Tacos with Chili Beans

I have been a burrito addict since I visited San Francisco when I was 18. But lately I've been getting into tacos.

Why? Well in restaurants they're often offered with more delicate, flavoursome fillings than your chunky burrito - no rice allowed. You can opt to just eat one or two tacos for a snack. They're fun to make at home sitting around the dining table. And toddlers love 'em.

But tacos must be soft. For some reason the tacos that made it to New Zealand during my childhood were hard, crunchy and very difficult to eat. Ideally you want soft corn mini tortillas that you heat in the oven before filling.


Billie's still getting the hang of the Mexican thing - she's mastered nachos but when handed a taco she tends to separate the tortilla from the filling and eat one at a time. Mind you, she's been doing that with pizza this week too.

I have a standard vegetarian chili/refried beans recipe that I use for burritos, nachos, tacos and everything in between. I made it up shortly after dining out on that fabulous Mexican food in California. Fifteen years later I still use the same recipe.

SARAH'S CHILI BEANS

3/4 cup dried black or kidney beans, or one tin
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tin tomatoes
1 lemon, squeezed
1 Tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon cider vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons tomato paste (optional)
chili to taste - fresh, powdered, paste (whatever you have, but don't be too shy)


Soak and cook beans, or open tin. Heat oil in fry pan and saute onions and garlic. Chop tinned tomatoes and pour into pan with juice. Add rest of ingredients, while stirring over a medium-low heat. Simmer on low until reduced down a little. For tacos you want quite a dry chili, but if serving just with rice etc or with corn chips for nachos then don't reduce as much. Check seasoning.


Meanwhile, prepare other taco ingredients. Last night we used grated cheese, fresh chopped tomatoes, some guacamole, and a little spinach and coriander (from the garden, no less). Heat stack of tacos in foil on middle shelf in moderate oven for five minutes. Keep wrapped in foil to serve, removing as you use them. Place bowls of cheese and other fillings on table and dig in.

CHILLI BEAN-LOVER RETURNS HOME FROM THE DESERT

 Now I'm not advocating feeding your baby loads of hot chilli.  But perhaps keep an open mind. During our US travels Billie embraced food with a hint of heat, with both hands.

Here's a new recipe below to try out on all the family. It's a fabulous vegetable chilli served to us by Great Grandma Eve in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

Billie's first accidental chilli outing was in Chicago when we stumbled upon a fantastic buffet at Oak Park's popular Indian restaurant - Khyber Pass. Billie ate spoonfuls, and handfuls, of the palek paneer without even wincing. The popular spinach and cheese curry often contains no chilli, but this one definitely had a wee kick. 

Black beans, refried beans and chilli beans became our go-to option to keep Billie busy when we were eating out in the US. We're gonna miss this $2 healthy option offered at the many and varied Mexican restaurants we visited in Chicago, and then on our little trip through the south-west desert.

Monument Valley, Utah/Arizona border. Snapped out the window.

 But usually these Billie bean sides were without chilli. Until we got to the Taos Nachos. Billie and I took a later-than-usual dinner excursion, leaving Miles in the Taos hotel dealing with food poisoning picked up in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

 Taos is a gorgeous little arty New Mexican town that sits at the foot of several ski mountains, surrounded by desert. The buildings are all either Adobe or Faux-dobe, to keep the Native American tradition of mud-brick houses alive. Or at least the feeling of it alive.

Sidling into a bustling restaurant bar at 8.30pm with Billie strapped to me in the Ergo, I opt for the vegetarian nachos as an easy dish to share with my bean-hungry bub. Thankfully the staff notice my difficulty easing black beans out from under the fresh jalapeno, and deliver a bowl of plain beans for Billie.

But not before she has managed to consume several bits of jalapeno. Fortunately, each time her reaction is rather mild. A little spluttering and reaching for her water beaker, but then she insists on digging into more of where that came from please.

Dawn on the Amtrak between Arizona and California

Flagstaff, Arizona

I wouldn't go round sprinkling chilli in her food, but when I'm cooking a casserole of vegetarian chilli for the family meal I now know we can meet half way on the heat.

The recipe below called for two tablespoons of chilli, so I opted for just one. Miles and I enjoyed it last night with brown rice and good quality organic sour cream (ie just cream and cultures). Today we'll all enjoy it for lunch.

POST NOTE: Billie ate a bowl for lunch with rice and cheese and a bowl for dinner with sour cream stirred through to mute the chilli. This is a dish to spoon-feed to avoid rubbing in eyes, although Billie did finger feed a few of the beans (her favorite pastime).

GREAT GRANDMA EVE'S VEGETABLE CHILLI

3/4 cup olive oil

2 courgettes, cut into 1/2 inch dice

2 onions, diced

4 garlic gloves, chopped finely

2 red peppers/capsicums, diced 1/4 inch

800g tinned tomatoes

1 T chilli powder, or crushed dried chillis

1 T cumin

1 T fresh or dried oregano

1 T basil (opt)

black pepper

1 t salt

1 t fennel seeds

1/2 cup fresh parsely, chopped

1 cup kidney beans

1 cup chickpeas

1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped (essential - tastes great)

2 T lemon juice

grated cheddar

sour cream

4 scallions/spring onions chopped for garnish

First cook the beans. If you don't have a pressure cooker, soak them for few hours or overnight in 3 cups of water each. Cook separately as chickpeas take longer kidney beans. Drain water and place in large pots with 3 cups of water each. Cook kidney beans for 1 1/4 hours or 25 mins in pressure cooker. Cook chickpeas for 2 1/2 hours or 45 mins in pressure cooker.

Meanwhile, heat 1/2 cup of the oil in a fry pan and add courgette. Saute and then transfer to a large casserole. Heat 1/4 cup oil in the fry pan and add onions, garlic and red peppers. Saute and then transfer to casserole. Place over low heat and add tomatoes, chilli, cumin, oregano, basil, black pepper, salt, fennel seeds and parsley. Cook uncovered, stirring often, for 30 minutes. Cook brown rice now if using. Corn chips are another option.

Now stir in beans, chickpeas, dill, lemon. Cook for another 15 minutes. Stir well, adjust seasonings. Serve with scallions, sour cream and grated cheese on the side. 

Eve served hers with guacamole, refried beans, Italian beans and corn chips. It was a bit of a Welcome to Baraboo Feast.