…if what they want is GOOD food.

If you have any smoky chipotle black beans leftover, you might want to consider making this tostada — a dish that represents the marriage of two of my all-time favorite recipes.

Lucky enough to live only a short drive from the Napa Valley, I’ve had the opportunity to dine at Cindy Pawlcyn’s restaurants since I was a boy.  Having eaten amazing meals at Go Fish and Mustards Grill, the most memorable dish came on a visit to Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen for lunch when I first tasted her famous Rabbit Tostada.  Imagine tender, juicy chile-braised rabbit nestled on top of warm, earthy black beans and a crispy fried tortilla.  Finished with a refreshing salad of herbs, thinly sliced cabbage and tart feta cheese, quite simply, this is as good as a tostada can get.

The other half of this recipe comes from pioneering chef, Robert Del Grande and his restaurant, Cafe Annie.  While I still haven’t had the opportunity to visit the iconic Houston restaurant, I have made his signature bar staple, Black Bean Nachos with Red Chile Beef.  With each tortilla chip covered in the perfect amount of over five different flavor components, it goes without saying that these were the most delicious and extravagant nachos I’d ever eaten.  However, at a prep time of close to three hours, I haven’t gotten around to making them as often as I would like.

Hence, the Red Chile Beef Tostada was born.  Taking key elements from each dish, I’ve put together a recipe that pays homage to the very best of each chef.  Rich, meaty red chile beef fills in for the guajillo-braised rabbit in Cindy’s dish, whereas a black bean topped tostada and refreshing cabbage slaw takes the place of the bite-size nacho in Robert’s.  The result is too delicious to describe. You’re just going to have to try it.

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I didn’t eat much roast beef growing up; the only place I ever really saw it was in sandwiches. In fact, my first encounter with this particular roast beef came about after a botched attempt at an Italian beef sandwich.  See, I have a thing for sandwiches.  I expect perfection: not too small, not too crusty, and each flavor component should burst with each bite. Unlike my reproduction of the BELT, my beef sando effort was doomed from the start. First I ruined the relish. Then I realized I wasn’t going to have nearly the jus required for an authentic, “wet” Chicago-style hoagie. Instead, I was left with a perfectly cooked,  medium-rare eye-round roast — there are worse problems, I know. Now Lauren begs me to make this “failure” every couple of weeks.

Employing a few slow-roasting techniques that I’ve picked up over the years as well some overnight salting, I’ve refined this recipe into a roast that yields superbly seasoned, tender and juicy meat.  Served alongside mashed potatoes with a horseradish cream sauce or steak sauce and you have a cheap dinner that definitely satisfies any serious beef cravings.

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I usually do the cooking in my house, but on a recent trip to the farmers market, my girlfriend stumbled upon a vendor selling what looked to be the last of this season’s tomatoes and was instantly inspired to make this soup. A little overripe, she decided that the still beautiful specimens would taste especially good after roasting in the oven to concentrate their flavor.  Now, I myself am not the biggest tomato soup fan, but I was blown away at how delicious and flavorful the end product became. Somewhere between a tomato bisque and an earthy, slow-cooked tomato sauce, this soup had me sopping up the leftovers from the pot with a piece of toasted sourdough. Perfectly seasoned and especially comforting on a foggy San Francisco evening, my place in the kitchen might be in jeopardy if my girlfriend continues to turn out such satisfying fare.

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