Even though Mexican food is my *favorite*, I had never had a "Wet Burrito" until I went to school in Michigan. Michigan folks don't eat a ton of Mexican food, and I imagine this recipe was created to make Mexican more mild for the folks up there in the North.
I was glad to stumble across a way to make them as a fasting meal. It all goes much easier if you make the rice and rice milk the night before, but you don't have to.
Thursday Night - Free Rice Milk
Serve rice as a side dish. Make 2 cups of rice boiled in 8 cups of water, with salt and a little oil. When the rice is done, drain the water into a container to use the next night. This is free "rice milk" (Thanks, Alana, for the idea!)and can be used in baking as well as sauces.
Friday Night
1. Heat 2 pans each with a Tablespoon oil and saute some chopped garlic, but don't let it brown.
2. Add a can of diced tomatoes to one pan and turn to medium, so it gently bubbles until you can deal with it.
3. Add a Tablespoon of flour to the other. Stir, stir, stir. You're making a white sauce at this point. Once it bubbles, add 2 cups of the rice milk, stirring the whole time. Season with salt, pepper, cilantro, chili powder, and half the tomatoes bubbling in the pan next to this one. Turn to low. FYI: the sauce is now a mild red color, not white.
4. Back to the tomato pan. Season with cilantro, cumin, pepper, chili powder, etc and add a can of refried beans. Stir.
5. Adjust seasonings to taste in both pots.
6. Heat some leftover rice in the microwave, about 2 cups.
7. Pour enough wet sauce into the bottom of an 8inch square pan to cover it.
8. Assemble the burritos (we fit 6 into our pan) by smearing some beans and 2 spoons of rice on each flour tortilla and rolling them up. You could also add chopped lettuce, tomato, olives, or onion for the filling. Put in pan as you go.
9. Pour the rest of the wet sauce onto the burritos and pop in the oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes.
10. Serve with salad, guacamole, salsa.
I haven't made a meal in a while that every family member ate without complaint, but this one was gone from the children's plates before my husband and I barely started eating.
To make real Michigan Wet Burritos:
Substitue beef or chicken broth for rice milk and ground beef for rice. Cover the final shebang in cheese before popping them in the oven.
My Dh is half-Mexican, and I've never heard of this recipe. Cool beans.
ReplyDeleteOh, I am going to try this tomorrow - if I have all the stuff to make it. Although I'll have to tweak it, and put something in it besides rice, because only 2 of the 5 of us like rice. Maybe corn would be good, since it's still kind of "Mexican-y"
ReplyDeleteOh, and I made that Greek Lentil soup yesterday, and it was delicious! Everybody liked it! Thanks! Being catechumen, we need all the recipes we can get for fasting days.
Sounds scrumptious...I love that you use rice milk (I just posted a bit about soy, it really gives me bad gas!)!!!
ReplyDeleteJust letting you know that we did try the burritos Friday, and we all LOVED them!
ReplyDeleteDeborah,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it worked for your family!
Those catechumen days are not so far behind me that I don't remember that feeling of wanting help from others. In fact, I think that the idea of "struggling together" is one of the blessings of Orthodoxy.