The holidays have kind of taken over my life, but hopefully this will be the start of the regular posts again. This weekend I will have a post from my home state, Michigan!
I used a soy chorizo "sausage" that I got from the local grocery store here. I only used half of the package because I wanted more of a flavoring than chunks of fake meat. You can use a full package, the real stuff, whatever you want! If you're looking for a good soy substitute, the Trader Joe's brand is my faaavorite. It's also inexpensive and much healthier than it's meaty counterpart.
I also really like spicy things so I used two jalapenos, with seeds. To take it down a notch you can de-seed, use one, or completely omit the peppers. It's up to you!
The burritos have lots of strange things in them because that's what I had. I'm not really aiming for authenticity here.
I served this alongside some Boston lettuce and broccoli salad with pickled watermelon radishes. The radishes were beautiful. To pickle, just combine some rice vinegar and sugar and soak the radishes and an onion in a jar overnight. The color is really something.
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| They're cute and look like watermelons! |
Recipe: Sweet Potato Black Bean Chorizo Burritos
1 large sweet potato
1 bunch collard greens (I probably had about 3 cups chopped)
1 red onion
4 cloves garlic
2 jalapeno peppers
1 turnip
1 cup mushrooms
1/2 package soy chorizo (or a whole package, up to you)
1 can black beans, drained
1 cup rice
1 bouillon cube
1 can rotel tomatoes (or equivalent off-brand)
Start cooking your rice if it is brown. It will take forever. Follow directions on the package, only replace 1/2 cup of the water with the canned tomatoes. Also, put the bullion cube in there.
Preheat your oven to 350. Wash and dice the sweet potato into bite-sized pieces (keep in mind, they will shrink while roasting). Roast in a cooking sprayed pan for about 30 minutes, or until you think they will taste good.
While the potatoes are roasting, cut the onion and turnip. Stir-fry with some oil or cooking spray for about 5 minutes. Dice and add 2 of the cloves of garlic and one of the jalapenos. Throw those mushrooms in too. Cook until they have all browned up nicely, probably about another 5 minutes.
Add the chorizo and stir it around. If you are using real meat, you will want to make sure you fully cook it separately and then add it in at this step. Wash and cut the collard greens into strips. It's going to look like a lot, but it will wilt down and reduce and look normal. You can put a lid on the pan to speed up the process.
Once the sweet potatoes are done, start another pan going with the other clove of garlic and jalapeno. Cook those for a couple of minutes and then add the can of black beans. Once most of the liquid has cooked off, Fold in the sweet potatoes.
Assemble the burritos in the tortillas (with the rice, bean/sweet potato/veggie mixtures). I don't really know how I did that - I'm sure there's a YouTube video out there describing how to fold the perfect burrito. I think the trick is to not put too much filling in there - a little bit goes a long way. They held together quite nicely after heating them up on a pan.
I served them garnished with some grated kohlrabi (kind of tasted like cabbage), cilantro, and lime juice. They were SO good.
Step by Step Instructions
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| Start with the rice. Follow directions, but instead of 1/2 cup of the water, use a can of rotel tomatoes. Add a cube of bullion too. |
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| Roast the sweet potatoes at 350 for about 30 minutes, or whatever. |
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| Stir-fry the chopped onion and turnip for about 5 minutes. |
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| Add one jalapeno, 2 cloves garlic, and mushroom and cook for about another 5 minutes. |
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| Add the soy chorizo or cooked meat and stir it around. This is what gave my burritos most of their flavor. |
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| Wash and chop the collard greens into strips and wilt them down. They add a really nice green color. This pan is now DONE. |
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| When the sweet potatoes are done, they will look kind of shrively like this. |
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| Saute the rest of the garlic and jalapeno (chopped) in another pan. Add the black beans and cook until most of the liquid is drained. Fold in the sweet potatoes. Another pan, DONE. |
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| Oh look! I was so distracted cooking, I didn't notice that the brown rice took FOREVER to cook like it ALWAYS does. It's awfully tasty when prepared like this, though. |
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| Assemble in the middle of the tortilla. I actually think this was too much filling. |
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| I don't even really know how this folding happened. Just keep trying until it looks like a burrito. |
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| Garnished! The shredded kohlrabi soaked up the lime juice i squeezed over top. Highly recommended. |
These burritos will freeze well too, so just wrap them and put them in a container. To reheat, you can throw them on a hot skillet and brown them up.
Review: The Magnificent Seven
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| Cowboys are hunky. |
It's your story of the poor helpless Mexican village that gets annually bullied out of their crops by some ruthless bandits. Desperate for help, three villagers go to the US border to find some guns, but instead come back with seven bad-ass cowboys looking for some action. Forming a relationship with the villagers, the rough men find a soft spot for the farmers, and the vendetta against the bandits becomes personal.
I know this movie is important in American cinema, but I saw Seven Samurai first (the original story). I'm all for remakes if they add something to the film. Magnificent Seven had a Western twist, but that was about all. Samurai was much longer, and the length is justified. I felt much more attached to the characters, and I enjoyed watching the samurai training the farmers to stand up for themselves and fight. Also, there was something just a bit more exciting about hand to hand combat for the final fight instead of with just guns.
For an American take on a foreign film, it was respectable. It's always cool to see that recognizable spin that directors around here can pull off. With some (like this one), the original is slightly better than the remake. With some, the remake is slightly better than the original. However, sometimes I won't even watch a remake because I know it's just going to ruin the original experience. These are, of course, my opinions. I'll leave it up to you to decide for yourself.
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