I couldn't find a mexican thread in the first 2 pages, so, what the hey.
I'm not too familiar with burritos except the frozen kind, but I had some ground beef and some tortilla wraps and broadband, so decided to go for it. I used a variation on this recipe with a few substitutions and improvisations:
No canned refried beans. Exploring the grocery from top to bottom revealed nothing of the sort, maybye they call it something different? I didn't even know what they were up until this point. :p Fortunately they're easy to prepare from "standard" canned beans, just mash them into paste then add them to whatever you're frying.
No enchilada sauce. Again, the cavernous local grocery is either sorely lacking, or we call it something different up here. I substituted a smaller quantity of chili sauce.
Chili peppers -- OK, just chili pepper, singular. Add the dried peppers when you add the rest of the spices and they'll reconstitute nicely after simmering a bit.
The result was burrito-like, spicy enough to make me glad I'd been conservative with my peppers, and very filling. I think I'll try it again sometime.
What other interesting mexican-style recipies have you people tried?
Boil whole chicken or chicken parts until done. Cool chicken then take off the bones, shred in small pieces.
In 2 quart pan add:
1 cup cheddar cheese
2 cans cream of mushroom or chicken soup
1 small can diced jalapenos or green chilies ( if you don't want it real spicy use only 1/2 can of jalapenos)
1 pound container sour cream
chicken pieces
Mix all ingredients over low heat until cheese is melted. Fill flour tortillas with 3 tablespoons of mixture. Roll up place in baking dish top with shredded cheese bake at 350 for 30 minutes.(I pour Green Salsa over the top before serving.)
I'm surprised that you couldn't find refried beans at your local grocery store. They're usually in the same aisle as the other mexican food items. AFAIK, enchilada sauce is just chili sauce or chili sauce mixed with tomato sauce. It's either the same as or similar to products sold as "taco sauce".
My sister has a recipe for a mexican style lasagna that is out of this world. I'll see if I can get the recipe from her.
I'm gonna try those enchiladas soon, thanks Spice.
I found some Mexican Seasoning™ in the cupboard when I moved in here, and so invented what I call the lazy, uninspired man's sloppy burrito-like concoction:
Make steamed rice w/ diced onion in it.
Throw rice in a frying pan with some veg oil and sprinkle liberally with Mexican Seasoning™ and cook, stirring frequently.
Throw a chicken breast in the George Foreman grill.
Heat up some canned black (or refried) beans.
Dice up chicken and throw in a burrito shell.
Add some beans.
Add some rice.
Add some sour cream.
Add some salsa.
Add whatever else you have/want.
Try to wrap it like they do at Chipotle, and fail.
I am nearly compelled to provide my Mexican family's lazy man's version of refried beans, but I am refraining since I suspect no one would want to do it, once they saw it. (since all of you are good and health conscious folks.) But, short of doing the long soak, long cook, mash and fry real version (which my non-employed aunts did all the time), these come out tasting really killer (no lard).
I'll post the quick'n'easy methodology, if anyone shows any interest...
You're the neighborhood Mexican afficionado, I was counting on a lot of recipes from you in this thread. Come'on and give 'em up, sister!
Can't do it, vm. Sorry.
My mother wasn't about fancy and she wasn't a good cook. However, I am very grateful to her for the lesson of knowing how to put together a large variety of good, solid meals on a daily basis, none of them worthy of posting. I probably only have one good Mexican dish I could put together a recipe for and even that is dirt simple.
This thing with the canned refried beans was something she dreamed up because she had to work because my father had M.S.. I'm sure she would have preferred to be an at-home mom, to make and teach me how to make real refried beans from scratch as her mother must have done and both her sisters always did.
I realized when I started posting that I am not prepared to have my mother's efforts ridiculed or villified in any way. I wish I had realized how strongly I felt that way before I made the first dipshit tease (which, as JoeP pointed out, I sucked at, anyway.)
pesci, I'm finding it quite difficult to see how your mother's efforts would be ridiculed based on anything anyone has written in this thread. What am I missing here?
pesci, I'm finding it quite difficult to see how your mother's efforts would be ridiculed based on anything anyone has written in this thread. What am I missing here?
My concerns have nothing to do with what anyone has written in this thread.
As silly as anyone might find it (including myself, I am very sorry!), I realized too late that I was not willing to share my mother's efforts in this way. Apparently and perhaps inexplicably, it's something of a sensitive and personal nature; a sensitivity I was not fully aware of until after I posted.
No sweat, pesci. I'll just keep kicking myself in the ass for not stealing the recipe book from that little Mexican restaurant* where I was a prep cook for a month or so.
* No, not Taco Bell. I only worked there one night.
You know, pesci, my mom was a not-very-good cook sometimes, too, and now that I think of it, I would probably feel much the same way you do.
No chicken hearts on rice or creamed tuna on toast for you bastards!
My "burritos" are almost like vm's, except I marinade leftover meat or skinless boneless chicken hooters, and I just regular cook the rice with cilantro, and I eat it out of a bowl without the tortilla usually, which is howcome I put the quotes around burritos.
Sometimes, I do meat things like barbacoa and puerca pibil, just cheap cuts of meat marinated then slow roasted all day, until it falls apart and can be shredded with a fork. You can then use that in any number of things, like posole, burritos, tacos, green chili stews (I think that's a New Mexico thing, though), and stuff like that.
They really do take many many hours, though, so I dunno if you're interested. (I think I may have posted something about that before, even.)
Hell I don't even remember what I ate growing up. Just imagine a single mother cooking for 10 kids on whatever foodstamps can get ya and you'll have a good idea of how we ate.
My sister has a recipe for a mexican style lasagna that is out of this world. I'll see if I can get the recipe from her.
MEXICAN LASAGNA
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 can Campbell's cheddar cheese soup
1 can Campbell's golden corn soup
1 4 oz. can chopped green chilies (un-drained)
1 16 oz. can salsa style or chili style tomatoes
1 c grated cheddar cheese
1 can refried beans
1 cup chopped onion
2 packs (10 count) 6" flour tortillas
1/2 ts. cayenne pepper
Brown ground beef and onion. Drain off fat if any. Add to ground beef the golden corn soup (undiluted) and the cayenne pepper. Set aside.
In medium bowl, mix together the cheddar cheese soup (undiluted) tomatoes and green chilies.
Spray 9 x 13 inch pan with Pam. Cut tortillas in half. Line bottom of pan with enough tortillas to cover bottom. Spoon on one-half meat mixture and half of the refried beans. Add another layer of tortillas. Spoon on half of cheddar cheese soup mixture. Add another layer of tortillas. Spread on remaining meat mixture and remaining beans. Add another layer of tortillas and cover with remaining cheddar cheese soup mixture. Cover entire top with grated cheese and bake at 350 until cheese is bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
That does sound yummy, Skep!
I like the idea of having the beans in there and the corn soup sounds like a great addition to that mix of ingredients.
That reminds me of a good potluck casserole item. This wasn't one of my mom's inventions or authentic Mexican, but it's a recipe my mom found in a woman's magazine. She brought it to family gatherings. It's not like a real chile relleno, but it's damned tasty, nonetheless, and was always a big hit.
Mmmm.... chile relleno. One of my all time favorites. That "like" recipe looks great, fish - thanks! I have had a Mexican food fixation lately so I will have to try that one out.
__________________
"I'm as self-contained as a turtle. When I put my key in the
ignition, I have my home right behind me."
Here is how my mom makes carnitas. I have no idea how authentic it is (she did live in Mexico for six years) but it is good, and pretty easy if time-consuming.
Carnitas
Take three pounds or so of pork shoulder and gently simmer it in water to cover, with a whole small can of chipotle chiles in adobo, lots of sea salt, quite a bit of bay, a whole head of garlic and some onion, for a long time. It is done when it can easily be pulled apart. I imagine that this would work great in a slow cooker, although I've never tried it.
Allow meat to cool. Pull it into chunky shreds, lay it out in a large, heavy roasting pan, and bake in a 450 degree oven (you read that right), stirring occasionally, until it is crispy and all the fat has rendered. This will not take very long at all, so hovering is necessary.
We eat these carnitas on corn tortillas, with crumbled cotija cheese, avocado, pico de gallo and cilantro, or green chili sauce and sour cream. I recommend having all of the above available, and doing dinner buffet-style.
[Edit: I'm in the process of making these for 4th of July dinner, and I realized I forgot to mention a crucial step: after the meat is finished simmering, skim off the fat, heat it to render out any water, and use it to baste the carnitas before they go in the oven, otherwise you'll end up with little meteorites. Whizz! Bang!]
No sweat, pesci. I'll just keep kicking myself in the ass for not stealing the recipe book from that little Mexican restaurant* where I was a prep cook for a month or so.
* No, not Taco Bell. I only worked there one night.
That little Mexican restaurant was called "La Casita de Lupe" in Ann Arbor, and it became the "/aut/ Bar" (yep, you guessed it) many years ago. I recently learned that the conversion from full-time restaurant to gay bar with food was the only change. It has the same owner (and I assume same recipes) as when I worked there. Next time I'm in Michigan I'mma eat there and try to reverse engineer.