeded and minced

Mix the masa harina with the warm water and knead for a few minutes, wrap in plastic or cover with a tea towel and set aside while you prep the rest.

mix half of the tomato with the juice of half of a key lime and a pinch of kosher salt and set aside.
Halve the avocado, take out the seed and scoop out the flesh into a shallow bowl. Mash it with a fork, squeeze in the rest of the lime juice and mix well. Stir in the rest of the tomato, the onion, garlic and hot chill and stir together. Set aside.
Put the cabbage in a bowl and set aside.

Heat a heavy, dry griddle over med high heat. Divide the masa into four equal portions and roll them into balls. You can either roll them out into circles OR use a tortilla press OR you can flatten the balls out, one at a time, using a heavy pot as your weight. Just make sure that you do it between sheets of waxed paper or plastic wrap so that you can peel the pressed flat tortilla off to put it in the griddle.

Cook the tortillas on your hot, ungreased griddle (I use my cast iron frying pan) about a minute per side and when it's cooked, put it in a tea towel lined basket and keep them well covered by the towel. This will keep them soft, pliable and warm.
Of course you can skip all of this and just buy corn tortillas and just warm them up on the dry griddle.

To assemble, warm up your chorizo sloppy joe meat in the microwave for a minute until it's just really warm and divide the meat amongst the four tacos. Put a good sized dollop of guacamole, some of the salted tomato and shredded cabbage on all four, roll them up and eat them.