Thursday 23 October 2008

sweet potato burritos

I don’t have a great story for this one, I was feeling unwell yesterday afternoon, so instead of going to my German class I went straight home from work and curled up in bed, so instead of whatever was lying around the house (the original plan), D felt obliged to cook a full dinner before rushing off to band practice. D thought of this on the walk down from West Perth to Woolies in town, and gets full points for awesomeness. It was so tasty, I want to eat it again very soon!

Mexican food is not so ubiquitous in Australia, so I don't really have a lot of experience with it. There is usually only one brand of tortilla in supermarkets! I apologise if you make it and go, "doesn't taste like any burrito I've ever eaten." It is still very tasty. Also I apologise if this isn't actually a burrito, and is infact an enchillada! I took some time deliberating over which it was this morning, but I think the wheat tortilla makes it a burrito. Feel free to educate me in the comments if need be.

burrito things

sweet potato burritos

ingredients:
four tomatoes (diced)
1 can kidney beans
1 can refried beans
1 sweet potato
shake or three of cumin, cayenne and paprika
dried chilli
small handful of pumpkin seeds
1 quarter red onion (diced)
6 wheat tortillas

method:
In some olive oil, fry the cumin, cayenne, paprika and chilli. As it becomes fragrant, add the tomatoes, red onion, and kidney beans, as well as some of the liquid from the kidney beans. Leave to simmer on medium-low, with the lid on, for about twenty minutes, adding water about halfway through if necessary. In the meantime, mash the sweet potato. After twenty minutes, the mixture on the stove should have reduced beautifully. Add the refried beans at this point, and leave to simmer another five minutes. Reserve about a half a cup of the mixture (preferably with minimal kidney beans), and mix the rest with the sweet potato. Divide the mixture evenly into the tortillas, roll and place on a baking tray. Drizzle with the reserved liquid, and bake on 170C for about ten minutes.

Because I used full-sized el paso tortillas, I found that one and a half were plenty for me, so this serves about four people.

Serve with guacamole.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have no idea which one it is (not so well-versed in Mexican food, either), but I know that it DOES sound and look delicious!

steph said...

It was super tasty!

Amy said...

I agree, I never have a clue if I'm eating a burrito or an enchilada either and I only just figured out what a quesadilla was not that long ago (erm at least I think I did).

These look and sound fabulous though! Yum!

Sarah said...

Mexican food is ubiquitous in the US, where I am originally from. I miss it so much living in Australia!

I can confirm that it is a burrito, though kidney beans aren't commonly used in Mexican food. Black beans and pinto beans are most common (both of which are hard to find here - though they have pinto beans called "Mexi-beans" at the supermarket!). Black beans are my favourite. What I really wish is that I had a tortilla press - those Old ElPaso tortillas are just not living up to standards! :-)

Have you seen the tortillas they sometimes have at Kakulas? They look good, but they have no ingredients. I'm afraid they might have animal fat or something.

steph said...

I get a little frustrated that our exposure to Mexican food is so low that I'm so unsure! And that all we have is El Paso! And also that El Paso appear to have discontinued the corn tortillas, that's annoying.

I haven't seen the tortillas in Kakulas, but I've found they don't have an ingredient list for anything, so I only buy things that I'm quite confident will be fine (straight legumes and grains, some dried fruits and nuts, for example).