chosen chaos

Mak­ing this dish reminded me of our every once in awhile Mex­i­can nights in col­lege.  We’d host or go and serve our favorite Mex­i­can dishes… skinny mini soup, que­sadilla, salsa!  Of course mar­gar­i­tas.  At some point I read or was told the trick about putting cream cheese on the inside of the shell and I still use that trick when I make them.  Tonight while mak­ing these I even con­sid­ered set­ting aside the stuff nec­es­sary for sh*t-in-a-bowl.  You had to be there to appre­ci­ate this delicacy.

Black Bean Buritos

•  3 table­spoons red wine vinegar
• 2 table­spoons sugar
• 1 tea­spoon salt
• 1/​2 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 3 table­spoons veg­etable oil, more for frying
• 1 gar­lic clove, minced
• 3 scal­lions (white and light green parts) chopped
• 1 tea­spoon ground cumin
• 1/​2 jalepeno pep­per, minced
• salt and pep­per to taste
• 2 15-​​oz cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• ker­nels from 1 ear fresh corn or 1/​2 cup frozen
• 6 8-​​inch whole wheat tortillas
• 2 large hand­fuls grated ched­dar cheese
• hand­ful finely chopped cilantro
• top­pings

Quick-​​pickle your onions: Bring vine­gar, sugar, 2 cups of water, and salt to boil in a small saucepan.  Add the onion and sim­mer, uncov­ered, 3ish min­utes.  Drain.  I wasn’t sure what the point of this was but that’s only because I’ve never done it.  It was totally worth it.  I love vine­gared any­thing appar­ently.  I diced instead of sliced the onions on acci­dent but they were still a good addition.

Heat the oil in a skil­let over medium heat until hot but not smok­ing.  Add the gar­lic, scal­lions, cumin, jalapeno pep­per (I didn’t include these bc I don’t like them), and salt and pep­per and cook, stir­ring, about 1 minute.  Stir in the beans, mash­ing them with a fork.  Add another 1/​3 cup of water and cook, stir­ring until most of the liq­uid is absorbed, about 5 min­utes.  Toss in corn and remove from the heat.

I com­pleted these two steps ear­lier in the day and waited to actu­ally fry the bur­rito until it was din­ner time.

Spread the bean fill­ing across the mid­dle of each tor­tilla, leav­ing some space on both ends.

Sprin­kle each tor­tilla with cheese, your now quick-​​pickled onions, and a lit­tle cilantro.  Fold the ends of the tor­tilla over the fill­ing, enclos­ing the fill­ing tightly.  Heat more oil in a skil­let over medium-​​high heat.  Add 2 bur­ri­tos at a time, seam side down, and fry until lightly golden brown.  Turn over and fry the other side.  Repeat with remain­ing bur­ri­tos and serve with desired toppings.

I KNEW my kids wouldn’t eat the black beans so ahead of time I decided to make some bur­ri­tos for them.  I included refried beans, chicken, and cheese in theirs.  They really liked them!  Babe and I really liked the ‘adult’ ver­sion too!  I was ill pre­pared for the sides… but some guac or sour cream is a must next time!  These would be a good week­end meal I think.  Next to a Corona of course!

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