Bhangra Burrito

My parents both grew up with mothers who cooked. To be fair, I guess many children of the late 50s did, although not nearly so many turned into parents who cooked for their own kids. My Mom and Dad both did, and I'm grateful.


I associate my grandmothers' California kitchens with cookbooks. Lots of cookbooks. A few years ago, when I was visiting my grandma in Berkeley, The Rebar Modern Food Cookbook caught my eye. Rebar is a restaurant in Victoria that specializes in mostly-veggie, hippie cuisine, and my grandma had visited with her brother some time back.

Grandma, ever indulgent when it comes to her granddaughters, caught me pouring through the cookbook and said I could have it. It's become one of my very favorites. The recipes are imaginative but not weird, fanciful but not fancy (for the most part). A lot of what Rebar does is take staple recipes, like lasagne and cream of broccoli soup, and spin them into exciting variations. There are some awesome desserts as well, both classic and not, and there's a great section detailing methods for "basics" like peanut sauce, salsas, chile paste, and whole wheat pastry.

Rebar has two recipes for burritos. One is a more traditional take with beans and squash and corn. The other hops down to the subcontinent, producing a wrap that's essentially an easily-packaged packet of Indian curry. I made a few small changes to the original recipe to accomodate my family's pantry, but what's below is very close to what's in the book.

Ingredients
-4 garlic cloves
-1 inch piece of ginger, peeled
-1 hot pepper (jalepeno, poblano, whatever you've got)
-1 red pepper
-6 roma tomatoes (I didn't have these, so I used three small tomatoes, plus about a half cup of canned)


-3 TBS vegetable oil
-1 medium onion, diced
-1 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp ground cumin
-1 tsp ground coriander
-1 tsp sweet paprika
-1/4 tsp. tumeric
-1/2 tsp. (preferably freshly) ground pepper
-1 15-20 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained


-1.5 lbs potatoes, diced (we used russets-- the original called for red)


-1/2 cup cilantro, stemmed and chopped
-1.5 cups spinach or baby spinach, stemmed and sliced into ribbons 
-tortillas or wraps


Procedure
1) Roughly chop garlic, ginger, hot pepper, red pepper, and tomatoes, and put in a food processor until they form a course purée.

2) Put 2 TBS oil in a large pan and heat over medium. Sauté onion with half the salt until translucent, then add the cumin, coriander, paprika, tumeric and pepper. Add the purée from above and simmer 5-10 minute. Add chickpeas and cook another 5-10 minutes.






3)Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 450°F. Toss potatoes with the last TBS of oil and the remaining salt. Spread onto a baking sheet and roast until lightly golden and soft, about 15-20 minutes. Toss potatoes with the chickpea mix. 


4) Take a tortilla and spread spinach ribbons down the center, topped with a bit of cilantro. Spoon on curry, roll up, and place in an oiled baking dish. Repeat until out of filling. We made 6 tortillas, using 6-inch wraps, and had some filling left over. Cover and bake for 20-30 minutes until heated through and a bit crispy. We served ours with a bit of yogurt. Chutney would also be nice.