homemade freezer burritos

Inspired by a comical NYT post, I made the following: Season up refried beans with taco seasoning or whatever you like, but definitely including garlic, paprika, salt. Wrap large dollops of this, plus lots of grated jack cheese, in flour tortillas, to make small, plain bean-and-cheese burritos, like what you might get in the frozen-food section of the supermarket or at a gas station. Fry the wrapped burritos hot in a tiny bit of oil on both sides to seal them shut as you make them. Keep warm in the oven if you are making lots. Serve with blender salsa and sour cream and guacamole.

ceviche, first try

My first ever attempt at ceviche was to make my blender salsa, add chopped raw white fish, and let it all sit in the fridge until the fish starts to “cook” in the acid. The only changes I made to the salsa are (1) that I chopped the ingredients finely instead of blending them, and (2) that I used more lime juice. Serve with good (maybe homemade) tortilla chips and chopped avocado.

Maybe, in the end, it was too acid? Next time I would stick with one lime, and maybe add some grated lime zest.

blender salsa

This is so easy and so satisfying! Put into a blender (don't chop at all!) 2 small tomatoes (or a container of grape tomatoes), 1 peeled onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 entire bunch of cilantro, 1/2 of a seeded jalapeño (or actually, imho, hot pickled jalapeños are even better than fresh!), the juice of 1 lime, 1 pinch cumin or cumin seeds, and 1 tsp (or more) of salt. Blend briefly, or just pulse it, or alternate pulsing and shaking of the blender pitcher. You don't want to pulverize it all completely (although that's good too!).

Enjoy with chips. Or quesadillas. Or fish. Or freezer burritos. This salsa gets better with time; make it hours in advance if you can. Increase the jalapeño (or include more seeds) if you want it hotter. If you don't have jalapeños, use dashes of hot sauce instead. Add cucumber or mango. Leave out the cilantro if you have haters in your group, and serve with chopped cilantro on the side. Advanced technique: Burn the ingredients in a very hot pan before starting to add some char. Another advanced technique: Blend 3/4 of the ingredients, chop 1/4, and mix it up at the end.