Potato Burrito
Pinto beans, soaked overnight with salt, then the water drained (gets rid of some of the oligosaccharides that can cause flatulence), then boiled with sliced onions, garlic and bay leaves. Then halfway mashed, so they still have a lot of texture, and seasoned with ancho chile powder, finely ground espresso beans, soy sauce, cider vinegar, salt. The beans actually aren't heavily seasoned; just a small amount of these flavors are added.
The rice is deep fried (I know, we're sensing a trend here). First a soup is prepared with water, vegetable soup base, sliced onions, sliced green peppers, garlic, ancho chile powder, oregano, basil, tomato sauce, cilantro. It should taste just like soup. By volume, about twice as much as the rice. Bring the soup to a boil and let it simmer while the rice fries. To deep fry the rice, it goes in a wire mesh strainer and is lowered into the deep fryer. You keep stirring the rice until it becomes tan colored and acquires a nutty aroma. Then it needs to drain completely for about 5 minutes, then it's very carefully introduced to the soup. After the boiling dies down, it's capped and simmered until done, then fluffed.
Unpeeled Russet potatoes are boiled with salt, garlic and bay, then chilled completely, then diced. They are tossed lightly in this potato vinegar, then deep fried. The acid retards the browning, so they can become very crisp without becoming dark or bitter.
2/3 cup white vinegar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp black pepper
flour, by eye
Mix all with a whisk. Whisk in flour until mixture is of a consistency just a little thicker than buttermilk.
At Casa this is made with the house red sauce, which is made with chiles de arbol, onions and tomatoes. It's a common taqueria red sauce, but there's really not many common commercial equivalents. This recipe substitutes Tapatio. There are so many flavors here that the difference shouldn't be apparent.
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 Tb chile de arbol sauce, e.g. Tapatio
1.5 tsp Worcestershire
3/4 tsp New Mexico red chile powder, mild
3/4 tsp garlic, crushed
3/4 tsp yellow prepared mustard
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Whisk all together.