Taquitos and Rolled Enfrijoles

I started this dinner out with the corn tortillas that I had made from scratch. I warmed them up to make them easier to roll without cracking, and set them aside. I took some venison from my freezer and cut it into smaller chunks to run through an ancient electric meat grinder. I wanted this to be as much hand made as I could get it to be. There’s no set recipe or amounts. It’s just something I threw together in a pan for something quick to eat for dinner.

You can make this dish yourself with store bought ingredients like ground beef and a jar of red sauce. You can also use store bought corn tortillas to save you time and effort. This dish can be made with little prep time with pre made ingredients, and cooked 20 - 25 minutes.

Venison chunks

I think this old meat grinder predates even the food processor. It was slow and clunky, but it got the job done eventually. I’m probably going to invest in something a bit more modern for future use.

The ancient meat grinder

The ancient meat grinder wheezed and clunked as it spun around and flaked off tiny chunks of meat. It sputtered and seemed almost ready to quit at any moment, but finally the last of the chunked meat came out in tinier pieces.

In the frying pan

The meat was simmered with spices. Mexican oregano, turmeric, black pepper, ancho chili powder, taco seasoning. This was spooned into a corn tortilla and rolled up with a chunk of cheese.

Black bean purée

The black beans I had cooked in my InstantPot were puréed in a food processor with spices (epazote, cumin) until it was a thick paste. This too was spooned and rolled into a corn tortilla. The beans cooked on a high setting for 40 minutes, with a slow pressure release for at least 10 minutes. No presoaking required.

Rolled taquitos and enfrijoles

I had filled the little tortillas so full I had to use a toothpick initially to hold them together in the pan. That’s OK, I can remove them once they’re on a serving plate.

Once everything was layered in the pregreased pan, I poured on a serving of red sauce. This was made from tomato paste, problano peppers, onions, and garlic puréed in a food processor until smooth and thinner than the bean paste. The red sauce got a thick layer of cheese, and was topped off with pico de gallo.

Dinner is ready

The entire pan was baked for 25 minutes at 400*F until the cheeses had melted and everything was nicely browned.

Dinner is served

It makes for a really tasty dish and doesn’t take that long to make. The homemade corn tortillas really sets this dish apart from the normal. Maybe I’m biased, but the corn flavor really pops from the nixtamal freshly made. It blends with the other flavors without overpowering them.