Are you playing Wordle? The online word-based guessing game is hot among my friends, so I’m playing, too.
If you’re not playing, it provides a few minutes each day to challenge your brain. You start with a five-letter word – my favorite is “adieu,” because it has almost all the vowels – and, by a process of elimination, try to figure out the word in six guesses or less. If the letter appears in the mystery word, it’s green if it’s in the right place and yellow if it isn’t. Letters in your guesses that don’t appear in the mystery word are gray.
I was Wordle-ing the other afternoon and simultaneously musing about what to make for dinner when I realized that a lot of my dinners come together in the same way as each day’s Wordle solution.
I don’t like to make a grocery run for one or two ingredients, because I know myself well enough to know that one or two ingredients invariably turns into five or six or more, and that runs up my grocery bill.
So instead, I ponder various dishes and try to come up with something that doesn’t require a special trip to the store. By a process of elimination, I eventually settle on a dish that uses only what is already in the pantry and fridge.
Sometimes that’s as simple as breakfast-for-dinner – eggs, perhaps, or French toast, or biscuits with a simple “gravy,” like the tomato gravy I learned to love when I lived in the Deep South. Other times, it’s a little more creative.
That’s the case with these simple potato-and-cheese flautas, which are rolled tacos quickly fried to crisp them up. They’re a traditional Mexican dish served in Mexico City and its environs.
Like so many simple dishes from around the world, the flautas provide a quick, inexpensive, nourishing meal from everyday ingredients that most cooks have on hand most of the time.
Here’s how I made them the other night, using only ingredients I had on hand.
Potato-cheese flautas
Makes about 4 servings
If you don’t feel like making composed plates for serving, you can simply serve these rolled taquitos with some salsa for dipping and serve the salad on the side. A friend says her mother taught her to put a toothpick in each rolled flauta before frying, so you can keep track of how many you’ve eaten.
Ingredients
3 medium russet potatoes, peeled
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup shredded Oaxacan cheese, or another bland white cheese that melts well
1/4 cup milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
12 corn tortillas
1/2 cup neutral oil
2 cups shredded iceberg or romaine lettuce, for serving
Salsa verde, for serving
1 16-ounce container crema Mexicana, for serving
1 tomato, diced, for serving
1 cup cotija cheese, crumbled, for serving
Preparation
Place the peeled potatoes in a pot large enough to hold them and cover them with water. Add the salt. If time is an issue, cut the potatoes into chunks so they’ll cook faster.
Place the pot on medium-high heat and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the pot, tipping the lid a bit so it won’t boil over. Cook the potatoes until they’re completely fork-tender all the way through, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Drain the potatoes and place them in a large bowl. Mash or rice them, then stir in the cheese and milk. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Lay out a corn tortilla and fill it with some of the mashed potatoes in a rough log shape. Roll the taco to enclose the filling, leaving the ends open. Secure the tortilla with a toothpick if desired. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and filling.
Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the filled tacos until golden brown in batches. Remove fried tacos and drain on paper towels while you finish cooking the rest.
To serve, divide the shredded lettuce among four plates. Place three flautas atop the lettuce, and spoon over some salsa verde. Drizzle crema over flautas and salsa, then scatter the diced tomato and cotija cheese over each serving.
