New Year, Old Recipe

As I was rummaging through my modestly stocked fridge a few weeks ago, wondering what I could possibly make myself for dinner, a thought struck me: you don't have to make something conventional. My go-to dinner is quinoa and a salad, or spaghetti with a salad if I feel like indulging. Pretty standard.
I looked at what I had: quinoa, tomatoes, spices. Enough to make my typical quinoa dish. I also had tortillas, beans, and salsa, typical in any Mexican's kitchen. But tortillas, beans, and salsa alone do not a well-rounded meal make, and neither does plain quinoa. Then it hit me: quinoa tostadas.

Contrary to what Wikipedia states, tostadas are NOT tortillas fried in boiling hot oil. They can be, of course, and most restaurants include oil in their preparation, but I have never, ever made a tostada with oil. I make them the same way I heat regular tortillas: place them flat on a hot cast-iron pan (if cast-iron is not available, a non-stick pan is ideal). For a soft tortilla, you take it off after a couple minutes of flipping it; for a tostada, just leave the tortilla on the pan until it's crispy. Like a big chip. It's that simple.

Anyway, here they are:

Typically I'd make sure to have lettuce, onion, and cilantro on my tostadas, but unfortunately my food supply was running low (I'd been slacking on getting to the grocery store). For these I used:
-Quinoa made with chipotle salsa instead of diced tomatoes (see quinoa recipe here
-Parmesan cheese; because it was all I had. Cheddar would probably be ideal
-Pinto beans (my all time favorite kind of beans)
-A little lemon and a tad of extra salsa on top
The cool thing about tostadas is you can pretty much pile them with whatever you want. My mom and grandma put meat (pollo asado [chicken], carne de res [beef], sometimes turkey), onions, radishes, cabbage, salsa, cilantro, beans, and cheese, while my little sister prefers ketchup. So really, anything.

As you can see this is very simple, so it's really more of a suggestion than a recipe. Eat tostadas, they're good. Also note that to achieve the toasted consistency via heat alone (sans oil), corn tortillas must be used. Flour tortillas simply won't crisp up.

I meant to post this weeks ago, the night I actually made them. Thus the "old recipe" in this post title can be taken to mean a) old as in two weeks ago, or b) old as in centuries old. Tostadas are as ancient and ingrained in Mexican culture (and other meso and South American cultures as well)as the soft tortilla, because, well, they're the same thing.

In the relatively short while that I've been alive, I have found that in times of change and transition, going back to one's roots, even in a way as simple as toasting a tortilla, is incredibly comforting and reassuring. In a worldly sense, this is not a new idea. I haven't made any great discovery for mankind. I've simply discovered this established truth on my own, as it applies to my own life. And I firmly reject the simplicity of the idea of out with the old, in with the new; yes, I believe in spring cleaning, but as long as something is good for you--good for your mind, your body, and your spirit--I say keep it around. Far too often I see people change because they feel that they have to, not because of a drive within them but because of some dominant paradigm without them. Maybe I'm just a creature of comfort, and I'm certainly not objective by any means. Maybe I'm exaggerating the meaning of tostadas :).

Happy New Year!