At Wahaca we take our influences from modern, seasonal, British ingredients and our love for the flavours and ingredients of Mexico. This taquito, essentially a rolled up corn tortilla filled with something delicious and fried until crispy, is a quintessential street food gem. We normally fill it with a mix of sweet potato, thyme and feta, but here we have given it a seasonal twist and filled it with roast and shredded turkey leg with streaky bacon, sage, chestnut, bay leaf and apricots. Pair them with a delicately spicy hibiscus glaze and crisp lettuce for an unbeatable seasonal treat!
25g butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 large onions, finely chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
6 sage leaves, finely chopped
120g streaky bacon, cut into small dice
1 tsp ground allspice
500g cooked turkey meat, preferably from a bronze turkey
1 ½ tbsp good quality cider vinegar
75g dried apricots, roughly chopped
75g chestnuts, roughly chopped
Corn tortillas
Oil, for frying
Salt and pepper
For the hibiscus glaze
2 large onions, finely chopped
1 head of garlic, cloves peeled and finely chopped
100ml olive oil
½ tsp sweet smoked paprika
100g chipotles en adobo
75ml hibiscus cordial
A handful of thyme leaves
The zest and juice of 2 limes
To serve
Feta
Baby gem lettuce, finely shredded
Sour cream
Pomegranate seeds
To make the taquito heat the butter and oil in a large pan over a medium to medium-high heat and add the onions. Sweat for 7-8 minutes until translucent whilst you are steaming the sweet potato until tender. Stir the garlic into the onion along with the bay leaves, sage, bacon and allspice and season generously with salt and black pepper. Saute until the fat is rendering out of the bacon and it is starting to brown, another 6-7 minutes. Stir in the steamed sweet potato and once browned a little add the vinegar and simmer off for a minute. Finally stir in the turkey, apricots and chestnuts. Heat through and season to taste again.
Now make the glaze. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and add the onions and garlic. Cook over a medium heat for 20 minutes until the onions are soft and sweet. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, save the lime, together with 100ml of water. Bring up to heat and cook, stirring slowly, for about 15-20 minutes until the glaze has reduced and is glossy. Add the lime, stir and season to taste, with salt, pepper and a teaspoon of brown sugar if its needed, or more chipotle if you want the glaze more spicy!
Heat a cm of oil in a shallow pan and when hot quickly dip the tortillas in to soften. Turn the heat off and fill them with the stuffing, rolling them up like cigars and fixing them in place with toothpicks. You can make 4 large ones or lots of little small ones for canapes. Now turn on the heat to high and when the oil is really hot shallow fry the cigars on all sides until golden and crispy. Drain on kitchen paper. You can do this in advance and re-heat them in a hot oven if you wish.
Serve the taquitos with shredded lettuce, sour cream, pomegranates seeds and the glaze, and wedges of lime.
