Burrito a la Calafia

I made a californian burrito for dinner last night. It was the most delicious non-traditional burrito I've ever had. Don't get me wrong - I really love my carnitas, and salsa verde super burrito with sour cream, guac, the works, etc (secretly I even sometimes crave for chipotle, even though La Vics still comes up top). But last night's burrito, well, that was something else.

So what exactly is a californian burrito? In my books, it' a burrito that has ingredients that are decidedly californian, or exhibit properties of "californian cuisine", (which I define as a fine juxtaposition of flavors from east to west, but always firmly grounded on fresh and local produce).

Side note about the Burrito - when I was at Masa's there were these two servers, a pair of brothers, Hugo & Victor. Hugo once swore to me that the Burrito originated in California, because when he was in Mexico growing up, there didn't exist such a thing as the burrito as we know it, What d'ya know, maybe all burritos are californian after all!

Anyway, it started off with some cold grilled sancho seasoned chicken breast, that I had used to test-drive the new grill with. By the way, I was in a hurry to do the test run because this Friday we have a Gigya BBQ, and if the grill doesn't work, I'm pretty sure there would be a host of disappointment. Anyway, the grill worked perfectly, but then we had to leave for dinner & the Opera, so I stuck the grilled chicken in the fridge. I'm not even sure what possessed me to use sancho.

Sunday dinners are always a blur, and I usually try to make stuff out of leftovers, so this was no exception. Plus, in the afternoon, I made an awesome romesco sauce (which is another story in itself), and felt like that would stand in well for salsa! For your information, the romesco sauce is also for that BBQ which is happening later in the week.

Not to mention, I picked up a ripe hass avocado (now everyone knows there's nothing more californian than a hass avocado), and had a leftover tomato from the romesco sauce to make an awesome guacamole.

Back to leftovers, I had the shredded cheddar cheese from the previous week's sausage casserole, and also leftover tortillas from when I went snowboarding and made breakfast burritos for everyone. Yes, I know that was a while ago, but tortillas keep pretty well ok?

So anyway, I piled the sliced sancho chicken, guacamole, cheese and romesco sauce on a giant tortilla, rolled it up and then stuck it in the toaster oven at 450F for about 15 minutes, just enough to get everything hot.

And then, I bit into it.

Oh yum. The cheese was melted, and the romesco sauce was just all over the chicken so that it didn't dry out. Plus, that Hass Guac - mmmmm, the perfect rich mouth feel that you have to have with a good burrito. It was healthy too!

I think it'll be on the menu for a while.

Californian Burritos

Serves 2

2 ea Flour Tortilla
1 ea Chicken Breast, seasoned, grilled or roasted and sliced
1/2 cup Cheese Shredded
1/2 cup Romesco sauce or jar salsa
Guac from 1 Avocado

Preheat the oven to 450F
Seperate all the ingredients and pile them onto each tortilla shell
Roll the tortilla up and stick it in the oven for 15 minutes


Here's how I make my guac:
1 Avocado, peeled, stoned & sliced
1 Roma Tomato, small dice
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1 Tbs Yellow onion, minced
1 stalk Green Onion, chopped
Juice of half a meyer lemon (if possible, if not regular lemons are fine too)
Salt & pepper

Mash the avocado, then mix in all the other ingredients well
Generously season with salt

Meyer Lemon Oyster Mignonette

Mignonette sauce has traditionally been the perfect accompaniment to raw oysters, along with cocktail sauce - which I often find masks the flavor of the oysters, and so don't like.

Typically mignonette is made with a vinegar (cider, sherry, champagne), minced shallots and cracked black pepper.  I'm not a big fan of vinegar, so I decided to jazz the mignonette up with another classic condiment to oysters - lemons!  What's better than oysters with lemon? 

Oysters with meyer lemons!

Meyer lemons are a cross between the traditional lemon, and oranges, (often thought to be mandarin), and came to California from China as an ornamental plant.  They are less sour than regular lemons, and have a gorgeous citrus bouquet, that makes me heady every time I put one close to my nose.   In my opinion, you can substitute meyer lemons for regular lemons in almost any recipe for a little hint of surprise to the palate.

Take this mignonette sauce along when you're at an oyster picnic, or serve up with your raw bar for a great spring appetizer at home!

Meyer Lemon Mignonette there on the left - also good with grilled oysters

Meyer Lemon Mignonette Sauce

1 ea Shallot, brunoise (fine mince)

2 ea Meyer Lemons, Juiced, and strained to removed pulp and seeds

1 tsp Sugar

2 tsp Black Pepper, Coarsely Ground

Mix all ingredients together and shake to combine well.

Chill before using.

Keeps 2 weeks in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer