Ok, some people will whinge and claim that this is MNMM #7 as the open sausage tar...PIE was actually #6 but that was a quickie and doesn't count. At least that's what Bill Clinton told the jury, right? Anyway, I kinda like creating the idea of people at a GTA-Con in the future arguing over which episodes should be counted and which were just sidelines. That's if they can count in future of course... I'm sure kids already think it goes something like: 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9.
Anyhoo, I've just come back from a very short trip to America (fricken missed ComicCon by
this much). There's very little I love about America than the AWESOMEly manly food on offer. Don't get me wrong, there are so many things to love about the U.S. (tattooed chicks, sheer scale and their economy), but at the same time there are so many things to loathe (bigots, starbucks and their economy) - but I particularly love the absolute melting pot for culinary styles a place like Southern California can be. I hear the same about NY, Florida and so many other places as well - but this recent trip took me to LA, so guess what that means? Something quntissentially American... YEP! Mexican food. Strap in and hold on, 'coz Papi's makin' Chimichangas!
Now, I hear you saying... "Excuse me Mr. Jeffois, but WTF is a Chiminichanger" Well! Essentially, it's a deep-fried burrito. Sounds epic, right? I'm telling you - it is. Super simple, you can whip up this "Thingamajig" (that's what Chimichanga means in Spanish according to my mates over at Wikipedia) in bugger all time with bugger all ingredients.
This is a great dish if you've made a big Chili Con Carne the night before and want to get creative with the leftovers. I've made my chili from scratch, but honestly that takes about 10 mins. Don't be daunted by all the ingredients in the pic - all you need is a bit of mince (or chicken), chili mix, some refried beans, tortilla wraps and whatever other seasonings and flavourings you want.
With your chili, you want something that is relatively dry. Too saucy and your tortilla will disintegrate like a 1980's pop-star's face while filming a Pepsi commercial. Chili is a great way to clear out any leftover meat etc you have in the fridge. This one has fresh beef mince, but also a little roast pork from last night. Beans are also a good idea - if you find your chili is too saucy and you're too impatient to wait for it to reduce, you can mash the beans with a fork and hey presto, it will thicken like magico!
Traditionally, a Chimichanga is deep-fried. I've not got a deep fryer, nor 4L of spare cooking oil, so I'm going to just shallow fry these. Go nuts if you wanna do 'em deep though. You'll know your oil is hot enough when you drop a piece of tortilla in there and it puffs up immediately. Use a nice heavy pan to help the oil hold it's temp when you start frying the chimi's off. Try use something with a high smoke-point like rice bran oil or peanut oil.
It's pretty hard to get really fresh tortillas in the supermarket. A little trick is to wrap each one in paper towels and microwave for about 10 seconds each before dressing. If you're into slow-cooking, into tinfoil and into the oven for 10-15 mins.
Now your tortillas are nice and pliable, it's time to dress. I've done a layer of refried beans, chili and cheese here. You can add more stuff or different stuff if you prefer. The key difference to making a regular burrito is to make sure you dress only the middle, leaving plenty of room round the outside for folding. Work fast, don't let the tortilla dry out again.
Fold the short sides over toward the middle, then the long sides, kinda tucking it all in as if you were wrapping a Chrissy present. Flip the lot over so the weight holds it closed.
Carefully pick the 'changa up with tongs (I use long handled ones for this sort of stuff, just to be safe) and carefully place it in the hot oil. BTW, this picture was SO hard to take with my left hand! If you place it folded side down, the flaps will crisp up and hold everything in without dumping your filling into the oil.
Flip it over once if shallow frying. When you've got a nice brown colour all over, carefully remove from the oil. Heed my words when I say that it will take about 20 seconds - IF THAT - on each side to brown just right. Good flour tortillas are beautifully delicate and will go crispy almost immediately. If you're cooking a bunch of these little parcels of wicked, let the oil heat up again before putting the next one in.
When you cut it open, the cheese will be all melty and chili will still be hot. The tortilla is so incredibly crunchy and amazing too. Because of the crispiness, you can actually pick this up and eat it with your hands without getting red-hot chili-lava down the arms of your cardie - a cool idea would be to do smaller ones as man-food if you had some mates over for a gaming day or what-not.
I've plated mine with some nice wild rice mix (it looks very meh-hee-can, no f'ing clue if it is though), cos hearts and blue cheese dressing (look out for another recipe featuring blue cheese dressing coming up soon). Something like a
Tuatara Porter goes awesome with the smokiness of the Chili.
This is probably one of the easiest, but easily one of the AWESOMEST man meals I've cooked so far. Everyone can cook mince. Every one can wrap something up. And every man can deepfry shit. Put all those essential life skills together and you can smash out something epic like a Chimichanga!
¡Viva lá experimentación!
-jeffois
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