Tostados and Taquitos!
Howdy! Tostadas are awesome… but what are they? The official definition of a tostada is: “a Mexican deep-fried tortilla topped with a seasoned mixture of beans, ground meat, and vegetables. ” We see these all the time on every Mexican/Tex-Mex combo platter ordered in restaurants. Always kinda boring… never exciting. So let’s change that. These things have been long neglected.
When you think about taquitos what’s the first thing that comes to mind? 7-11 or those weird ones you get in the frozen department of your grocery store? I love these things don’t get me wrong but I think much like the tostadas problem we should improve on these items. No more boring bland taquitos I say! What is a taquito some of you may ask.. “a Mexican dish consisting of a small tortilla rolled around a filling of meat and cheese and deep-fried.”! When ever I have ordered these in a restaurant they are always so dry and I dunno just not good. Not saying there are not some good ones out there just the majority..well suck.
First we started by buying our shells and tortillas. We would have made them but we wanted to concentrate on the fillings and toppings. We went to our nearby Mexican grocery store where they make their tortillas fresh. The packages we picked up were so fresh they were still hot! Gotta love that! I’d say that’s a giant perk of living in Texas. We also grabbed some produce items and some seasonings. Keep in mind that shopping in your local ethnic stores is way more affordable than your regular grocery store. We walked out with 4 bags of stuff for less than 12 dollars. Good food doesn’t have to be expensive!!!
For today’s cook day there were 3 of us as usual in the kitchen so we each designed a tostada and a taquito each.
Let’s start with Jake’s in typical Jake fashion he opted to make a bbq chicken tostada. First he rubbed the chicken with some Memphis style rub that I had made for a previous dish. He then just cooked it through in a saute pan and then sliced it up.
Next we cut up some bell peppers, we bought a bag of those mini ones just for the fun of it and figured the small slices would look great on the tostados.
He decides that the rest of his tostada would be refried beans and cheese, then drizzled with a little bbq sauce.
On to mine! Being from New York I love putting apples in foods that you don’t expect it. One of my favorite pairings is apples and steak. I know most people think of apples with pork.. but trust me.. this works! As far as steak goes I’m a ribeye girl myself. How about you? I just happened to have a good sized hunk of ribeye in the fridge from dinner the night before. So I sliced it and reheated it low and slowwwly in bacon grease and apple cider.
While the steak is warming up I chopped up some apples and threw them into the skillet when I took the steak out. I sprinkled the apples with brown sugar and a shot of bourbon and let them caramelize. Being that I am pairing steak with apples I think its only natural that I top this beautiful tostada with some super extra sharp cheddar cheese, made in NY of course. Before I put the cheese on this I top with a little cinnamon ginger pecan butter I made.
Jessica’s tostada was super fun! She opted for a triple layer with everything in it. Each layer had each meat, cheese, and toppings. With extra extra cheese!!
Taquito time! Again 3 different ones! Let’s start with Jessica this time!
She found this awesome corn and black bean salsa at Trader Joe’s cowboy caviar or something like that. She mixed it into some cream cheese and shredded cheese. Slathered it on and rolled it up!
For mine I took more steak, cream cheese, blackberry jam, jalapenos and more shredded cheese.
Jake’s was a bbq chicken pork chili refried bean combo. Into the oven everything goes!
Why don’t you try making your own? We LOVED ours! Don’t forget the queso and guacamole for dipping!!
HolyShitNomz 