| After Shock Media |
11-29-2007 03:05 PM |
Just go with the basics man for now and then work up from there. Honestly leftovers are key but doubt you have like any leftover roast or steak.
Foremost buy the wrap sized tortillas, the burrito sized ones are somewhat small unless your ok with a normal sized burrito.
Then skip re fried beans, specially in a can. Get some canned black beans, rinse them and saute them up with some diced onion, garlic, cumin, and some fatty bacon. Mash some of these up. You will not look back to re fried canned beans again. Feel free to bring the heat here if you want as well.
For me avocado is a must, personally it must be a Haas and to check for ripeness I press in on the stem, if it sinks odds are you are good. You can of course make a guacamole or if your like me I just like some thin slices throughout the burrito or some random chunks.
If you like adding rice, most Spanish rices are doable just follow boxed directions. Sure they are not as outstanding as a good homemade Spanish rice but they more than work and anyways Spanish rice itself is a whole nother topic.
Veggies - to me they are the basics, white or purple onion (i like purple), tomato, cilantro, lime, garlic, peppers of your choice (ortega's work well its not about heat here). Start with a can of good Italian tomatoes (yes they matter) about a 16oz can, cut up about 1/2 cup onion, 2 cloves garlic mashed with kosher salt, about 5 ortega's diced well, the juice of a lime, and a handful of chopped up cilantro. Buzz this a few times in a blender so it stays chunky but most of the tomatoes are now about the size of say dice. This is sort of a salsa but actually your sauce/veggie base.
Heat - either add some grilled/diced peppers or hot sauce of preference.
Cheese - Some like cheddar, monterey jack, or pepper jack. All are good however if you can get it I rather like Oaxaca cheese (lachona makes it I think) then with some Cotija (same makers) sprinkled on (this one is sort of like a Mexican parmesan).
Lettuce - blah leave that to the rabbits
Extra protein - Ok here again is where you can make simple changes. You could just go old school American and use ground beef and taco seasoning. Then again you could ask your butcher or better yet do it yourself and get some chuck or sirloin and pulse it a few times in your food processor (about 10 pulses makes nice little chunks). Again either taco seasoning if you want to go that way (seriously its actually ok). Or you can pick up a can of chili verde sauce (green enchilada sauce) and brown up the beef or chicken and then simmer in the sauce for a bit. If your want to go shrimp, I suggest peel the shrimp and simmer them raw in the sauce. However you can of course go red sauce too. Want some real extra heat and punch in the ass go ahead and add a little Chipotles in adobo sauce (warning this can be potent). If you did use chicken by the way id shred it first.
Another side possibility is to get some shrimp and double skewer them so they do not curl (two wooded soaked skewers on in tail and one near head) peeled of course. Then brush these with the adobo sauce and some lime zest, then grill them up and add them to the burrito.
Of course the meat options are near endless, some of my favorites are skirt steak, chorizo, white fish, beef tongue, and pork.
Lastly sour cream or Crema Mexicana. If you like tart go with sour cream otherwise if you have a Mexican market try some of the crema. It is more sweet (I use it a lot in American desserts) and brings out the other ingredients more I think.
I guess what im saying is experiment as there are very few wrong burritos.
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