Black Bean & Beef Tostadas
with Zinfandel:
| Food | Wine |
| Black Bean & Beef Tostadas - This is a very quick dinner item if you either make the salsa in advance or use a prepared one. The salsa in the recipe is not too spicy, just a bit to give the dish good flavors without destroying the flavors of the fairly high alcohol wine. The sweet tomato and tomatillos complemented the fruitiness of the wine beautifully. The beef, with its cumin and sweet onions were a great match with the light tannins and slight earthiness in the Zin. This pairing worked well on all levels. | 2003 Zinfandel Grandpere, Amador County This wine is made from a clone of some of the oldest Zin vines in California. It has quite a bit of that great Old Vine Zin quality of deep, intense flavor and beautiful dark ruby color. It has just a quick hint of raspberry on the nose, followed quickly by great blackberry and blueberry with some very nice white pepper, vanilla and smoke. The mouthfeel is wonderful with great dusty tannins, a good bit of acidity and quite a bit of alcohol. |
Tostadas
Chopped lettuce, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, sour cream and sliced avocados for garnish
Heat oil in large skillet and add chilies, garlic and onion and cook until onion are no longer crisp and almost translucent. Add ground beef and cook until completely browned, drain off fat. Add stock, salsa, lime, cumin and chili powder. Cook approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, adding additional stock if mixture becomes dry. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add cilantro and cook 1 minute more. When beef is cooking, prepare shells and beans. Shells: Heat grill for five minutes and turn down to warm. Place shells on and cook about 5 minutes on each side, until shell is crisp and browned, but not burned. Cover with foil and set aside. Beans: Melt butter in large sauce pan and add beans. Heat through, cover and set aside. Assemble tostadas by topping shell first with beans, spoon beef onto that, salsa, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and avocados. There will usually be plenty of beans and beef left over that would work well with warmed burrito shells. |
Salsa
It is best if you make this several hours ahead of the rest of the meal to allow it to cool completely. Completed salsa will keep about a week if covered and refrigerated. Heat grill for 5 minutes on high. Turn to medium and use paper towel to oil grates. Add tomato, tomatillos, jalapeno, garlic and onion. Cook until garlic is soft, onion is no longer crisp, the tomatillos are no longer hard and the skin easily can be pulled from the tomato and jalapeno. Usually the garlic takes only 5 minutes but the other vegetables can take as long as 10 or 15 minutes depending on size. Remove to a platter and allow to cool. When vegetables are cool remove skin from tomato, garlic and jalapeno and paper skin from tomatillos. Lightly chop all the vegetables and put in blender. Add 1 tsp salt. Chop until all ingredients are diced and most are a liquid. Heat oil in large sauce pan and add mixture from blender, chili powder, chili flakes and juice from the lime. Heat through, add cilantro. Taste. Salt is the secret to bringing all the flavors out in the other ingredients, so if the salsa tastes flat add more salt until flavors pop but stop before it becomes too salty. Place in a container, cover and place in refrigerator to cool. |
