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- Path: decwrl!recipes
- From: reid@decwrl.ARPA (Brian Reid)
- Newsgroups: mod.recipes
- Subject: RECIPE: Tucson tostadas (a melted-cheese appetizer)
- Message-ID: <6776@decwrl.DEC.COM>
- Date: 5 Dec 86 04:38:01 GMT
- Sender: recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM
- Organization: DEC Western Research
- Lines: 86
- Approved: reid@decwrl.UUCP
-
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- Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
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-
- .RH MOD.RECIPES-SOURCE TUCSON-TOSTADA A "16 Jun 86" 1986
- .RZ "TUCSON TOSTADAS" "A toasted cheese tortilla snack popular in southern Arizona"
- I first discovered this recipe in 1978 when I went to Tucson to visit my
- prospective in-laws. Such visits are often tense; Loretta's parents knew
- that I liked Mexican food, so they took me to their favorite restaurant,
- \fICasa Molina\fR. The appetizer, a toasted cheese tostada, was so good that I
- forgot my nervousness and just chowed down on serving after
- serving. I think that her parents remembered from that visit more about my
- appetite than my personality.
- .PP
- I tried several times to make Tucson tostadas, but they always ended up
- tasting like pizza. Then a recipe appeared in the April 1986 issue of
- \fISunset\fR magazine, and after reading it, I was able to reconstruct this
- replica of the \fITostada Casa Molina\fR. The secret is to use Mexican cheeses.
- .IH "Serves 6"
- .IG "3" "medium flour tortillas"
- (buy the largest flour tortillas that will fit in your biggest frypan)
- .IG "\(12 lb" "Oaxaca cheese," "250 g"
- shredded
- .IG "\(12 lb" "Monterey jack cheese," "250 g"
- shredded
- .IG "1/3 lb" "anejo cheese," "150 g"
- grated
- .IG "\(12 lb" "poblano peppers," "250 g"
- sliced (or any other mild chili pepper)
- .IG "\(14 cup" "fresh coriander," "10 g"
- chopped fine
- .IG "" "lard or oil for frying"
- .PH
- .SK 1
- Preheat oven to
- .TE 350 175 .
- .SK 2
- If you are using fresh poblanos, roast them and remove their skins and seeds,
- If you are using canned poblanos, wash and drain them. Slice the peppers into
- thin decorative slices.
- .SK 3
- In a big frypan,
- fry a tortilla in lard or oil until it is golden brown. Remove to paper
- towels, drain well, then place on a baking sheet or pizza pan. Although lard
- is bad for you, the grim truth is that tortillas taste very much better when
- they have been fried in lard. Live dangerously.
- .SK 4
- When the tortilla has cooled and hardened, cover it with a thin layer of
- Oaxaca cheese, then with the jack cheese. Crumble anejo on top of those
- layers, then sprinkle finely-chopped coriander on top of that.
- .SK 5
- Arrange the pepper slices in a geometric pattern on top of the cheeses.
- Bake for 5 minutes, or until the cheese has melted but not browned.
- Remove from the oven, and use a pizza cutter to slice into individual
- portions. Serve immediately.
- .NX
- Oaxaca (pronounced ``oh-HOCK-a'')
- cheese is a Mexican string cheese. You can substitute any Mexican cheese
- marked ``asadero'' (melting cheese). If you're desperate, you can use
- Armenian mozzarella, which has the right texture but the wrong flavor.
- .PP
- Monterey jack is a bland American
- cheddar; you can substitute good-quality Muenster.
- .PP
- Anejo cheese is somewhat
- like Parmesan, dry and crumbly. You can substitute Mexican cotija cheese, but
- that is probably pointless, because a store that carries cotija will probably
- also carry anejo. Fresh-ground parmesan will do in a pinch, though it is not
- the right flavor. In one of my many attempts to get this recipe right, I
- tried a mixture of Greek feta and cow's-milk romano cheese. It tasted very
- interesting, though not at all authentic.
- .SH RATING
- .I Difficulty:
- easy once you have found the ingredients.
- .I Time:
- 10 minutes each.
- .I Precision:
- no need to measure.
- .WR
- Brian Reid
- DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto, Calif., USA
- reid@decwrl.DEC.COM {ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax,sun,pyramid}!decwrl!reid
-