Tostadas Our Way

Total Time: 25 mins Preparation Time: 5 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, smashed and minced
• 1 teaspoon recaito (found in ethnic section of many markets, and worth keeping regularly in fridge!) (optional)
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground dried ancho chile powder, divided
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin, divided
• 8 corn tortillas or 8 commercially prepared flat tostadas
• 1 (15 ounce) can refried beans or 1 (15 ounce) can vegetarian refried beans
• 1 cup of your favorite salsa, divided
• 1 cup sour cream, divided
• guacamole or chunked ripe avocado, for garnish
• shredded lettuce, for garnish
• grated cheddar cheese, for garnish

Recipe

• 1 sauté the onion in the olive oil over medium-high heat until just soft, then add the garlic and recaito and stir well.
• 2 add the ground beef and cook until meat is well-browned, using a spatula to break up the cooked meat into smaller pieces (some folks call this "hamburger gravel"), about 8-10 minutes. drain off fat. add 1 tsp ancho and 1/2 tsp cumin and stir well, cooking for another 2-3 minutes. set aside.
• 3 in a bowl, combine the refried beans, the remaining ancho and cumin, 1/2 cup of salsa, and 1/2 cup sour cream. stir well.
• 4 if using corn tortillas: heat oil or butter (using butter is is a luxury and a bit decadent, but very tasty!) in a pan and fry the corn tortillas, flat, on both sides until crispy.
• 5 to make tostada: spread refried bean mixture, then cooked meat mixture (i prefer my tostadas without meat, but steingrim puts it on his) onto tostada shell. add a bit of salsa and guacamole or avocado chunks on top, then shredded lettuce, grated cheddar, and sour cream. eat and enjoy!
• 6 makes 4 servings of 2 tostadas each.
• 7 note: steingrim likes his extra spicy, so he adds sliced jalapenos, his special very hot salsa or sauce, and extra chopped onion to his tostadas.