My Personal Opinion: It's definitely worth making your own guacamole and salsa since the shop-bought versions are so crap, but making your own refried bans and tortillas depends a bit more on whether you can be bothered and whether you have the freezer space.
Guacamole
Seriously – check the ingredient labels on bought guacamole. Most are in the range of 3-5% avocado, the rest being water, oil + reconstituted veges. Yuk.
2 ripe avocados
3-4 T salsa – or 1 fresh tomato
1 t lemon juice
1 t chopped fresh chilli or chilli powder
Either mash avocados or cut into small chunks, whatever your personal taste. Combine.
Salsa
1 medium onion
½ green capsicum
2 cloves garlic
1-2 t chilli powder
1 t cumin
1 t salt
pinch cayenne
2 tins tomatoes or fresh tomatoes
Mince all ingredients except tomatoes in food processor, add tomatoes last + blend a little so still slightly chunky. If you don’t have a food processor, just chop veges finely, crush garlic and mix.
Salsa II
Tomatoes
Fresh coriander
Red onion
Sweet chilli sauce
Lime juice – or substitute lemon
Chop + combine to taste.
Refried Beans
Mexican households often cook up one massive pot of beans at the beginning of the week, which gets reheated and reused in a variety of different meals until the beans eventually break down into a kind of mash, which has come to be known as refried beans. Now we cook beans specifically to be used as refried beans and sell them in cans. Go figure.
2 cups uncooked mixed beans
6 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 T cumin
1 t coriander
½ t cayenne
½ t pepper
2 ½ t salt
3 T olive oil
1 onion
1 green capsicum
4 cloves garlic
50g marg
Soak beans + bay leaves in water overnight, or boil + let stand 1 hour for beans to absorb water.
Change water + simmer partially covered for an hour or more, stirring occasionally until tender (OR – place beans in a crock pot overnight, or while you’re out during the day).
Sauté onion, capsicum + garlic in oil until tender.
Add spices + sauté 2 min.
Remove bay leaves + mash cooked beans until smooth with a potato masher or food processor.
Combine spice mix with marg, mix until smooth + mix into beans.
Serve in Mexican meals or as a dip for corn chips, topped with sour cream.
Tortillas
These take a while to make, especially rolling the dough. I usually just buy them premade. If you do make a batch it's worthwhile making them in bulk and freezing the excess if you have the freezer space.
2 cups wholemeal flour
½ t salt
50g marg
½ cup cold water
Combine ingredients, cut in marg with a fork + toss to make a stiff dough.
Knead thoroughly until smooth + flecked with air bubbles.
Divide into 8 balls for large tortillas, or 11 for small ones.
Roll as thinly as possible on a lightly floured board.
Place on a very warm ungreased fry pan, bake at a medium temperature (not hot!) until freckled on one side (about 20 sec), then bake on other side.
