Week 9: The Rebar cookbook

Several years ago, our good friend Alison bought Jamie the rebar cookbook (http://www.amazon.ca/Rebar-Modern-Cookbook-Audrey-Alsterburg/dp/0968862306). Since then we have made numerous recipes and it has yet to disappoint us. I am pretty sure this is the first many entries that will come from this book. For those who do not know rebar is a great little vegetarian restaurant in Victoria that is always busy and always worth the wait. 

This week I made "Three sisters burritos" with a slight alteration. The recipe called for a chipotle puree which neither of us like so instead I made a tomatillo salsa. Which was super easy and very yummy. Here is the recipe 

1 1/2 lbs tomatillos
1/2 cup white onion, chopped

1/2 cup cilantro leaves

1 Tbsp lime juice (I used 1/2 a lime because I had it)

1/4 tsp sugar

2 jalapenos

Salt to taste

To prepare the tomatillos the recipe says to boil or roast them. Boiling seemed lame so I cut them in half roasted them under the broiler for 5 or so minutes. Until the skins started to blacken.  After that you throw everything into a blender and that is it. I can not believe I buy salsa it is too easy to make.

Tomatillo salsa. This jar was for Lisa read below for her thoughts.

The first thing you realize when looking through the rebar cookbook is that everything looks yummy but has a million ingredients and 15 different sauces. I guess that is why it tastes so good. These burritos called for a red sauce and they recommended their "Mesa Red Sauce" which seemed good to me. Here are the ingredients

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 yellow onion (i used the rest of the white one from the salsa)

6  cloves of garlic

4 Tbsp masa harina (you could use any flour here but it does give it a nice flavour)

4 Tbsp ancho chile powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cracked pepper

1 Tbsp oregano

4 cups veggie stock

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp brown sugar
 

Fry the onion until translucent. Add garlic and fry for 3 mins. Sprinkle in masa harina and stir constantly until it turns golden.

Add spices and stir for another 2 mins. Slowly whisk in veggie stock and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and whisk in tomato paste and sugar. 

Simmer partially covered for 30 mins or so stirring regularly. 

The ingredients for the burritos them selves are

3 lb butternut squash

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 ancho chile powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp maple syrup

juice of 1/2 a lime

1 1/2 cups of corn (or a can)

1 14 oz can of pinto beans (I used dried pinto beans and took a cup after boiling them)

1/2 bunch of cilantro chopped

Shredded aged white cheddar

Whole wheat tortillias

mesa red sauce

2 tsp chipotle puree (If you like that sort of thing) 

Now for the prep. Chop up the squash into small cubes. They say 3/4" but I cut them smaller into more bite size burrito size. Toss squash in a bowl with oil, ancho powder, salt, lime juice and maple syrup. Spread out into a glass baking dish and roast at 375'F until tender. This was an amazing way to prepare the squash. The chile powder combined with the sweet syrup and tangy lime juice was the real deal. I could have stopped here and just eaten the squash.

Now the recipe calls for you to toss in the corn and roast with the squash. After the squash has been in the oven for 20 mins mix in the corn and roast for 10 mins or so. This was too much especially since I was using canned corn. So once the squash was done I mixed in the corn, beans and cilantro and that was it. If you are using the chipotle puree mix it in now. 

I added this mixture to the tortillas and wrapped them up. I added them to a baking dish and poured the mesa red sauce over them and baked them at 350'F for 15 minutes. Once they were done I dropped them on a plate and added some tomatillo salsa.

Mark's thought: As usual rebar did not disappoint but also as usual this is not a 30 minute meal. I would have it again but would prepare most things before hand.

Jamie's thoughts: These got yummier as she ate more. The first bite did not have the flavour punch she was expecting but she did like them. The tomatillo salsa rocked!

Cooking the pinto beans

Mesa red sauce and the roasted squash

Burrito about the be wrapped

Lisa and the tomatillo salsa...

So our friend Lisa is from Cali and since I was making salsa I had to give her a jar. Jamie dropped this off one morning and be the end of the day the salsa was gone. Apparently she liked it quite a bit. She sent me a picture of her breakfast that morning. When you have salsa for breakfast you must be from south of the border;-) 

Lisa's breakfast scramble with the tomatillo salsa