Burritos with re-fried beans

My kids love burritos, but only if they can have guacamole with them. In San Francisco it was easy enough. Just trot down the road to any old Mexican restaurant and buy some. Things are not as simple here in Germany. Yes we do have Mexican restaurants but we have not yet been able to find a good one. We have tried. The best one is run by a Sri Lankan and the food tastes like you would expect Mexican food in Sri Lanka to taste like!

Of course you could just eat it without the wrap!

So there is no choice but to make everything from scratch. At least I have found places to buy the tortillas because making them is a pain in the .... Salsa and guacamole taste really bad here in DE, so we have to make that from scratch. As a result we only make this when the tomatoes are red and ripe and the avocados are on sale.

Here is what you need to put together a burrito:

• Tortilla wraps
• Re-fried beans
• Guacamole
• Salsa
• Sour cream
• Grated cheddar cheese

Optional

• Mexican rice
• Grated iceberg salad

And of course tortilla chips on the side. 

Refried beans sprinkled with cheese

Chunky salsa

Salsa

 I have not posted my salsa recipe. Unbelievable. I can just picture myself stuck somewhere far from home with kilos of ripe tomatoes and bag of chips! 

Chunky homemade salsa

Preparation time: 1 hour; serves 4 - 6

Ingredients:

275 g	Fleshy tomatoes (Fleischtomaten work well in Germany)
4	Green chillies (but you can adjust this to your taste, take the seeds out if you must)
75 g	White onions, finely diced
2	Garlic cloves, minced or pulped
1/3 cup	Coriander leaves, chopped
1tsp.	Salt
2 tsp.	Lime juice
1 tbsp.	Concentrated tomato paste
1/4 tsp.	Chilli powder

Method:

This is super easy to put together. You can adjust any of the seasonings to your taste. Make it burning hot, or leave out the chilli altogether, it still will taste delicious.

Dice the tomatoes as small as you like. Don't mash them. Salsa is not supposed to be a paste! If your tomatoes are too watery, squeeze out the seeds or drain them after dicing. Slice the green chillies, finely dice the onions, mash the garlic, chop the coriander leaves. Put everything in a bowl except the concentrated tomato paste. 

I'm not sure what you would use in other countries. In Germany this comes in a tube and is available in any supermarket. Because my tomatoes are never really, really red I use the paste to give a bit more colour. It also mixes well with the water that the tomatoes let and makes it a bit less runny. 

Lastly add the tomato paste working it in carefully. You don't want to mash the tomatoes when you do this. You could drain a bit of the water from the salsa and mix it into that if you have trouble. Of course this will depend on how thick your concentrate is. 

Finally, cover the salsa and allow it to stand, preferably in the fridge, for 30 minutes. Be careful, your fridge will reek of onions and garlic, but it will disappear after a few days!

Not so chunky homemade salsa!