Burritos with Green Chili Walnut Sauce

Makes about 2 cups

 

Anyone who has been to my town knows that it’s SMALL. Now there are  more than five restaurants here, but when we first moved in there were two: the Erie Cafe and Mina’s Latin Restaurant. Oh, good ole Mina’s. It was grimy inside and had a mysterious stage with a disco ball, but no advertisements for karaoke or local theater…what was it used for? It was basically a Mexican restaurant, but with a grandmotherly twist. In addition to the usual combo plates there were a few unexpected things like nopalitos, fried plantains with pork and, the inspiration for this post: walnut sauce! I searched around a bit and it seems that walnut sauce it used almost exclusively in a stuffed chili specialty, which is the entree at Mina’s that I tried. Well, we had company coming, I was totally uninspired, but wanted to do a little something special. Enter: Green Chili Walnut Sauce. I am completely in love with this stuff. It might be the least Mexican thing within 20 miles of here, but I’ve been putting it on everything. I made it quite thick, and we spread it inside our burritos, though you could thin it out and drizzle it over the top if you wanted.

25 shelled walnuts

half and half or cream

1/4 lb queso fresco

3 Tbs bread crumbs

3 Tbs sugar

5 fire-roasted green chilies, peeled and seeded

milk

Place walnuts in a bowl and cover with half and half or cream—let soak overnight. Combine walnuts, soaking cream, bread crumbs, sugar and green chilies in your food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Add milk until thinned to a consistency that you like, then salt to taste.

I managed to not get any pictures the day I made and served it, so this is what it looks like after it’s been in the fridge overnight and people (me) have started dipping tortilla chips in it.

 

In the burritos are: burrito meat, black beans, shredded cheese, pico de gallo, walnut sauce.

For my burrito meat: I used 1/2 lb ground turkey and 1/2 pound ground pork. I sautéed the meat with a diced onion and a few diced cloves of garlic. I seasoned with 2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp Mexican oregano, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp chili powder and a little cayenne pepper. Once the meat was cooked, I stirred in 2 Tbs tomato paste.

For my pico de gallo I mixed diced tomato, red onion and avocado with minced cilantro, lime juice and salt.

Oo, can’t wait to fold this up and sink my teeth into it!