White Bean Corn Tacos

This is a dish inspired by the kitchen staff at the Cheeky Monkey, who are great people and who feed me occasionally as I am mopping the floor before the deli opens. One morning I was given a plate with a few little corn tortillas with some kind of yummy white bean filling. Mm! Muchas gracias. A few days ago during Gregorian Singers rehearsal I was thinking about what I could cook for dinner and these popped into my head - it would conveniently deplete my stock of fridgey stuff and have it all come together in a delicious synergy. Now my fridge is empty, but my belly full.

White Bean Corn Tacos
(makes 4-5 little tacos, enough for a couple people)

Ingredients:

• Little corn tortillas
• Vegetable oil
  
• An egg
• An avocado
• A small zucchini
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
  
• An onion, chopped
  
• 1/4 of a lime
• White beans - not too many - 1/8 of a can, perhaps, is what I had left over in my fridge
• 2 Tablespoons or so of Parmesan
  
• 2 Tablespoons or so of raw-milk cheddar or other variety of cheese you might have in your fridge
• Cilantro, enough to garnish
• A dash of chili powder
• A dash of cumin
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Music:

• Common Tones in Simple Time by John Adams
• Symphony No. 5 by Sibelius

1. Heat 1-2 Tablespoons veggie oil over medium-high heat in a medium skillet (add more oil later if what you're cooking looks too dry or about to burn). Add garlic, cook for a few seconds, then add the onion and stir it around a bit. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the garlic and onions until they are soft. Add the spices at this point - pepper, salt, cumin, chili powder. I didn't measure so just add as much as you want of cumin and chili powder, be slightly careful about pepper and incredibly cautious with the salt. Just a sprinkle and you can add more later if it needs it. This takes about 10 minutes to cook.

2. Add the zucchini and cook it just a few minutes, tasting it to make sure you don't overcook it. Scoop out the avocado now and add it, too, squishing it around to mix it in. Oh, put in the white beans now, too, and be careful not to break them with your wooden spoon.

3. When the zucchini's almost cooked, add in the cheese, cilantro, and lime. Stir it around, melt the cheese, then when the cheese is melted and the zucchini cooked and the spices adjusted you can turn off the heat and break the egg over the pan and stir rapidly to get it mixed in around everywhere. Yummmmmmmy.

4. Here is where you take a smaller frying pan and your little tortillas and a little splash of veggie oil and heat them over medium heat, half-filled with mixture, like so:



Spoon on the mix and then close the tortilla into a taco shell so it's pretty and easily edible, like so:


Cook it just a minute or two, until the corn tortilla is hot and a little crispy. That's it! Enjoy! If you have leftovers, sprinkle some Parmesan over them before you put them in the microwave. It looks quite lovely.