In this liminal space between Thanksgiving and December’s deluge of holidays, my tastes are confounding. Almost nothing sounds appetizing after weeks of talking and writing and thinking about hearty casseroles and sides and salads, followed by at least one full week of eating them.
But there is one dish that caught my eye in this period of indecision, reigniting my desire for a little project cookery: Pati Jinich’s recipe for burritos de chile verde con papas, which she based on wraps she ate from Burritos Sarita, a food truck in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. These are what locals call purist burritos, distant cousins of the bloated bed rolls popular across the U.S. These are thin, delicate treasures, filled — but not stuffed — with a single guisado and never, ever smothered in toppings.
The filling of softened Anaheim chiles, potatoes, onions and asadero cheese isn’t much work, requiring less than an hour of your time. What I’m drawn to is the idea of making my own flour tortillas, for which Pati has provided a vegan-friendly recipe using vegetable shortening (though you could also use butter or, if you’re not strictly vegetarian, lard). Rolling out a stack of homemade tortillas on a blustery evening is exactly the sort of repetitive, meditative task that gets me back into the kitchen after a week of frenzied cooking.
With Pati’s flour tortillas in hand, you can make any of your favorite vegetable-forward burritos to schlep to the office or enjoy quietly in front of the glow of a fire (or a TV) after a long day’s work.
Kay Chun’s bean and cheese burritos are a favorite of mine, and they lean on store-bought pico de gallo to impart a touch of acid to mashed canned pinto beans. They’re quick, simple and especially satisfying on a weeknight. So too are her roasted vegetable burritos, which tuck a sheet pan’s worth of seasoned and roasted mushrooms, sweet potatoes and poblano chiles into soft tortillas.
And then there are burritos of the breakfast variety. I’m partial to Ali Slagle’s New Mexico breakfast burritos, which sport flavors similar to Pati’s purist ones, but lean on frozen shredded hash browns for plenty of texture.
You don’t have to make your own flour tortillas, of course. After so much chopping and cooking and baking and washing, using store-bought is more than fine.
New Mexico Breakfast Burritos
One More Thing!
With the culmination of the Food desk Olympics (Thanksgiving!) comes a Food desk Super Bowl (Cookie Week!). Entering its fourth year, the beloved Cookie Week returns tomorrow with a fresh slate of recipes straight from the oven.
You won’t want to miss chewy, citrusy, technicolor-y cookies from the likes of Melissa Clark, Eric Kim, Yewande Komolafe, Vaughn Vreeland, Sohla El-Waylly, Sue Li and Samantha Seneviratne. Each recipe comes with a helpful how-to video on our YouTube channel, and you can have all of the recipes delivered to your inbox if you sign up for Vaughn’s delightful Cookie Week newsletter.
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