Recipe for "tucson-tostada"

NAME

     TUCSON-TOSTADA - A toasted cheese tortilla snack popular  in
     southern Arizona
     I first discovered this recipe in 1978 when I went to Tucson
     to  visit  my  prospective  in-laws.  Such  visits are often
     tense; Loretta's parents knew that I liked Mexican food,  so
     they  took me to their favorite restaurant, Casa Molina. The
     appetizer, a toasted cheese tostada, was so good that I for-
     got  my  nervousness  and  just chowed down on serving after
     serving. I think that her parents remembered from that visit
     more about my appetite than my personality.
     I tried several times to  make  Tucson  tostadas,  but  they
     always  ended  up tasting like pizza. Then a recipe appeared
     in the April 1986 issue of Sunset magazine, and after  read-
     ing  it,  I was able to reconstruct this replica of the Tos-
     tada Casa Molina. The secret is to use Mexican cheeses.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 6)

     3         medium flour tortillas (buy the largest flour tor-
               tillas that will fit in your biggest frypan)
     250 g     Oaxaca cheese, shredded
     250 g     Monterey jack cheese, shredded
     150 g     anejo cheese, grated
     250 g     poblano peppers, sliced (or any other  mild  chili
               pepper)
     10 g      fresh coriander, chopped fine
               lard or oil for frying

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Preheat oven to 175 deg. C.
          (2)  If you are using fresh poblanos,  roast  them  and
               remove  their  skins  and  seeds, If you are using
               canned poblanos, wash and drain  them.  Slice  the
               peppers into thin decorative slices.
          (3)  In a big frypan, fry a tortilla  in  lard  or  oil
               until  it is golden brown. Remove to paper towels,
               drain well, then place on a baking sheet or  pizza
               pan.  Although lard is bad for you, the grim truth
               is that tortillas taste very much better when they
               have been fried in lard. Live dangerously.
          (4)  When the tortilla has cooled and  hardened,  cover
               it  with  a thin layer of Oaxaca cheese, then with
               the jack cheese. Crumble anejo  on  top  of  those
               layers,  then sprinkle finely-chopped coriander on
               top of that.
          (5)  Arrange the pepper slices in a  geometric  pattern
               on  top  of  the  cheeses.  Bake for 5 minutes, or
               until the  cheese  has  melted  but  not  browned.
               Remove  from  the  oven, and use a pizza cutter to
               slice into individual portions. Serve immediately.

NOTES

     Oaxaca (pronounced ``oh-HOCK-a'') cheese is a Mexican string
     cheese.   You  can  substitute  any  Mexican  cheese  marked
     ``asadero'' (melting cheese). If you're desperate,  you  can
     use Armenian mozzarella, which has the right texture but the
     wrong flavor.
     Monterey jack is a bland American cheddar; you  can  substi-
     tute good-quality Muenster.
     Anejo cheese is somewhat like Parmesan, dry and crumbly. You
     can  substitute  Mexican cotija cheese, but that is probably
     pointless, because a store that carries cotija will probably
     also  carry anejo. Fresh-ground parmesan will do in a pinch,
     though it is not  the  right  flavor.  In  one  of  my  many
     attempts  to  get  this  recipe  right, I tried a mixture of
     Greek feta and cow's-milk  romano  cheese.  It  tasted  very
     interesting, though not at all authentic.

RATING

     Difficulty: easy once you have found the ingredients.  Time:
     10 minutes each.  Precision: no need to measure.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Brian Reid
     DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto, Calif., USA
     reid@decwrl.DEC.COM {ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax,sun,pyramid}!decwrl!reid