Valentine's Day and Chimichangas!

Last year we talked about chocolate. While this is a perfectly great food to give to everyone you love—including friends, family, and strange children you appreciate the sidewalk art of—it doesn’t quite display the “make your own” version of love I commonly celebrate with my best friends. You know what does? A burrito! A giant, meat packed, tomato-lovin’ burrito, deep-fried in the heat of my ever-burning love for them—more commonly known as the chimichanga.

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef
½ cup diced onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 15 ounce can refried beans
3 8 ounce cans tomato sauce
1 4.5 ounce can green chiles
1 jalapeno, minced
8 (10-inch) tortillas
Wooden toothpicks
1½ cups shredded Cheddar cheese or Colby Jack
Vegetable oil for frying
Cilantro, sour cream, guacamole, salsa (whatever you like) for garnish

As you’ve probably guessed, this list isn’t one of mine. The person who provided this list pays a lot more attention to actual measurements than I do. If that’s throwing you off, go with your palate. You can do things like forget about the chiles and jalapenos if you don’t like it spicy. You can switch up the meat if you’re more into carnitas or chicken. That’s the beauty of a chimichanga—you can make it however you want!

You’ll begin by browning your meat. Go ahead and break it apart as you go to make sure it all cooks evenly. Add the onion in when it’s about halfway cooked. When the onion gets soft and the meat is cooked, add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, and oregano. Stir the mix and cook 30 seconds to blend the flavors. Then add in the refried beans and add two cans of the tomato sauce—unless you hate tomatoes. Then you only need one can, and you’ll add half of it here. Save what’s left of your tomato sauce for the exterior chimichanga sauce. Stir everything up once again to get the flavors blending, and then remove it from heat. If you’d like to keep it extra warm, you can leave it on the lowest burner setting—just make sure it isn’t going to burn!

Next, we’re going to make the chimichanga sauce. Grab a medium saucepan and combine what’s left of your tomato sauce and your hot peppers in it. This isn’t going to cook so much as warm, so that when we pour it over our perfectly crisp chimichangas it doesn’t make them cold and soggy.

Now we move on to rolling the burritos. If your tortillas aren’t very pliable, heat them in the microwave for about 20 seconds covered with a damp paper towel. Or, if you’d like to get a head start or if you’re using corn tortillas, go ahead and fry the tortillas by themselves for a few seconds on each side in a very small amount of oil. The oil and heat will help the tortillas hold together while you wrap them around your filling. Once your tortillas are prepared, place about ⅓ cup filling towards one side of a tortilla. We’re going to use measurements here, because there’s nothing worse than putting a ton of work into a chimichanga only to have it unfold or bust in the middle of frying it. Fold over the side nearest the filling to cover the filling. Fold in the two sides, roll it up, and secure the ends of your burrito with toothpicks.

Once you’re done doing this with your remaining tortillas, we’re ready to get our fry on! The oil should be about 375 degrees to fry well, but the popcorn kernel trick we talked about last month in the latke recipe will work fine too. You can fry your chimichangas however you want, but it should only take about 2 minutes on each side to finish them. They should be a golden brown color and slightly rigid. When finished, top your chimichangas with cheese, sauce, sour cream, cilantro, essentially whatever you want! These chimichangas are yours, and they express you!

Those of you familiar with Deadpool will have no trouble discerning the connection between him and this month’s culinary feature. The connection between chimichangas, him, and the many forms of love celebrated on Valentine’s Day might be a little more difficult to parse if you haven’t read the most recent crossover series featuring Deadpool and Spider-Man. Those familiar with Spider-Man will know that he’s often the least desired team-up by other super heroes, while Spidey enjoys working with anyone—except Deadpool.

Until this series, Spider-Man and Deadpool have had rather a terse relationship, with Deadpool idolizing Spider-Man and Spider-Man detesting Deadpool. Deadpool rather mirrors Spider-Man’s role in Spider-Man’s other team-ups, so the hijinks is always well placed when they end up on the page together. But in this first collection of the series—aptly titled Isn’t It Bromantic—Deadpool turns over a new leaf and tries to earn Spider-Man’s friendship and respect.

And after a streak of non-lethal behavior on Deadpool’s part, Spider-Man goes for it!

Although readers of both the Deadpool and Spider-Man series might have thought these two would never develop a real relationship of any kind, the two actually manage to create a friendship—one that both of them end up valuing. When that relationship is challenged, instead of just making assumptions and acting based on those assumptions, Deadpool and Spider-Man do something hugely out of character for two grown adult men in media: they talk about it.

Their conversation is honest and real. Spider-Man is hurt,

Deadpool is apologetic,

And both of them don’t make use of halting sentences or implied emotion. What’s exciting about this collection is these two grown men talking about their feelings and valuing each other as people without needing to rely on tired, ridiculous phrases like “no homo” to convey how they feel about each other.

Besides, there very obviously could be some homo involved if Spider-Man was interested. He’s on Deadpool’s pre-negotiated free-pass list.

Happy Valentine’s Day!