Cheesy bean and rice burritos w/ guacamole and beer-mosas

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4 Servings
90 Minutes
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Inspiration

The other night, Lexi, my fiancée, had a brilliant idea: what if instead of going out to eat again, we used what we had in the cupboard to make Taco Bell at home? I found my answer on a leftover sauce packet: “Sure, why not?”

It was a simple premise that she executed flawlessly. To nail the pillowy texture of a Cheesy Bean and Rice burrito, she made creamy, velvet-smooth mashed potatoes to layer with my spiced, refried beans. We packed all that into some Aldi flour tortillas (plus a few homemade ones), sprinkled the filling with Great Value shredded cheese, griddled up the results, and served them with guacamole and a carafe of PBR beer-mosas—the drinking man’s Baja Blast.

Below are recipes for everything we made that evening, modified a bit after a few more tests and the benefit of hindsight. If you try any or all of it, let me know what you think! Fair warning: be prepared to do a lot of mashing or food processing.

- Steve

Ingredients

for assembly:

• 8 burrito-size flour tortillas

• Shredded cheese

for the potatoes:

• 2 large Idaho potatoes

• 2 Tbsp softened butter

• ½ cup milk (I recommend Silk Next Milk)

• 1 cup cooked white rice (I recommend jasmine)

for the beans:

• 1 16oz can of pinto beans

• 3 Tbsp vegetable oil

• 2 tsp of your favorite chili powder/taco seasoning, or:

  • ½ tsp onion powder

  • ½ tsp garlic powder

  • ¼ tsp sweet paprika

  • ¼ tsp ground cumin

  • ¼ tsp ground coriander

  • ¼ tsp ancho chili powder

for the guac:

• 1 soft avocado, peeled and pitted

• ¼ medium red onion, diced

• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

• 10 cherry tomatoes, quartered

for the drinks:

• 1 52-64 fl. oz jug of orange juice

• 24oz of your favorite pilsner

• Juice of one Meyer lemon, or half of one regular lemon

Method

1. Peel and cube the potatoes, then transfer them to a medium saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring them up to a boil, and hold there for 2-5 minutes. Once they’re easily pierced with a paring knife, remove from the heat and drain the water.

2. Set the potatoes aside for a moment and melt the butter in the same pot. Add back the potatoes and mash until most of the largest chunks are gone. Fold in the milk, then the rice (if you’re making ahead, wait to combine the rice and potatoes until just before you wrap up the burritos; this will prevent the rice from absorbing too much moisture during storage and breaking down into mush). Salt conservatively, and set aside.

3. Drain the can of beans and rinse to remove the excess starch. Heat the oil over medium heat until it begins to shimmer, then add in the spices. Follow up with the beans once the spices are fragrant. Mash and stir until the spiced oil is evenly distributed throughout a pat of bean. Salt a little more liberally than the potatoes, and set aside.

4. Use a molcajete, a mortar and pestle, a food processor, or just a mixing bowl and something heavy to mash together the avocado meat and the two cloves of garlic (sprinkle the ingredients with a little salt first; mineral abrasion will encourage the vegetable matter to break down more easily). Stir in the onions and tomatoes, add more salt to taste, and set aside.

5. For the drinks, pour the entire carton of orange juice into a large saucepan and bring to a bare simmer. Allow the juice to reduce uncovered for as long as you can stand to wait, or until it measures around one-quarter of its original volume. Allow to cool completely before mixing in the lemon juice and beer. Refrigerate the results.

6. To assemble, spread a layer of the rice and potato mixture around the center of each tortilla, then pile with a thinner layer of refried beans and an even thinner layer of shredded cheese. Wrap them up however you can, then griddle with the seam-side down until the tortilla turns toasty brown on that face. Flip and griddle the opposite side (if you made ahead, and some or all of your ingredients are fridge-cold, pop the folded and griddled burritos into the oven for ~5 minutes each at 350°F to make sure they warm through). Serve with guacamole on the side and a tall beer-mosa to wash everything down.

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