The Back Yard Lemon Tree

When the world is in turmoil, it’s good to go back to the comfort basics and, for a lot of Australian families, taco night has become something of an institution. Australia has a tiny Mexican population but we still love our taco nights, even if our version of tacos is less than authentic, simply because a lot of the ingredients just aren’t readily available.  If I’m making soft serve tacos, I always use chapatis because it’s impossible to get good ready-made corn tortillas in Australia and I haven’t quite been able to commit to sourcing masa harina and making my own.

This carrot sofrito comes from the Texas-born LA chef Josef Centano, and is based on his great grandmother’s recipe. It’s an excellent old time exercise in frugality to feed a lot of people on little money. Centano uses this carrot sofrito to make no bake vegetarian enchiladas, but because  I never make enchiladas (due to the poor quality corn tortillas down under), I use it as an extra fixing for tacos with refried beans. It is  extraordinarily good though, and you don’t just make it for taco nights. It makes a great sandwich spread or  dip for corn chips, but you will find it difficult not to just eat it on its own straight out of the pan.

Carrot sofrito

Adapted from Josef Centano Food and Wine

• 600 grams (1/4 pounds) carrots, coarsely chopped
• 1 small yellow onion chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled
• 250 grams (1/2 pound) of fresh tomatoes, or 1 x 400 grams can of tomatoes, drained
• 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt.

1. Preheat oven to 110°C (225°F), then in a food processor, pulse carrots, onion and garlic until finely chopped and scrape into a medium size bowl.
2. Add tomatoes to processor bowl and pulse until almost smooth.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a deep oven proof skillet, then add carrot mixture and a generous pinch of salt. Saute over medium heat for about 5–7 minutes until softened slightly and nearly dry. Add pureed tomato and cook stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated (about 5 minutes).
4. Stir in remaining six tablespoons of olive oil and transfer to oven to bake for one and a half hours until the sofrito is very soft. Alternatively, if you don’t want to bake in the oven, you can just turn the heat to very low and stir occasionally for one and half hours until the sofrito is tender and meltingly soft.
5. You can keep the sofrito warm, and covered over a low heat before serving, but I find it is just as good served at room temperature.