Refried butter beans and Feta Tetelas.
The first time I wrote about Tetelas I described them as the “Mexican samosa”, but these beauties are special in their own right and deserve to be known in the world , this recipe is a humble homage to them and I hope I can do a bit of justice to how unique and delicious they are, I hope they too will become more known and more people get to try a little piece of the Tetela magic and Mexican antojitos .
Originally from the Oaxaca region, tetelas have become very popular in the past few years in Mexico and so it has the gastronomy from that enchanting town, simply pressed tortillas made of nixtamal masa are smeared with refried beans , and folded in a very distinctive triangle shape, warmed up up over a really hot “comal” or pan , served with a bit of salsa and crema, tetelas really are meant to be eaten and enjoyed at any time of the day.
If you live in Mexico or the USA I recommend for this recipe to buy the masa fresh and ready directly from a tortilleria and if is nixtamal masa even better as this will have a more authentic taste.
I was lucky to get some freshly grind blue corn nixtmal masa from my friends from @true.masa in London to make these, but in reality is not easy to source in the UK, so you can make your own and still get a good result by using blue corn flour for tortillas or the regular white corn flour that you can normally get on Amazon.
Makes about 12.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp rapeseed oil.
1 white onion (finely chopped).
1 fat garlic clove (minced).
1 chili jalapeño or serrano (finely chopped).
1 tin of organic butter beans.
1 tsp ground pasilla.
1/2 cup of orange juice.
1 cup of vegetable or chicken stock.
Handful of coriander.
Sea salt and black coarse pepper to taste.
300 grams Feta cheese.
Greek Yoghurt crema.
1 cup of greek yoghurt.
1/2 lemon juice.
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil.
1/2 cup of water.
1 tsp maldon salt.
Guacamole salsa.
1 ripe avocado.
1/2 white onion (finely chopped).
2 red chilies (finely chopped).
Handful of coriander (finely chopped).
1 lime (juice and zest).
2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil).
Maldon salt and black pepper to taste.
For the masa:
1/2 kg of fresh blue corn masa.
or
2 cups of corn flour to make tortillas.
2 tsp sea salt.
1 1/2 cups of hot boiling water.
Method.
To make your refried butter beans, heat up the oil in a pan and add your onion and garlic, fry slowly and once your onion has soften up you may add the chilli, butter beans and ground pasilla, stir and fry for a minute or two. Add the orange juice, chicken stock, coriander and season with salt and pepper, stir and simmer on low heat until the liquid reduces to half, remove the pan from the heat and place your bean mixture into a blender, blend smooth, set aside.
For the greek yoghurt crema just simply combine all the ingredients into a small bowl.
For the guacamole salsa you have two options, you can either add all the ingredients into the blender and a bit of water and make a creamy salsa, or you can finely chop your avocado and combine the ingredients into a bowl, I prefer the later with a more chunky salsa, reserve.
Prepare your masa by combining the ingredients into a bowl, once is manageable knead briefly over your kitchen counter, you know it’s ready when the masa is soft and moist but not sticky. Heat up a non stick pan and follow the next steps to make the Tetelas:
Form masa balls with your hands as if you were making tortillas and place it in between two pieces of plastic film.
Press your masa ball in the tortilla press.
Add a spoonful of refried butter beans and crumbled feta.
Fold the top of your tortilla creating a triangle. (Check picture below).
Fold the bottom upwards and seal by pressing lightly with the tip of your fingers.
Warm up in a hot pan until they look cooked on each side, serve warm, and repeat procedure with the rest of the masa.
Serve warm with a bit of guacamole salsa on top and a good drizzle of greek yoghurt crema, enjoy!
