"Gringa Tostada" and The Most Disturbing Image You Could Ever Imagine

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am by no means an authentic Mexican cook. I am, as my dance moves and more-than-frequent sunburns indicate, painfully white. Which is why I hesitate to call this a "Mexican" anything. However, much like a suave Latin Lover, this dish has wooed me. I lust after this and I'm not ashamed to say it. I have fantasies of this delightful little tortilla sprouting legs and arms, donning a bandana and tight acid wash jeans and doing a little dance. Yeah. Good luck dealing with that image for the rest of your life.

aaaanyways...


This meal combines some really great ingredients to make a really really great dish. Again. I'm obsessed. You probably will be, too.

**As I've mentioned - my familiarity with Mexican food is...minimal. But it's been brought to my attention that this most resembles a tostada. A delicious, delicious tostada.


"Gringa Tostada" with Roasted Green Pepper Salsa

For the Salsa
1 large Anaheim chili pepper
1 large garlic clove
1 small white onion
1/4 tsp sriracha or 1 small jalepeno
The juice of 1 lime

For the Tortillas (Recipe is for each individual tortilla)
1 breast of boneless, skinless chicken
1 small onion
1/4 cup shredded cheese* (I used some random "Mexican" Blend that we had around the house, but any melty cheese will do well, or even some Queso Fresco or goat cheese would taste good as well)
1/2 cup arugula
2 green onions
1 tortilla


Salsa:

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Cut the onion into thick slices and toss in enough oil to coat on a pan with the whole pepper(s) and one smashed clove of garlic. Let those roast in the preheated oven until the skin on the pepper blisters and the onions and garlic are both golden brown and soft. Once that's happened, you're going to want to take the pepper and let it sit for a while, maybe put it in a bowl with a towel over it. This will allow the pepper to a.) steam a little, making the part where you have to peel off the skin a lot easier and b.) cool, so that you dong burn your dang fingerprints off.

So, once that's cooled down, grab that stem and yank. The pepper should be soft enough where it won't resist and the stem should take with it most of the seeds and white, pithy parts. You're going to want to peel the skin off (bitter, papery, generally yucky). Just give the pepper one more once-over to make sure there aren't any more ribs (the white stuff) on the inside of the pepper. If you used a jalepeno (which you would have roasted with the others, naturally) do the same. Once that's done, give it a quick chop and throw it into you food processor along with the onions, garlic and the lime juice. It's going to be a little thick so don't be scared to add some water, a tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency. If you did not use the jalepeno (as I didn't because I forgot to buy it...) just add a couple of drips of sriracha.


Tortilla:

Start by caramelizing your onions. I prefer my caramelized onions to be skinny, thin strips of delicious - so I usually cut my onion in half (so that it makes like an onion rainbow, you know?) and then I just run them cut side down over my mandoline (I also do this because it takes like 3 seconds and I'm a lazy bum). So, the key to caramelizing onions is loooow and sloooow. Luckily, because my onions are super thin, the looow and slooow is not agonizingly loooow and/or slooow. So, yeah, in a pan with a little bit of olive oil just cook them there onions up, salting and peppering to taste, of course.

Blurry little onions

While those puppies are cooking up, cut your chicken into thin strips. Once the onions are about half way to caramelization, throw in the chicken strips.

Even blurrier chicken and onions

These should cook up pretty quickly so once those guys are done, and for the sake of the dishes, dump the onions and the chicken on a plate and set them aside.

Now, you're going to want to put the pan back on the heat, turn it up to about medium, and add just a schosh (scooch? schoch?) of oil to the pan. Now, throw in your tortilla. Let it get all friendly-like with that oil. You're looking for a golden brown.

Before the flip

Now, you're going to want to cook the tortilla on both sides, and I promise you, giggles will ensue when you flip it (it bubbles up!) turn the heat lower, throw on a layer of cheese (let that get a little melty), then a handful of arugula (let that get wilty) and then the chicken & onion friends. One more sprinkling of cheese for good measure, another dab of arugula for crunch, some thin-sliced green onion and then spoon on your sauce et voila...or...y ole! Deliciousness awaits. Turn it out onto a plate - like so:



Gaze at it, admiringly - like so:




And then go at it with a fork and a knife (or use a pizza cutter to make little triangley slices, like I did) and seriously, watch how fast it goes. Enjoy!