Crispy Tortillas with Melted Cheese and Beef

Crispy tortillas with meat and cheese on top are called volcanoes. Why volcanoes? I’m assuming the name comes from the round shape of the tortilla and the hot bubbling cheese on top.

Volcanoes are a tasty way to use up some day-old corn tortillas and left over meat. Plus, they are quick to make, really tasty, and loved by kids.

It takes very few ingredients to prepare volcanoes and you can have a plate of them prepared in under 15 minutes.

Ingredients:

• Corn tortillas – the smaller taco size works best

• A melting cheese – queso Oaxaca, asadero or Chihuahua are good choices. Mozzarrella works fine too.

• Diced beef – Use any leftover beef you might have. You can omit the beef if you like. Volcanoes taste good with just cheese.

• Limes

To make volcanoes:

Preheat a pan or comal over medium heat.

Place a tortilla on the comal or in pan and let it heat up until it begins to char on the bottom side. Don’t worry, the charred tortilla is the best part of the recipe. **A word of warning – the tortillas will start to smoke so turn on the exhaust fan or open a window.**

A nicely charred tortilla. Charring the tortilla gives a lot of flavor to the volcanoes and makes the tortilla hard so that you are able to pick it up with your fingers and eat it like a tostada.

After you have charred the first side of the tortilla, turn tortilla over and then place a good white melting cheese and the diced meat filling on top. Allow the cheese to melt and the tortilla to burn some more.

Take the volcanoes off the heat. Squirt lime juice on the volcanoes. Add salsa to taste and eat immediately.

Variation:

Strips of roasted Poblano chiles are a nice addition.

I also like the volcanoes with a tomatillo salsa.