Brisket: Ropa Vieja

Ropa Vieja is traditionally a Cuban dish, but it's a good set up for tacos as well. It's especially well suited to pressure cooking because you cook the onions separately towards the end so they retain their character. Onions in the pressure cooker break down into mush. And while there are times that's what you want, just not in this dish.

Trim excess fat and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes. Season, brown in the pressure cooker or cooking pot.

As I'm going to use these for tacos, my seasoning is tilted Mexican rather than Cuban.

Add liquid, pressure cook on 15 lbs pressures for 50 minutes. Quick release. Liquid will have reduced.  Or bring to a boil and simmer for 2  to 2 1/2 hours until very tender.  Just before the meat is done, you can prep your onions, garlic

chiles and such. 

Remove the meat from the liquid, reserve the liquid.

Shred the meat. You can break it apart easily with your fingers or some forks. A potato masher is good too. If using some powered aids is more your style then the plastic dough blade in a food processor works well in small batches. Don't use a sharp metal blade as it will cut too finely. The plastic blade just beats it apart along the fibers. You can do the same thing in a stand mixer with the paddle or dough hook. 

Meanwhile, start sauteing the onions and chiles. When the onions have softened, add the garlic. Stir, then add the tomato

Add the shredded meat and reserved liquid. Let simmer a few minutes for flavors to blend. 

Toast corn tortillas on a cast iron comal or skillet. 

Add your toppings. i like to add the cheese first so it has some time melt. Sour cream, salsa, cabbage round out my taco toppings. 

And one that is better constructed, but not any tastier.  If you're wondering about the disparity in plates, the picture above is from a trip at my brother's place and the one below is with leftovers from the same batch at home. 

Chirashi

Chirashi is a rice bowl. More specifically it's Chirashi-Sushi building a rice bowl from sushi style ingredients. It's a simpler proposition compared to assembling and rolling sushi. In traditional Japanese cuisine, Chirashi is more structured than what I'm describing. But the concept has deep versatility.

Simply layer in your preferred ingredients. This one was based on Spam Musubi, fried pieces of spam glazed in a teriyaki sauce. 

Simply layer in your preferred ingredients. While I list some below, those lists aren't the only possibilities. In the picture above, it was based on Spam Musubi, fried pieces of spam glazed in a teriyaki sauce; cucumber, julienne carrot, avocado, nori and furikake. But there is a broad range of things that can and do work well. 

Sushi rice, cooked and seasoned

Vegetable choices

• Wilted spinach
• Cucumber in small chunks
• Carrot sliced or julienne
• Green onion, chopped
• Sauted onion
• Fried garlic slices, use a vegetable peeler, fry briefly until it barely changes color
• Bamboo shoots, sliced or julienne

Protein Choices

• Any sushi grade fish as for regular sushi
• Shrimp
• Asian roast port
• Asian omelet or boiled egg slices
• teriyaki chicken or salmon
• Spam, as above
• Tofu
• Mushrooms
• Tobiko

Garnish

• Shredded Nori (cut it with scissors, much easier than with a knife)
• Furikake

Sauce Ideas

Not every bowl of chirashi needs sauce but you'll want to match your sauce to your ingredients when you do use a sauce. 

• If I used a teriyaki flavored meat, I'd use teriyaki sauce. 
• For eel, eel sauce. 
• For roast pork, a blend of hot Asian mustard and some soy sauce.  
• Thai Sweet Chili Sauce is pretty versatile
• Wasabi Mayonnaise or Wasabi Cream
• Sriracha Mayonnaise
• Wasabi -- while many would mix wasabi and soy that's not my personal preference. I'd drizzle some soy on the dish and pickup a bit of wasabi on my chopstick or fork by the bite. 

Give your assembled bowl a mix and enjoy. I admit, I often break down and use a fork for eating chirashi.