My Own Wet Burrito

One of the reasons I love New York City is the cheap, delicious, exotic eats.  Almost anything you can imagine, you can get, and as authentic as if you were on a culinary tour of the world.  Everything, it seems, except a specialty of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I spent my teens and twenties, called a wet burrito.  I make a point of getting one every time I visit, but this year I didn't make it.  So, I prepared some at home.  It takes a bit of work, but you could cut down on the time commitment by buying canned beans, enchilada sauce and taco seasoning.  But, I had as much fun making these as I did eating them.  Here's what I did.

• 

  Grand Rapids, eat your heart out!

  half a medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, pressed
• ground meat (I used turkey)
• pink beans (one can or a half a bag dried) 
• one can tomato sauce
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 cup stock or gravy (I used leftover cooking water from black eyed peas)
• 5-6 oz shredded cheddar cheese
• tortillas
• 2-3 chopped tomatoes
• a half a head lettuce, shredded
• sour cream

Start the beans cooking if you're using dried. Cook the onions and garlic in a pan until transluscent.  Open a can of tomato sauce and pour into a pan, add the stock or gravy, cumin and chili powder.  Add half of the onion and garlic mixture and cook down to around half.  When it's cooked down, blend in the blender.

When your beans are cooked, put them into the blender with some cooking water and the remaining onion and garlic mixture and blend to a paste.  You can refry these if you want to be authentic, but I cannot tell the difference.  Add the tomatoes and half the shredded cheese.

In the pan in which you cooked the onions, cook the meat until browned and drain the grease.  Warm up your tortillas, then assemble them with the browned meat, the bean, tomato and cheese mixture, and some shredded lettuce.  Top them with the tomato sauce and the remaining cheese.  Warm to melt the cheese, top with sour cream, and enjoy!