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Black Bean Tostadas with Guacamole for July SRC

By Eliot, on July 23rd, 2012

July is more than half-way over.    That always puts me in a terrible melancholy mood because my time off has almost run out and school will be starting soon and I will be back at it 24/7.

Secret Recipe Club

So, I am glad today is the Secret Recipe Club‘s Reveal Day for Group C.   It is a pleasant distraction from my pity party.  🙂

Every month the great hosts,   Jane, Suzanne, Angela and April, pair up their group’s members and assign “secret pals.”   Each pal lurks and sneaks around their secret partner’s site, looking for something tasty to make.

This is my 12th  SRC post and I have not only met a lot of wonderful people and read some fantastic blogs, but I have also made some fabulous dishes.   (That sentence is heavy on the adjectives, I know, but I can gush on and on about how much fun, marvelous, and inspiring SRC is!)

This month my assignment was to lurk around Mindy’s site at The World is My Kitchen.     Mindy currently lives in Kentucky, but she grew up on the West Coast and lived in Spain for a time where she worked as an Au Pair.  (I bet she has some stories there.)    Mindy’s goal for her site?

I love to cook and love to try new cultural recipes from around the world and the United States. This is where I document my successes and failures and try to make good homemade food accessible to cooks of all levels.

I enjoyed lurking perusing about her site and I landed on the following recipes:   Refried Black Bean Tostadas with Guacamole.   This sounded like it would be a perfect dish for lunch.

This is a fantastic refried black bean recipe.   We loved it.  The only change when I make it again will be to add a chopped jalapeno to the mix (because of course it is Pepper-palooza).  🙂

 Refried Black Beans
From The World is My Kitchen
Makes enough for about 6 tostadas

1 T.  olive oil
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
2 c.  freshly cooked black beans (or 1 15-oz can)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 t.   ground coriander
1/2 t.  ground cumin
1/2-1 c. chicken, beef or vegetable broth
1 T. lime juice (about half a lime)
2 T. cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until starting to brown lightly. Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Add the coriander and cumin and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the beans and about 1/2 cup of the broth and lower the heat to medium. Smash about half of the beans with a potato masher. Simmer over low heat until the beans start to thicken (about five minutes). Add more broth if the beans get too dry. Add the lime juice, cilantro and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Mindy’s Guacamole

3 medium-sized avocados
1 small tomato
1 small onion
1 small jalepeño (or other spicy chile)
Juice of one lime
Cilantro to taste
Salt and Pepper to taste

Halve the avocados, remove the pit, and scoop out the flesh into a food processor or blender. Roughly chop the tomato, onion, and jalepeño and add them to the avocado. (I usually put about half of each of these in to begin with and add more if the flavor isn’t balanced later.) Squeeze a generous amount of lime juice into the mix and add a handful of cilantro. Add a little salt and pepper and blend. Taste, add ingredients as needed, and blend again.

Now to assemble everything.

Mindy fries her tortillas, but I wanted to try a new technique.   Not only was I lazy, but I wanted to cut some of the fat.

I lightly brushed both sides of white corn tortillas with a little bit of canola oil, placed them on a cookie sheet lined with a cooling rack, and broiled them.    It took me three tries before I quite burning them!   (I have to tie myself to the oven door when I broil or I burn everything.)    With my oven (which broils at 550 degrees), I broiled them on the first side for about two minutes, flipped them over and then left them in about 15 seconds longer.

They even come out a bit concave which works good for tostadas.

I will not fry corn tortillas again.

To assemble tostadas:

  1. Spread a layer of refried black beans on the baked tostada shell.
  2. Sprinkle some crumbly queso fresco or cojita cheese over the beans.
  3. Spoon on guacamole.
  4. Top with a dollop of sour cream.
  5. Garnish with whatever fresh veggies you like.   I used some quartered cherry tomatoes from the garden.
  6. Eat.
  7. Then, remember that you pickled jalapeno peppers  yesterday and add some of them.

    Doh!

Please check out all the SRC posts today!



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26 comments to Black Bean Tostadas with Guacamole for July SRC

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