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!

Valentine's Day and Chocolate

Ah, Valentine’s Day. Regardless of your relationship status, there’s one very good reason to be excited about February 14^th, aside from Deadpool being in theaters: chocolate.

Unfortunately, due to the commercial nature of this holiday, sometimes the chocolate is a little pricey (unless you wait for the discount stuff on February 15^th). Plus, what says “I care about you” better than chocolates you made yourself?

To make your own chocolate, you’ll need a few things:

A pot and metal bowl that fits on top of your pot and won’t fall in (If you have a double boiler, just use that instead)

3.5 tablespoons Cocoa Butter

3.5 tablespoons Cocoa Powder

½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 tablespoon Honey or Sugar

Let me first begin with a warning: do NOT use a wooden spoon while working with this recipe. This recipe is ruined if any water gets into the mixture, and wooden spoons actually have moisture trapped inside of them! The best utensil to use is a rubber spatula that hasn’t been exposed to any strong foods like garlic or tomato sauce. If you use a utensil that has been exposed to such foods, your chocolate could come out tasting like chocolate and some really tasty spaghetti. On to the directions!

Fill the bottom of your double boiler (make-shift or legit) with water and bring that water to a boil. Even though we’re going to be boiling the water, be sure to keep the heat low—if you turn up the heat too high, you can scorch your chocolate and cause it to lose flavor.

Place the bowl or pan you’re using as the top of your double boiler on top of the bottom half and make sure that the bottom of the pan/bowl doesn’t touch the boiling water. If the water is touching the bottom of the pan you’ll be making your chocolate in, you could burn your chocolate.

Next, place your cocoa butter in the pan and melt it. Once your cocoa butter is melted, you can go ahead and add your vanilla and sweetener of choice. You can also adjust the level of honey/sugar to taste. Once the sweetener has been added, stir your cocoa powder into the bowl and mix well. Eliminate any clumps or grainy bits until your chocolate is has a smooth, glossy texture. Then, just take your chocolate and place it in your mold of choice. If you want to add things like nuts or dried fruit to your chocolate, you can add them now. Simply pour a bit of chocolate, place the nuts or fruit on top, and then fill up the rest of the mold. Give the mold a good shake to get rid of any air trapped in your chocolate, and then place in your refrigerator to chill and set for at least an hour. After the chocolate has set, pop it out of the molds and serve! Or, you can decorate them with frosting and chocolate drizzle.

If you’re looking for something a bit less dark, you can add milk to your chocolate to lighten it up. Powdered milk and liquid milk are both fine. Powdered milk can be added when stirring in your cocoa powder, but if you want to add liquid milk do it at beginning when melting your cocoa butter. Otherwise your chocolate will seize (become lumpy, grainy, and stiff) since it’s sensitive to moisture. 

There are some other ways to do this that replace the cocoa butter with milk and butter, allow you to make your cocoa powder from scratch with cocoa beans, or remove the need for a double boiler entirely. You can check out some of those other options here and here. 

For those of you that would rather skip the from-scratch way of doing things and just melt down some chocolate and set it in some cute molds, here are some tips for melting your chocolate. You can melt chocolate with everything from the double boiler to the oven to the microwave. Just be sure to grate or break up your chocolate into small chunks so it melts more easily, and keep the heat low. If you’re going to add milk, cream, or anything else to the chocolate you’re going to melt, be sure to add it to the chocolate BEFORE heating it. Otherwise, your chocolate will seize because of its sensitivity to moisture. Also check out that link if your chocolate seizes. Although your chocolate won’t be suitable for consumption on its own anymore, there are ways to recover it from seizing, and it can be used for things such as sauces, frostings, and batters.

Whew, there. No wonder nobody learns this in Home Ec. It’s complicated, and there are so many ways to screw it up! However, the making of chocolate for loved ones on Valentine’s Day is something I’ve been seeing in media since I was fourteen and started reading manga. 

In Japan, it’s common place for people to make chocolates for the special people in their lives on Valentine’s day. There’s a little more incentive to do this in Japan, however, because all of that hard work is traditionally rewarded on White Day, when the receiver of chocolates traditionally repays the giver of the Valentine’s chocolates with a gift.

This particular tradition is explored in CLAMP’s series XXXHolic. The X’s in this title are traditionally used in Japan as a place holder for a blank, so when the title is pronounced it is usually just ‘Holic. In this series, trans-dimensional witch Yuko grants wishes from her shop. One of the wishes she grants is the ability to travel to different worlds to the four main characters of CLAMP’s other series Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles, Kurogane, Fai, and alternate world versions of the characters Syaoran, and Sakura from CLAMP’s other series Cardcaptor Sakura—keeping track of the different versions of CLAMP’s previous series characters that make apperances in Tsubasa and Holic can be as complicated as making chocolate! Due to Yuko’s involvement in the story of Tsubasa, the two series often crossover during their separate stories. One of the more humorous crossovers is a Valentine’s Day crossover. Yuko, having asked Watanuki to make chocolate for Valentine’s Day as part of his workerly duties, has some chocolate left over.

Yuko sending Valentine’s chocolate for White Day gifts.

As you can see, this is a ploy to ensure that she receives White Day gifts from the Tsubasa gang. When they don’t come deliver, she flies into a rage.

Yuko in a rage.

There are two types of White Day gifts; those given by someone accepting the romantic feelings of someone who confessed their feelings while giving their chocolates on Valentine’s Day, and those that are given out of obligation to people like family members, co-workers, and friends. Essentially, if you receive chocolates on Valentine’s Day that don’t have a romantic attachment, or intend to accept the romantic implications of chocolates you did receive, you’re required to give a White Day gift. It’s considered a social faux pas to forget your White Day duties.

Yuko sharing her feelings on not giving White Day gifts.

Of course, Japan being the role based society that it is, it’s usually women who hand make their chocolates in order to confess their feelings to men. What I love best about this portrayal of the Japanese Valentine’s and White Day ritual is that Yuko challenges these values outright.

Yuko breaking down gender roles like a boss.

So, no matter who you’re making chocolates for this Valentine’s Day, whether they be for your family, your friends, a special someone, or yourself, please enjoy them to the fullest.