the last of the nacho prep

Here's the salsa I'd made a few days ago:

Kinda dark in this picture, but the flavor is bright and fresh.

And here's some other nacho-istic material I prepped:

Beef! Essential for nachos.

What went into the beef: salt, pepper, powdered garlic, onion flakes, cayenne, chipotle powder, harissa powder, molasses, and off-brand sriracha.

Also to be added in the final stage: passata di pomodoro (tomato purée).

Everything but the passata and harissa is combined, and the ground beef (ground myself) is browned.

The beef was a combination of skirt steak and a mysterious package of Aussie beef that had been chopped into little, 1-cm cubes. Everything went through my grinder. I love my grinder.

The harissa is added as an afterthought.

I forgot: I have a bottle of something called "umami flavoring." It's mostly mushroom powder, but it's got other seasonings as well. I added that, too, for depth of flavor.

Not sure if you can tell, but the passata was added in.

The beef's had a chance to cool down, and here it is, containerized.

I also made a queso—in this case, it's basically a Latin-ish Mornay sauce: start with a roux, make it into a Béchamel by slowly adding cold milk, then add cheese and spices and seasonings to turn it into a Mornay. There's also cayenne, chipotle, and sriracha in there, plus a touch of umami powder. No added salt: cheese brings its own saltiness. Two final ingredients to be added tomorrow will be (1) minced jalapeño peppers plus (2) jalapeño juice from the bottle to make the queso a bit thinner.

Drip, drip, drip. Ignore the dirty, spattered walls.

My apartment smelled—and smells—amazing. Tomorrow ought to be awesome, but I do have to get there early to shred the lettuce (chefs call that "shredduce"... just like noodles are "noods" and blueberries are "bloobs").

Already at the office: Fritos (we'll have regular corn chips, too, since the boss is picky), beef, queso, salsa, sour cream, chopped olives, lettuce, chopped tomatoes. That's almost everything... I'll be bringing in a bottle of sliced jalapeños tomorrow; the peppers will be minced and tossed into the queso, and the piquant juice will be poured into the queso to thin it out a bit; things are a tad too cheesy and thick right now, but the queso tastes great.