I don’t know how to cook. When relegated to feeding myself, I usually prepare cold cereal, eat a diced avocado with balsamic vinegar and asiago cheese, fry an over-easy egg inside a piece of bread (by removing the middle of the bread with a cookie cutter) or make burritos. Consequently, I have become somewhat of an expert burrito maker. I figured I should share how I make them:
First, warm up a can of vegetarian refried beans (traditional refried beans are fried in lard) in a small saucepan. Next, heat some oil in a frying pan. Put a large flour tortilla (I usually use Guerrero brand) flat in the frying pan for a few seconds to warm that side, and then flip it. Cover the entire tortilla with grated sharp cheddar and/or Monterey jack cheese, then with a layer of nacho-sliced jalapenos. Sparsely add some diced habanero. Spoon a generous stripe of refried beans down the middle of the tortilla. The cheese should now be thoroughly melted. Roll the sides of the tortilla up. Now it’s ready to eat. One can of beans yields three burritos.
Enjoy!
10 comments:
**Brother James' secret spaghetti sauce**
Chopped, fresh garlic and scallions
sautee these in olive oil (not corn oil)
then add
1/2 package lean, ground turkey
add a little soy sauce
approx. 1/2 container Prego mushroom spaghetti sauce
and
two teaspoons sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil and Italian seasoning
Bring the sauce to a boil, then cover and simmer.
It's been just over 40 years since my last visit to Italy. But I do remember that olive oil, garlic, onion and dried tomato mix.
Mangia, paisan!
p.s.
Pasta al dente, molto veloce!
To a small pot of salted, boiling water, and 2 or 3 bundles of spaghetti; break them in half before adding them to the water
Cook exactly 10 minutes
Drain and rinse spaghetti in a colander, with hot water
Add the cooked, cut spaghetti directly to the pot of sauce; stir and heat the mix for a few minutes.
My little girl loves this stuff!
awesome, James! i just use Classico brand vodka sauce or Felippo Berio olive oil and add black pepper and asiago cheese on my pasta.
notice I don't use salsa on my burritos. because every brand sucks! my friend Chant gave me a recipe that looks good that I tried once but I just burnt the heck out of it trying to perform some thing called "saute." I'll have to have my girlfriend make it for me sometime....
sounds great. I've not had much success with Mexican cooking. One of my favorites is chile relleno. I knew a gal from Michoacan who made the best chiles relleno, anywhere.
Well, here's a cross-cultural leap. Try cooking fresh fish along these lines: add fresh ginger, scallions and a little cooking wine to hot corn oil, then add a small amount of water to steam the fish; covered of course.
My wife got a real hankering for this stuff when she was pregnant. Mind you, I was the only foreigner that went to our local Chinese market to buy fresh fish -- as in, you see it doing laps around the tank, and they catch it for you!
Ah, those were the days...
Um, not to sound too pretentious, but salsa is the simplest thing to make (as long as you have the fresh ingredients):
- Tomatoes (chopped)
- Garlic (minced)
- Peppers (pick the heat you want)
- Onions/Scallions/Green Onion (cut to desired size - the smaller the dice, the less "punch" in each bite)
- Lime Juice (fresh is best)
- Cilantro (fresh is required)
- Salt/Pepper (fresh ground)
(optional)
- Corn
- Tomatillos
- Vinegar (just a splash)
- Whatever else you can think of (capers, chopped arugula, cheese, etc. . . depends on the flavor you're going for)
The key is to put all ingredients together in a bowl and then in the fridge overnight (letting the flavors "blend" takes it from "chopped stuff in a bowl" to "salsa".
I've never heard of sauteing anything for salsa - the idea is "fresh/lively"
As a rule, salsa from a jar/can/tub is horrible - it's (to reiterate) all about freshness.
To sum up, salsa is just a bunch of stuff thrown together to make a "topping/dipping" - I've even seen beet-pomegranate-mandarin orange salsa.
frank-
thanks for the comment- i'm sure many will find it helpful.
perhaps I was unsuccessful in my attempt to portray myself as incompetent, cheap and lazy when it comes to making food.
in order to make that salsa i'd have to buy every ingredient but salt and pepper and then spend hours preparing it the day before i wanted to use it. F that!
btw:
having never heard of something is never a sufficient reason to dismiss it.
You should go one step farther and use raw beans. I like black. Bring them barely to a boil, then take them off the heat (Oh, add water first) and let them sit for at least an hour. Rinse well. Then add sauteed onions, garlic and spices. What spices? I don't know. Chant usually does this part. I usually fry up extra firm tofu in strips in olive oil and bragg and then spice it up well. Also, you usually don't need to add oil to the pan if you are going to heat up the tortilla. They are made with lots of oil or butter.
A note to James- it's easier to just use a good can of tomato sauce or a mixture of tomato sauce and tomato paste (I use a 32 oz. can of sauce and an 8 oz. can of paste) and add your own spices than to buy a jar of crappy name brand sauce.
Well, maybe it isn't easier. But it's better, I think.
you people are ambitious! sounds good though.
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