Because it's something I've never had before & because I love burritos, I tried LDV's Black Bean & Sweet Potato Burritos. I had some kind of dish in NYC that involved black beans & yams, so I figured this should be just as tasty.
Well, it wasn't. It wasn't inedible, granted I only finished half my burrito. This might be a good dish for someone who wants to sneak healthy black beans & yams into their diet, but for someone like me who loves both and loves traditional burritos even more - not a good meal to make. That being said, I will not be revisiting this ever again. At least they looked pretty.
..... also, if anyone knows how to fold burritos that information would be extremely helpful.
I rolled burritos at a former job. It's all coming back to me now. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt helps to soften the shell first: at work we had a steamer specifically for the job; at home I usually pass the tortilla under the tap briefly to get it wet, then microwave it for 10-20 seconds. The softening needs to be done immediately before filling and rolling the tortilla, because it will be more brittle than before once it cools.
Place the filling in the shell in a line through the center, running parallel to your shoulders. Don't overfill it! The 10-12" shells most markets carry won't make a burrito much larger than (a relatively fat) one from Taco Bell. Restaurant-size burritos start with 15-17" tortillas (the size of a "Large" pizza). If the tortilla is smaller than 10", run the line of filling a little closer to you, maybe a little more than a third of the way "up", rather than through the center.
If you want one or both ends of the burrito closed so you can pick it up, leave about two-fingers-worth of space between the edge of the tortilla and the filling on that end. Anything less won't stay shut. Once the shell is filled, fold the end(s) over on top of the filling and crease it a little, all the way up and down.
Grab the edge of the tortilla closest to you and fold it up over the filling, so that there's a fat-fingers-worth of overlap between the "bare" parts of the tortilla. Now, try to tuck the leading edge of the top part of the tortilla up under the filling (and back towards yourself) a little, if you can.
Lastly, roll the burrito forward until the leading edge of the "flap" of tortilla furthest from you ends up on the bottom. Unless your burrito is really thin, this usually amounts to flipping the burrito over forward once. OTOH, if flipping over once puts the flap on top, you overstuffed it. :-P
I recall the last bits were all one motion for me -- tuck the one edge under with the eight fingers, then flop it over with the thumbs and pull out my fingers from the underside.
I have always been bad at visualization, so I have attempted to be pretty explicit, as far as "showing" with words. Hope I didn't belabor the point. :-)