Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Burrito Night!!

Allright, frozen burritos, the perfect on the go food. Oh wait, usually its that crap from 7-11 that makes your poo all runny. Well, here at Chef Z industries we have found a solution: all natural, tasty, good for you, and easy to handle frozen burritos.


Now, this can be quite the undertaking, but it can be a whole lot of fun for the whole family as during the building process as there are a couple of different stations. We took 2 cups of organic turtle beans and soaked them over night, then we picked through the bad ones, and cooked them in 6 cups of water. We added 1 large onion and 3 cloves crushed garlic. Now, people have different ways of getting their garlic the way that they like it, however I learned, from a bitter french man, that the best way to do it is as such: peel the clove, then cut in half to remove the center "stem" as this has a bitter flavor.  Next turn your knife upside down (what?!?!) and use the thicker part of the knife to crush the half clove. Finally turn your knife back around and chop it down a little more, the garlic will melt away into your dish. Seriously guys, your getting some cool inside tricks here.



We had to cook our beans for about three hours.  You bring the beans to a boil then, reduce your heat to a simmer and just stir every once in a while. The lid should be on but cracked, as to let the air escape, beans don't steam very well. Very shortly your house will be filled with the sweet and spicy aroma of onion and garlic. Who doesn't love the smell of garlic?


Once cooked we just popped them in the fridge uncovered (another fun culinary tip, if you insulate the food by covering it, it will mold much faster, the quicker it cools, the better for the food), and waited until today to get the rest going. Seeing as M.B. has to leave for work at 9, we kinda misjudged the timing and couldn't complete our project yesterday.

Today: cooked off a pound of rice, remember to wash the rice a few times as the rice will become overly glutenous and gummy. You can use whatever method you are comfortable with, I have worked in a couple of sushi restaurants and usually use their method. Wash the rice around 5-7 times then add enough water to reach to reach the first crease on your middle finger. Put the rice on the burner and cover, but like the beans you want a little space for the steam to escape. Should take about 15-20 minutes.

For the beef: put a little oil in a pan and get it nice and hot, add the ground beef and stir it to break it up a bit. For the seasonings I used cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper, and (my personal secret) a dash of cinnamon. Don't go over board with the cinnamon as it is quite powerful. Cook until all the meat is done all the way through.

Now the stations:


The upside down strainer is to steam the tortillas, this makes them easier to roll. Then we just have the finished beef, black beans from the previous night, the rice, and my cutting board for rolling. 





                                     


M.B. and I banged out 12 meal sized burritos with minimal effort.




We have 7 meat, bean, and rice burritos; and 5 bean and rice burritos. Don't let the picture fool you, these are restaurant size monstrosities of self contained, fully functional meal yumminess. Now, we learned the last time that we attempted this that these bad boys can be a little hard to reheat.  We recommend wrapping 1 in a few moist paper towels and nuking for about 1.5 to 2 minutes (or more if needed). Re-wrap if the towel dries out.


So all in all, we got 12 meals out of 1 pound of rice, 1 pound of turtle beans, and 1.4 pound of ground beef. All organic and the meat is pasture raised, run us about 11 bucks for all the ingredients. Less than a dollar per burrito, suck it 7-11. Tell me that's not awesome and economical... anyone? Yeah that's right, we just made 12 wholly healthy and organic meals for less than a buck a portion. People who say this endeavor is expensive have not done the appropriate research. Even as I am writing this I am blown away by the cost to us, seriously!! That is fucking crazy, protein, carbs, vitamins and minerals, in one meal.... for LESS THAN A DOLLAR!!

 So please, have fun and enjoy these tasty meals with your favorite salsa, cheese, and the all necessary hot sauce. Keep checking back for more slap bad food in the face recipes and colorful dialog.

1 comment:

  1. what a great and delicious idea!
    So, I have been wanting to get involved in a csa for awhile, but had not even looked at my options because I assumed that it was not feasible for someone living alone... since reading your posts I have been checking out my options and talking with other people about sharing.. I don't know if I'll be able to get anything lined up for 2010, but I love reading your blog and am looking forward to getting involved!!

    - Paige

    ReplyDelete