I got home from a very snowy day at church and decided to make the first dish of Mexi-week: Tostadas!
As a little bit of background, tostadas were one of my favorite Mexican dishes to order when the other teachers and I were out and about. Tostadas are extremely cheap (I believe it was a little over a dollar for three), close to our school, and incredibly delicious of course. :)
I remember one of the first times the other teachers and I went to our "tostada house". It was this ghetto "restaurant" that was based out of someone's house. You couldn't really tell it was serving food besides the mini whiteboard menu sticking out of the window and some Coca Cola tables and chairs in the front yard. From experience, the more ghetto looking the restaurant, the yummier and cheaper the food. So, of course we all went in!
There were some men already taking up all of the two tables and chairs, so we weren't sure where we were supposed to sit. The woman then ushered us inside the house. We all stood very confused as we stood in their family room, wondering if we should sit down in the couches or at the dining room table. Before we made up our minds, the woman ran in with a table and chairs from outside. Good thing we didn't sit down in their chairs!!! Since that first time, they always knew what we wanted to order, and we always sat inside their house. It was a great place.
ANYWAY! I made tostadas for my family today and I wanted to let all of you know how to make them too!
Warning: These are GENUINE Mexican tostadas. You cannot buy these at taco bell. If you are in fact looking for taco bell tostadas, look elsewhere.
Let's be honest. Those look nasty.
I'd also like to give a shoutout to my brother and his girlfriend Anna who gave me this cookbook for Christmas. They're fantastic.
LET'S START!
First you're going to cook 1-2 pounds of chicken breast with a little bit of salt sprinkled on the top. I personally used a grill because I think that it keeps the moisture in really well and it's a lot easier.... in my opinion. But, it doesn't really matter how you do it because it all turns out the same way in the end. Then, shred the chicken into smallish pieces. (I love how descriptive I'm being). I personally cooked around 4 to 5 pounds of chicken because I know that I'm going to be using it for the sopa de limon later on this week. So, I cooked all of it, split it in half, and refrigerated half of it to be used later. Let's be honest, I absolutely hate cooking chicken, it's the worst part.
While the chicken is cooking, you're going to make the beans. I used two cans (though I really should have only used one, it made SO much) of black beans (DID YOU HEAR ME??? I SAID BLACK BEANS), which I drained and put in a blender. I then put about half of a can of water, and some salt then blended....
After it is blended well, you're going to put it on the stovetop to simmer for.... about 10-20 minutes or until thickened (so it's about the consistency of refried beans).
Then, you're going to dice a half of an onion and a large red tomato. Sidenote: I'm
terrible at cutting tomatoes. It always squirts all over and the pieces are rarely the same size. Oh well. I tried. Put the tomato and onion in a saucepan with about a tablespoon of oil. Simmer for about 10 minutes....
Then add the chicken to the mixture.
Now. Let's talk queso (cheese). To be frank, whenever you see a package of yellow and white cheese in the store claiming it's a "Mexican Blend", you know that it's a lie. I don't know when this lie started but the entire time while I was in Mexico (9 months in total). I NEVER saw orange cheese in anything but in the Kraft singles type packages- and those are only made to make sandwiches. So, if you ever thought that authentic Mexican food used yellow cheese, you've been at taco bell and taco time too long.
THIS cheese is called queso fresco (fresh cheese) and can be found at (I believe) Maceys, Allens, Walmart, and any Mexican market. It's delicious!
So, you're going to crumble the cheese using your fingers and put it in a bowl to use on the tostadas. I only used half because the other half is going to be used later for pazole.
Secondly, I'm not really sure if Mexico ever uses sour cream either- I have personally never seen it. What they do use is something called crema (cream). It's a little bit like sour cream as far as consistency goes, but it isn't... how should I say... sour. Again, you can find this in all of the places listed above.
For easier serving (and to make it a little more authentic). You're going to use a ziploc bag. I only had a gallon bag on hand, but you should probably use something a little smaller. Basically, you're going to put it in the bag, and cut off the tip like you're going to be icing a cake.
Here is the finished table with all of the delicious tostada toppings. It contains the following (from left to right).
- Salsa- I typically don't use canned, but I was so tired from making everything else, I wasn't about to make some salsa on top of that
- Tostadas- these were packaged, but were sort of on the flimsy side. I wish that I would have made "homemade" tostadas. I'll be sure to make them when I make pazole.
- Crema
- Beans
- Chicken/Tomato/Onion mixture
- Cheese
- Lettuce- finely shredded/chopped
In case any of you don't know how to properly construct a tostada, here you go!
Start with a tostada (obviously)
Cover it with beans
Add the chicken
Add the lettuce
Add the cheese and cream
Lastly, add the salsa. Yummy!
So, that's everything! I know that maybe this was a pretty simple meal- but I hope that some of the information was new or useful to some of you. I will continue posting about my Mexi-week. Next stop: Sopa de Limon!!! Get excited.
