How To Make a Tattie

The question we get most often aside from 'what is a Tattie' is 'how do you make them?'  

Let's take The Vegetarian, one of our five savory Tatties.  The first step is making the black bean salsa.  I refined my recipe this week because I wanted not only to have an option for vegetarians but that it was as good if not better than the others.  And it was our best seller this weekend.  

The sweet corn I roasted in the husk and then lightly charred on the grill to caramelize the sugars in the kernels.  The second addition to the veggie tattie this week is my own chef special sauce which is kind of a deconstructed picante that brings out the fresh flavors from the cilantro, onions, beans and other ingredients.  

Once the flavors have developed to my satisfaction, it's time to add the black bean salsa to our potato mix and form them into cakes in our mini-muffin tins (top left photo).  They are then frozen for 24 hours, removed, and battered.  Our breading is a blend of pepitas, or roasted pumpkin seeds, Panko, bread crumbs, Doritos, and Chef Big Dog's seasoning which consists of 17 spices and herbs.  

When they are breaded (photo on the right), they're returned to the freezer until the market and deep fried to order.  The fried Tatties are then topped with a pico de gallo salad and one of our four sauces.  

What I've tried to achieve when I created this new tapas concept, the Tex-Mex Tattie, is multiple layers of flavors and textures in one bite.  

One of the reasons I'm posting part of our process is we've already heard about a few chefs trying to reproduce our recipes for their own menu.  Whenever you do something unique and singularly special, that's bound to happen.  So I thought, let's make it easier for them and in the process, hopefully we will inspire and encourage others who have original ideas.  

Chef Big Dog's Special for July 6th is the Fish Taco Tattie and that'll be my next blog.  

Chef's Special Tattie for June 29th

The Crazy Carnitas Tattie

Carnitas means "little meats" and the traditional Mexican recipe uses pork shoulder but we're using an Eye of Round roast and the shredded beef will be incorporated into the Tattie.  And the spices and flavors are a bit different, too, more reminiscent of barbacoa.  

Left is the Cujillo paste made from the chili pepper, roasted cumin and coriander, cloves, as a whole host of other sweetness.   

I then slather it all over the roast, pan sear it to create a crust and slow cook it for hours in a cilantro,Mexican cinnamon spiced broth.  Baby if that doesn't bring you out to the farmer's market this Saturday, you need a spanking.

Menu

Our menu concept is simple yet sublime:  Choose a Tattie and Choose a Topping:

We have five savory tatties:  The Chipotle Chili con Queso, the King Ranch Dorito, the Vegetarian, the Breakfast Taco, and the weekly Chef Special, and a sweet tattie.  

TATTIES

The Chipotle Chili con Queso.  Onions and peppers and ground beef sauteed in chipotle in adobo sauce.  Added to that, three kinds of Mexican cheeses.

The King Ranch Dorito.  Chicken breasts baked in green chilies, bacon, Ranch dressing, and topped with Doritos and cheese.  Inspired from the famous recipe from the King Ranch in Kingsville, TX

The Vegetarian.  A fresh, crisp black bean salad with roasted and grilled sweet corn, red and sweet onions, bell peppers, cilantro, and roasted garlic with a spicy taco sauce.  

The Breakfast Taco.  Beautiful Chorizo from East Boston, bacon, eggs, green chilies, and a spicy sour cream just like the Taquerias down south make em. 

Chef Special.   Weekly inspirations from Chef Big Dog.  We'll post them here for the upcoming market. 

Chef Lucky's Sweet Tattie.   A special study in subtlety and succulence.  Chef Lucky starts with a potato dough and adds Mexican chocolate, Mexican vanilla and cinnamon that surrounds a chocolate truffle center with bananas caramelized in vanilla and dark rum.  Topped with pecans, confectioners sugar, Mexican cinnamon and bacon.  You've absolutely never had anything like this before.

TOPPINGS

All of the savory Tex-Mex Tatties are topped with a pico de gallo salad and your choice of sauce.  We have four representing the colors of the Irish and Mexican flags:

The White.  Creamy jalapeno Ranch.

The Green.  Cilantro, lime, mint.

The Orange. Spicy Chipotle mayo.

The Red.  Our special taco sauce. 

Our Booth at Aquidneck Growers Market

Chef Lucky and I spent a lot of time and care in selecting the decoration for our booth from the chili pepper and shamrock lights to the serape table runners.  

And if you zoom in on the photo, hanging from the top left of the tent is our mascot El Guapo, the Handsome One.  

Our Story

Tex-Mex Tatties is brought to you by two people who love food, travel, and animals.  We are a locally owned artisan food maker focused on fresh ingredients and tantalizing flavor combinations.  Our Tex-Mex Tatties are made from scratch, using the freshest, locally sourced ingredients from Rhode Island fisherman, and grass-fed beef and vegetable farms. 

Luke Robinson, aka Chef Big Dog, walked 2,300 miles from Austin to Boston for cancer and along the way, he stayed with lots of folks in 16 states. As a native son of Texas, most of the families he met never had authentic Tex-Mex before.  This inspired him to get in their kitchens and cook up some of his favorite recipes.   Living in Newport now and passionate about sharing his experiences, Chef Big Dog has taken a recipe from across the Atlantic and married it with his Texas heritage.

Alongside Luke is his trusty sidekick, Valerie Kodman, aka Lucky, a native New Englander.  The two are bringing the Tex-Mex Tatties to Aquidneck Grower’s Market every Saturday From June 1st until the end of October.

For more information, email us at chef@chefbigdog.com