This post should really be called ‘viva Berkley California’, because I spent six weeks in Mexico, and my food tastes nothing like it does there. Maybe because I don’t cook my beans in pork fat, and it’s easier to find pintos than black beans at the supermarket. Also because if I make it burrito-style, then the kids will get distracted by the tortilla envelopes and eat far more veggies and beans than they might have done otherwise.
I cooked my beans with garlic, baby leeks, cumin seed, lime, bell peppers, salt, smoked paprika, canned tomatoes and fresh oregano. If I weren’t making it for the children too, I’d use smoked chipotle chilies instead of paprika. And the leeks – well, they ended up in the pot because they were there! I simmered the beans for 45 minutes, then added some fresh coriander, sour cream and grated cheese to serve.
I never fail to be horrified at how much a packet of tortillas cost in the supermarket (almost $5 for 8 at my local!) so I make my own using warm water, salt and chapati flour, which is a finely ground wholemeal. If you make it a couple of hours ahead, by the time you roll them out the gluten has become elastic, so you stretch them out thin and wide. My favourite part of making tortillas/chapatis is pressing on the bubbles and watching them turn into big bubbles. I still haven’t made a balloon, but each time I’m a little nearer.
I served this with the ubiquitous home-grown mesclun salad with avocado and orange chunks and a lemon vinaigrette.
December 8, 2008 at 1:05 pm |
last night I had soba noodle salad with sprout, watercress and cucmber, steamed bokchoy and carrots with japanese style tahini dressing and fried tofu where I was trying to achieve the honey dressing my fav japanese restaurant manages (I almost got there)
On saturday morning I had french toast with yogurt honey and mango
and I had refritos with spinach, tomato and capsicum salad, cream cheese, tasty cheese inside tortilla’s
December 8, 2008 at 1:06 pm |
(the refritos were friday night)
December 9, 2008 at 12:52 pm |
Last night I had cheese toasted sandwiches. *sob*