Mexican Submarines: hecho en Canadá

Apparently Mexican submarine sandwiches are called 'Tortas'.  I'm not sure this would be considered traditional fare, as the 'submarine' is an American invention of a largely Italian influence, so I gather.  I guess that begs the question of what you consider Mexican cuisine to be: traditional Mexican faire, or a Mexican take on someone else's dish.  In this case, it's a Canadian's take on an American's take, on the Mexican take on an Italian-American sandwich, made in Canada.  Do the math on that.

Let's have a look at Rick Bayless' Crusty Black Bean and Chorizo Subs after the jump!

Rick recommends Roasted Tomatillo Salsa for this recipe but I didn't have time to swing by any of our regular tomatillo haunts.  So, you have to make do with what you have.  Tomatoes work just fine for me.  I also got some lovely little jalapenos from my good friend and neighbour whose garden is going absolutely gang busters.    I couldn't come up with an interesting way to photograph all of the different salsa ingredients so I stacked up the peppers and garlic on the onion slices and then proceeded to cook them like that too.  It worked out pretty good.  After flipping things over once or twice, the onion, peppers and garlic go in the food processor until the big chunks are gone.  Then the tomatoes go in for one or two pulses, and you're done.  I think I might consider coring the tomatoes first.  Either that, or you have to fish out the centres after blending.

Chorizo! As slid out of the casing by me.  It gets about 10 minutes in the frying pan by itself.

Slide in two cans of black beans and mash the whole works together.  I was supposed to use a Mexican Bean Masher.  All I could find was an Armenian Bean Masher.  So to avoid confusing the cultural heritage of this dish any further, I used a potato masher.  Give it about 9 more minutes in the skillet.

While all that cooking is going on, do everything else.  You're supposed to put avocado in these guys but I couldn't find any soon to be ripe ones at a decent price.  Instead, I picked up a mango.  No queso fresco? Feta.  Some tomatoes also got sliced up, just so people could dress up their sub in whatever fashion they wanted.  

One ping only.  Black bean chorizo filling, salsa on top, covered with cheese and mango.  The crusty rolls are cut in half, lightly hollowed out, and toasted.  Also, a few nacho chips for rescuing any submarine escapees.  This recipe was goofy easy to make; another one man effort to feed five.  The chorizo brings all of the spices that would normally go in, saving you time there.  As well, once the filling hits the table, everybody is going to build their own sandwich.

Tasty!