The ABC's of Cooking: F Is for Fiesta

I plan a meal every week around the theme of a Mexican feast. I serve a main course, a pot of home-cooked pinto beans, Spanish rice and a green salad, with all of the fixings like pico de gallo, hot sauce, salsa and guacamole, if taquitos are involved. 

Growing up in SoCal, Mexican food was served in our household beginning in the early sixties, as a result of my father working in a steel factory with a workforce that was ninety percent black or Mexican. Exchanging lunches at different times with friends, led my father to introducing such dishes as soft tacos, burritos and rancho steak to our regular household menu. 

Hey, beans and rice were and are cheap, as were hamburger and chuck steak. The flavors were alive and vibrant and because my father was getting expert advice, we were eating Mexican cuisine long before TacoBell opened its doors.

Of the four components to my Mexican feasts, cooking the Spanish rice is the easiest. I use Basmati brown rice because I was given a fifty-pound sack of it, but any type of rice works just fine. 

Spanish rice

1 1/2 cups of rice

3 cups of liquid (water, broth or tomato sauce, or any combo)

1/4 cup olive oil or avocado oil

1 medium onion

3 or 4 cloves of minced garlic

1 teaspoon cumin

1 reason chili powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

I rinse my one-and-a-half cups of brown rice thoroughly, running warm water over the rice while it is in a large [fine] strainer, until the water runs clear out the bottom. I heat one-fourth of a cup of olive oil (or avocado oil) and sauté one medium diced onion and several cloves of minced garlic in it until they are cooked. I then add the rinsed rice to the pan and stir it regularly over a low-to-medium fire until it it starts to brown. 

I added baby turnips to this
batch of Spanish rice.

Since the ratio of liquid to rice is two to one, I combine one cup of tomato sauce with two cups of homemade chicken broth and add the liquid to my rice mixture. I stir in one teaspoon of cumin, one teaspoon of chili powder, one-half teaspoon of paprika, one teaspoon of salt, one-half teaspoon of black pepper and after stirring the mixture, cover it with a lid until it boils. I then turn the burner down to a simmer and set the timer for thirty-five minutes. 

When the bell dings, I turn the burner off, wait five minutes and then stir the rice with a serving fork. I cover it again and let it set another ten minutes before it is ready to be served. The additional time just makes sure the rice is fully cooked and therefore, softest. You can cook Spanish rice in the oven but I don’t find I gain enough to justify turning on the oven. You can also use any kind of rice you want and simply follow time requirements accordingly.

Next is a recipe for cooking dried pinto beans, which I buy in bulk from Mariposa Market, in Willits.

Pinto beans, from dried beans

4 cups rinsed pinto beans 

3 or 4 ounces of diced bacon

1cup red wine

2 diced onions (or to taste)

2 diced Bell peppers (or to taste)

4 or 5 cloves of minced garlic (or to taste)

1 quart of canned tomatoes (I use whole tomatoes but diced work fine too.)

3 or 4 sprigs of minced rosemary (substitute one teaspoon of ground if fresh is not available)

3 or 4 sprigs of minced thyme (substitute one teaspoon of ground if fresh is not available)

3 or 4 sprigs of minced sage (substitute one teaspoon of ground if fresh is not available)

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon of paprika

1 teaspoon of salt to start, then to taste

3/4 teaspoon of black pepper

1 tablespoon vinegar (I prefer red wine vinegar)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

chicken broth (or water)

!/4-1/2 cup white rice flour (or any kind of flour or thickener)

Dried pinto beans are traditionally soaked for around eight hours prior to cooking them, though one can find directions online for skipping the soaking step. Setting the beans aside once they are drained, I cook the bacon on a low-to-medium burner and then sauté the onions, peppers and garlic in the bacon grease, breaking the glaze with some of the one cup of red wine. Also, some of the chicken broth/water can be used while the vegetables cook. 

I add the prepared spices as I am cooking the veggies and when they are ready (around five minutes), I add the beans and enough chicken broth or fresh water to cover the beans by two inches. The beans will soak up the liquid so if you need to, add more. Two quarts is what I generally figure will work. I add the flour slowly and whisk it so it can't clump. This thickens the broth in which the beans are cooking.

How high you have the burner will determine how long it takes to cook the beans. With a flame to keep them gently boiling, without being in a full rolling boil, I cook the beans for two hours and then taste them. Some folks like their beans cooked so they are super soft; others like them still a bit firm. So just taste-test as you go, or let them simmer for a longer period of time so they can’t make any serious changes quickly.

Because I make a huge Dutch oven of pinto beans, I have lots left over. I take the leftovers and divide them into two tuppies and pop them into the freezer. That way I only have to cook the beans from scratch every third Mexican fiesta.

When I make taquitos, I always time them for when I have ripe avocados. One simply does not contemplate making taquitos if one does not have fresh avocados and preferably cilantro to go along with them for guacamole. This is the recipe I followed a few days ago, when I had eight farm personnel for lunch:

Guacamole

4 avocados, seeds removed and fruit scooped out of their skins

1 good-sized tomato, diced into small bits

I cup of salsa (you determine how spicy the guacamole is)

1 small shallot or onion, minced (or finely chopped scallions) 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (or vinegar of choice)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 jalapeño pepper, minced (or to taste)

Minced cilantro to taste

I use a regular hand-held potato masher to smash and mix the avocados together, switching to a wooden spoon as soon as the avocado is the consistency I most like. I then add the tomato, salsa, onion/shallot/scallions, salt/pepper, vinegar, lemon juice, cilantro and jalapeño pepper, and mix them until everything has had a chance to blend together. It is ready to serve.

Taco seasoning

1/2 cup of chili powder

1/4 cup onion powder

2 tablespoons cumin

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

2 tablespoons sea salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

Taco seasoning is essential for my kitchen for three reasons: It saves time because all of these spices are already assembled in one container; I buy these organic spices in bulk; finally, I use them frequently so it just makes sense. You have to decide what works best for you. 

I add one-quarter cup of taco seasoning to two pounds of ground beef or ground turkey, and then add three-quarters of a cup of chicken broth or water and mix it in with the taco seasoning. I let it simmer until the water has evaporated or been soaked into the ground meat. I also add taco seasoning to shedded beef or chicken or slow-cooked lamb, pork or beef for use in any of a number of dishes.

I use corn tortillas for soft tacos and I bake them for tostadas. Technically, tostadas do not have meat-only beans, cheese, tomatoes, salsa/hot sauce and whatever else you want to put on. Here on-farm, I make tostadas using ground beef, turkey, lamb or chorizo, or any combination. I also make tostadas using shredded beef, chicken, or lamb, so any given meal only pops up on the menu every few months. Here is a recipe for baking corn tortillas.

Oven-roasted corn tortillas, for tostadas

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. (Some recipes call for higher oven temperatures, but then you have to be right on top of matters at all times to prevent the tortillas from burning. I prefer a gentler pace.)

Spread tortillas out on one or more cookie sheets and then coat them lightly on both sides with avocado oil. If you want to sprinkle salt on, this is the best time. Put them in the oven and check after seven or eight minutes. Flip them over and bake for another five-to-seven minutes before checking them regularly to remove them when they are all the way cooked. Some folks like them super crunchy and leave them in the oven a bit longer. Remove when done and let them cool on racks. They are ready to serve as soon as they are cool enough to be handled.

Another dish I use corn tortillas for is taquitos. The filling can be ground or shredded meat, flavored with taco seasoning. You can either bake taquitos or cook them in oil, and you serve them with guacamole. One key to successful taquitos is to use a griddle or skillet that has been heating up for at least ten minutes to warm up the tortillas. If the griddle is not hot enough, then the tortillas will not heat enough and will split open when you try to roll them up. They will taste fine but will not look as appealing. 

I place the tortilla on the griddle, wait about ten or twelve seconds, and then flip it over for another six or eight seconds. You can flip tortillas with your bare fingers if you like, which is what I would do when heating up a couple for my own lunch, but if I am doing a couple dozen, give me a big, flat metal spatula and let me flip them the easy way. If you leave them on the griddle too long, they will harden and make it impossible to roll them up successfully. 

If you put too much meat into the tortillas, they will not roll properly and will come apart, so start small (one tablespoon) and add more on your way up to bigger taquitos. 

I put enough avocado oil in my skillet, so that when I put five taquitos into the skillet, the oil is about halfway up the sides of the taquitos. They should sizzle as I put them into the oil. I cook them on a medium fire for two minutes on each side, monitoring them to make sure they are not cooking too fast. I can always heat them up prior to serving, but not so much if they are already overcooked.

When first putting the taquitos into the oil, using tongs I place the fold of the taquito down into the oil, so that when I flip the taquitos over, the fold has already cooked and hardened, and the taquitos can’t flop open. It takes a minute or two and a few trials to figure out where the tongs have to be when you let go of the taquito. And resist the urge to help with your free hand-that oil is not fooling around. 

One final note is that different brands of tortillas can vary in both diameter and thickness. It’s not good or bad, but different times come into play, as far as both heating the tortillas up and as for cooking them. Do a taste-test as necessary as you get used to cooking them.

As for the feast, the green salad can be prepared in advance and the beans and the rice do well in cruise mode after they are done, as neither must be served piping hot. Whether you are serving tacos, burritos, tostadas, enchiladas, rancho steak, fajitas, chili verde or any other form of Hispanic cuisine, rice, beans and a green salad are the perfect combo.