Subject: RECIPE: Tucson tostadas (a melted-cheese appetizer)
From: [email-masked] (Brian Reid)
Date: 5 Dec 86 04:38:01 GMT
Newsgroups: mod.recipes

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.RH MOD.RECIPES-SOURCE TUCSON-TOSTADA A "16 Jun 86" 1986
.RZ "TUCSON TOSTADAS" "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, 
\fICasa Molina\fR. The appetizer, a toasted cheese tostada, was so good that I
forgot 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.
.PP
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
\fISunset\fR magazine, and after reading it, I was able to reconstruct this
replica of the \fITostada Casa Molina\fR. The secret is to use Mexican cheeses.
.IH "Serves 6"
.IG "3" "medium flour tortillas"
(buy the largest flour tortillas that will fit in your biggest frypan)
.IG "\(12 lb" "Oaxaca cheese," "250 g"
shredded
.IG "\(12 lb" "Monterey jack cheese," "250 g"
shredded
.IG "1/3 lb" "anejo cheese," "150 g"
grated
.IG "\(12 lb" "poblano peppers," "250 g"
sliced (or any other mild chili pepper)
.IG "\(14 cup" "fresh coriander," "10 g"
chopped fine
.IG "" "lard or oil for frying"
.PH
.SK 1
Preheat oven to
.TE 350 175 .
.SK 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.
.SK 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.
.SK 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.
.SK 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.
.NX
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.
.PP
Monterey jack is a bland American
cheddar; you can substitute good-quality Muenster.
.PP
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.
.SH RATING
.I Difficulty:
easy once you have found the ingredients.
.I Time:
10 minutes each.
.I Precision:
no need to measure.
.WR
Brian Reid
DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto, Calif., USA
[email-masked]	{ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax,sun,pyramid}!decwrl!reid