Tostadas, your way

While our gut reaction in making Mexican food at home may involve opening a jar of salsa and cracking open a can of Rosarita’s refried beans, it can actually be more flavorful than that. As you may notice, many of these recipes can be tweaked to what you have or what you prefer health-wise. If you like meat on your tostadas, by all means add some cooked steak or chicken as well.

Ingredients

Tostadas:

• 4 packaged tostada shells
• 16 oz/2 cups of pinto beans,
• cooked or canned
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of bacon fat, lard or
• more olive oil
• 1/4 cup of onion, sliced
• 1/2 cup of cabbage (red, Napa or white)
• 2 heaping tablespoons sour cream,
• yogurt or crème fraiche
• 1/4 cup of chipotle tomato salsa (recipe follows)

Salsa:

• 1/2 onion
• 1 can diced tomatoes, half the
• juice reserved
• 2 chipotles
• 3 tablespoons adobo
• 1 small bunch cilantro
• Tomato paste, as needed
• Salt

First, make your salsa so it has time to sit a little to develop its flavors. In a food processor or blender, pulse the onion until evenly chopped. Add the rest of the ingredients up through the cilantro and blend until smooth, around three minutes. Taste. If it’s too spicy for your

preference, add tomato paste until the heat has mellowed a bit. Salt to your liking.

Meanwhile, place the shells on a baking sheet and put in the oven. Turn the heat to 350 and let the shells warm as the oven preheats.

 To make the beans, bring oil and the fat of your choice to medium heat in a medium saucepan. Add the onion and sauté until soft (about five minutes). Add the beans with some of their cooking liquid (about 1/4 cup). Season the mixture with salt and mash with a potato masher or immersion blender until the beans are the smooth consistency of hummus. Remove from heat.

Remove shells from the oven. On each  tostada, spread the beans and top with cilantro, your choice of crema and cabbage. Drizzle with salsa to taste.   ?