Recipes, Sausage Recipes

Black bean & chorizo tostada, roasted tomato salsa

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Like sausage and beans on toast but infinitely better for the Mexican treatment…one of the finest cuisines in the world. In absence of green tomatoes for your green salsa and unsweetened gooseberries can be a delicious replacement.

Three black bean & chorizo tostadas served with roasted tomato salsa and sour cream.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the black beans

For the salsa

Shop the ingredients

Directions

For the beans:

  1. Melt the lard in a heavy bottomed pan, over a medium heat. Then add the onions, bay leaves, and a pinch of salt. Cook with a lid on, stirring regularly, for 10 minutes.
  2. Add the garlic, dried oregano, epazote, and avocado leaves and cook for a further 10 minutes, continuing to stir regularly.
  3. Turn the heat up, and then add the drained beans and season with salt. Keep stirring and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the water and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
  4. Tip the beans into a food processor and pulse. You do not want a super smooth puree, but rather something textured.
  5. Return the beans to the pan and taste for seasoning. Adjust as necessary.

For the salsa:

  1. Place a frying pan over a high heat and allow to get scorching hot. Then add the tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, and shallot. Keep the heat high and allow everything to blacken. Move things around from time to time. For the shallots, keep the cut side exposed to the pan.
  2. After 5-6 minutes, turn the heat off and leave to cool slightly.
  3. Cut the stalks off the jalapeños and remove the skins from the garlic and the shallot and add everything to a food processor, along with the coriander, groundnut oil, and the juice of both limes. Season everything with salt and then blitz.
  4. Taste for seasoning and adjust as necessary.

To toast the tostadas:

  1. Place a frying pan over a low heat and allow to get hot.
  2. Add a tablespoon of groundnut oil, and then add the tacos 2 or 3 at a time, depending on the size of the pan. Cook slowly for 2 minutes, then flip and cook for another 2 minutes. The tacos should now be crisp tostadas.
  3. Once all the tacos are toasted, use the pan to fry off the chorizo. Remove it from its skin and crumble it into the hot pan — fry until lovely and caramelised.
  4. Smear the black beans onto the tostada, spoon over some chorizo, a little salsa and a dollop of crème fraîche…what a mouthful!

Valentine Warner is a chef, food writer, business owner and broadcaster, with a deep interest in nature, travel and provincial food. He describes his cooking style as ‘International Grandmother’ and combines his strong sense of storytelling with his infectious love of cookery. Val has a deep respect and understanding of ingredients, both wild and cultivated, and has the instinctive ability to rustle up hearty and wholesome meals from whatever’s available. Val is an avid proponent of native food sources, and finds common ground with Swaledale in their work to deliver top-notch meat, within a truthful, ethical and high welfare framework. Originally a trained portrait painter, Val has also authored 5 cookbooks, managed his own catering company and is a co-owner of Taqueria, a West London Mexican cafe. Val is also a partner in the Hepple Distillery in Northumberland and Holmen Lofoten hotel on arctic Norway’s Lofoten island.