Danny Trejo - Trejos Tacos: Recipes and Stories from L.A.: A Cookbook

acknowledgments

First and foremost, Id like to thank my Trejos Tacos partners, Ash Shah and Jeff Georgino, as well as the entire Trejos Tacos staff and family, past and present. That includes Josh Rosenstein, Daniel Mattern, Mason Royal, Mark Hendrix, Roxana Jullapat, and Jesyka Washburn.

A shout-out to the bookmakers: Hugh Garvey, Ed Anderson, and Lilian Kang; the entire team at Clarkson Potter, including Raquel Pelzel, Lily Ertischek, Jen Wang, Stephanie Huntwork, Mark McCauslin, Nick Patton, and Kelli Tokos; and Ernesto Yerena and Ken Garduno for their illustrations.

Im equally grateful for the support of my crew Mariette Matekel, Mario Castillo, Michael Castillo, Bela Lehoczky, Ermahn Ospina, Jay West, and Thomas Brackey. I couldnt do it without any of you.

A special thank-you to my fans who come to the restaurants once for the novelty, but then continue to honor me with their return visits and friendship.

To Eddie Bunker and George Perry, who continue to watch my back from Heaven. I miss our dinners at The Pantry.

Finally, to the glue that keeps it all together, my longtime agent and friend, Gloria Hinojosa, and the entire team at Amsel, Eisenstadt, Frazier & Hinojosa, Inc. Thank you, G-$!

Mix It Mexican

I wish Id had the book youre holding in your hands twenty years ago. It wouldve made my life a lot easier. But back then it wouldnt have been possible. There wasnt a modern Mexican food revolution happening across the countrythere was no such thing as a vegan cauliflower taco! Now there are hundreds of Mexican cookbooks that claim to offer the most authentic, regional, cheffy, easy, technique-driven, healthy, mind-blowing recipes out there. My book is none of those things. Its a crazy mash-up of the sometimes healthy, Mexican-adjacent, vegan-ish, always delicious food we serve at Trejos.

I was a single dad for a while and used to cook for my kids. But if Im going to be honest, I have to admit it was all a bit of an act. One of my tricks was to buy Hungry Jack pancake mix (you know, the just add water stuff that comes in a box), sit my kids down in the dining room, and then call out from the kitchen, Okay kids, Im making pancakes! Theyd be sitting in the other room and couldnt see me, so Id go to the door and throw flour up in the air and theyd see it fly out the doorand Id pop my head out and say, Okay, wait, and then Id throw a pan to make a noise like Dont worry, Im working in here. Finally Id come out with a stack of pancakes this big (imagine my hands spread really far apart) and the kids would say, Whoa, Dad just made the best pancakes! Until they found the box, I had my kids believing I even churned the butter.

Im the same way today. I like to cook when I can, but in reality, my work schedule doesnt give me much time. Luckily, Trejos Tacos has a super-talented team of chefs who have put together a menu that celebrates all the great flavors of homemade Mexican food. Sometimes when I feel like cooking Ill drop into the kitchen at one of the Trejos and whip up chicken quesadillas or carne asada tacos with whatever looks good. This is how we want you to approach this book. With foundations like a good piece of marinated meat or a homemade salsa at the ready, you can build whatever you wanta burrito, a taco, a bowl, a quesadilla. Cooking this way is a little like acting: sometimes you need to stick to the script and sometimes you can improvise. This is a cookbook that lets you do both.

Back in the day, maybe there was a Mexican abuela cooking all day long at home, turning out those elaborate feasts like my mom did while my dad, who wore the pants in the family, went to work. Well, these days everyone wears the pants, which is good! But it also means everybody has less time. So I dont expect you to spend all day in the kitchen the way my mom did, or the way the cooks at our restaurants do. You can mix it up. Make the pork that goes in our carnitas and have it with rice. Cook up some black beans and rice, make pico de gallo, and youve got dinner. Or mix store-bought salsa with a braised meat and some leftover rice from Chinese takeoutit will be delicious. Were going to give you our recipes just as we prepare them, and yes, some of them have a lot of steps because we believe in putting in the time to build layers of flavor. But you dont have to cook every single component each time if you dont feel like it. Look at a recipe and cook it the way it makes sense for you and your life.

This is the spirit of my restaurants and my taco trucks in cookbook form. Have what you want your way. You want healthy? Go vegan. You want a rich and boldly spiced burrito with a margarita? Weve got you covered. You are free to do with it as you will. I might tell you to use a particular salsa with a certain taco, but you should do whatever the hell you want and put the cashew crema on the brown rice if you feel like it, or dont use the pickled onions if you hate tanginess.

So dont think of the recipes as being a strict guide, but also dont go totally crazy either. Youre not going to put the diablo sauce on the rice pudding. Okay, maybe you could. Who am I to say? Were the people who made a donut that tastes like nachos, with jalapeos and hot sauce and cheddar cheese. Its savory and it is delicious. We broke a rule and it worked. You can, too. Maybe youll start a whole new spicy rice pudding trend!

Im also sharing secrets from the restaurants so you can learn how my team thinks and works behind the scenes. Theres a method to this madness. Its a suggested set of actions, and tools, and techniques that you can play with. We dont expect you to think like a professional chef, but it doesnt hurt to pay attention to the principles behind the way all of this works. We pair contrasting flavors and textures to make something taste good so you want to take bite after bite without it being boring or too heavy, too rich, or too spicy. Its that simple. Whether its a dinner for you and your family, a quinceaera, a backyard barbecue, or a healthy lunch, theres something in this cookbook for you.

Before I owned the restaurants, I loved good food, but I wasnt what youd call a foodie. I knew what I liked but I couldnt tell you precisely why. Working with the team of chefs at Trejos, Ive picked up some foodie knowledge and terms along the way. And now I realize I knew more than I thought.

Take guacamole. Its all about contrasting flavors and textures. Okay, a ripe avocado is already pretty delicious because its rich and savory and fatty. On its own you can have maybe a bite. Do you want ten bites of it? No. Its too rich and, honestly, a little boring. Put some salt on it and it boosts the flavor in a way thats sort of sweet when you think about it. Now add a squeeze of lime. There you go: its even more interesting. Its tangy now, but still rich and kind of salty-sweet. Throw in some tortilla chips to scoop it up with and you add crunch and a different sort of sweetness from the corn in the chips, plus another hit of salty. Now you can have the ten bites and youre at the bottom of the bowl! Think thats deep? Thats just plain guacamole. To my version, we add pistachios (toasty, crunchy, salty, earthy), serranos or jalapeos (spicy, tangy, assertive), and chopped onions (pungent and sharp). Now thats