BBQ Leftovers Make Good Tacos

Last night, some of my BC'08 friends threw a BBQ. At the end of the night, there were a couple of burgers left, so I took one home. I was in charge of the cucumber, tomato, and onion salad so I had some of that leftover at home. With my two leftovers and some corn tortillas (from Reyna's market in Pittsburgh), I had dinner tonight.

Ingredients:

For the "Chinese Burger Sauce":

- 1 T hoisin

- 1 T sweet soy sauce

- 1/8-1/4 t 5 spice powder (depending on how much you like the flavor)

- 1 t sesame oil

For the Cucumber,Tomato, and Onion Salad (If you don't have any on hand):

- 1 English cucumber, halved and sliced thinly

- 1/4 pint of cherry tomatoes, each halved and sliced thinly

- 1/4 vidalia onion, sliced thinly

- 2 T rice wine vinegar

- 2 T canola oil

- cilantro or scallions to your preference (I chose cilantro)

Other ingredients:

- 1 leftover burger patty (about 1/4-1/3lb burger) or ground beef

- Corn tortillas (I like going for the double shell, so I need 6 tortillas to make 3 tacos)

1. Combine the rice wine vinegar, canola oil and herb of your choice in a small bowl. Season it with salt and pepper (around a 1 t each) and wisk it until the oil and vinegar are combined. Then put the cucumber, tomatoes, and onion in a plastic bag and pour the marinade over it and let it sit while you make the other components.

2. Heat a small pan and throw your leftover patty into the pan and let the patty heat up a little. While that is starting to warm, in another small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the "Chinese Burger Sauce".

3. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, break the patty apart until it resembles ground taco meat (see below).

4. Add the sauce and combine.

5. Remove the meat from the pan (clean the pan) and heat up some corn tortillas. To heat up corn tortillas, throw the tortillas on a pre-heated pan coated with PAM. Heat for about 20 seconds on each side.

6. Assemble the tacos by putting some ground meat onto the tortilla and topping it with the CTO salad. If you're into spicy, throw a little sriracha on there!

This recipe is what I like to call a "template" recipe. You can customize it and make it your own. The sauce on the beef is an adapted char siu sauce. I would think, some black bean paste, garlic, and sugar would make a great sauce as well. Since the cucumber salad is going to be acidic, the meat can be a little sweet to give overall dish a sweet and sour balance. If you don't really like sweetness, substitute the sweet soy with regular soy sauce.

The best part of this dish is that it's an easy,fast, and delicious way to get rid of leftovers!