Make Mexican at Home

Here in New England, Mexican food is hard to come by, and what there is sometimes tastes, well, not as good as one would like. Hard to say exactly what is the matter, but a certain tired sameness pervades the dishes.

You can have delicious Mexican at home, economical and not very labor intensive. Here's how.
Buy a package of corn tortillas. Don't even think of flour, which are a Yankee abomination that needs to be weeded out like heresy.

Grapeshot's Tostadas : allow two torillas per person

One pound of ground beef, a large onion, a clove garlic, about 3/4 of a bell pepper. Chop vegetables. Soak a dried ancho or guajillo until soft. Stem, seed and chop , or use a fresh one if you can find and prepare the fresh pepper with the other veggies.

Have on hand: a can of refried beans
Chili powder, cummin, salt pepper, tabasco, abdobo seasoning. As much or as little as you like


Accompaniments: Put each item below in a small dish
Sour Cream
Grated Cheese
Chopped tomato
Shredded Lettuce
Chopped avacodo
Chopped Cilantro, optional
A good quality medium hot salsa

Brown the ground beef. Remove from pan and add chopped onion, green pepper and garlic to the skillet. Cook until soft. Add to ground beef. Add soaked pepper (if using) and seasonings. Add spices to your liking. Should be flavorful but not fiery. Keep mixture warm.

Heat beans in skillet and in another small skillet fry the torillas on both sides until crisp. (I do this in crisco or canola oil. You can also use lard if your arteries are clear. Four tortillas will serve two people. If you are cooking for two meals, use only 1/2 of the meat mixure and half the beans and cook the tortillas fresh for each meal. Otherwise, 8 tortillas and the entire meat/veg/bean components will serve 4.

Smear a generous helping of beans on each torilla. Top with a few spoons of meat mixure.
Take to the table on a tray and let the diners pile on their choose toppings. Can be eaten with hands or knife and fork. Yum