Romily Alice Walden’s Burrito

Sick Day Banquet

Image Description: A page full of memes about burritos. There is a dog wrapped in a blanket, text reads: “They said I could be anything, so I became a burrito.” Leonardo di Caprio embraces a burrito, which replaces Kate Winslet as his love interest in Titanic. Overlaid on top of a picture of a burrito text reads: “Yesterday I wanted a burrito. Today I am eating a burrito. Follow your dreams.”

Methodology:

I don’t even know if I should call these burritos because in no way do they resemble the complex and delicious flavours of an authentic burrito. But, for me, they do resemble a very comforting and delicious thing that I want to eat when I’m feeling sick, sad, hungry, angry, tired, happy or any time at all. You can make a vat of the mix, freeze it and then eat it with salsa and guacamole if you have the energy, or as is with some rice / cheese if you can’t manage the chopping. When I feel low, I crave tasty, uncomplicated food that also leaves me feeling nourished. There’s something implicitly comforting about holding onto the warm and heavy parcel that is a freshly wrapped burrito; and for that reason I always eat this meal with my hands.

This is also a really lovely meal to share with friends. There’s lots of bowls full of different little bits on the table, so you have to pass things to each-other, help those for whom reaching is hard, share the spoils and talk about what you want. I like that this communal meal facilitates conversations about needs, desires and pleasure concerning food. Whether you cook alone and then share, or make the whole process communal, there is an ingrained element of pleasure-seeking when you construct a meal that can be tweaked and adapted to each individual eater’s desires. I think it can be hard to find moments of pleasure, joy and awareness in day to day life, especially if one is dealing with pain, stress, sickness or care. A moment taken to put together a burrito isn’t going to change your life, but it may well change your mood. Sometimes the simplest pleasures remind me that there can be space for joy and desire, even within suffering.

Guacamole:

4 ripe avocados, mashed 5-10 jalapeño slices from a jar, finely chopped + some jalapeño liquid from the jar if you like spicy

Salsa:

8 tomatoes roughly chopped
a handful of sweetcorn from a can
Juice from 1-3 limes to taste
1 small handful fresh coriander including stalks, finely chopped pinch of salt
1 large fresh red chilli deseeded and finely chopped
1/2 a finely chopped red onion

Recommended Extras:

Wheat or corn wraps Grated cheddar cheese Sour Cream Shredded lettuce
Chopped fresh coriander to serve.

*it is also very easy to make this vegan by leaving out the cheese and sour cream. And GF is possible too if you use 100% corn tortillas

1/2 a large fresh red chilli deseeded and finely chopped 1/2 a finely chopped red onion Juice from 2-3 limes to taste
1 small handful fresh coriander including stalks, finely chopped 1 tomato, finely chopped
pinch of salt

Burrito Filling:

1 large aubergine
2 big peppers (red,yellow or orange)
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes 3 red chillies (this makes it medium spicy)
2 red or white onions
3 cloves of garlic
2 tins chopped tomatoes
3 tins of kidney or black beans Lingham’s chilli sauce (available in big Tesco/ waitrose/online)
1 teaspoon cumin

Method:

Guacamole and salsa: chop / prep ingredients for each in a separate bowl. Adjust salt/lime/coriander quantities to taste.

Burrito filling: Chop the aubergine and peppers into 2-3 cm chunks. Heat up a good slug of olive oil in a large pan and fry the aubergines and peppers for 10-15 minutes until softened and golden at the edges. Add more oil if needed.

Roughly chop the onions and chili and garlic.
Cook the onions in olive oil in a separate pan for 10-15 minutes on a medium heat until soft and golden, then add in the chili and garlic and cumin and cook for another few minutes.
Combine both pans. Add in the cherry tomatoes and another glug of oil. Cook on medium for another 5 minutes until the cherry tomatoes are a little browned/bruised.
Add in your chopped tomatoes, beans and a really good glug of the linghams chili sauce.
Cook with the lid on, at low/medium for 30 mins stirring occasionally, then with the lid off stirring occasionally for another 30 minutes. This filling tastes best if cooked a few hours or even the day before eating.

To serve:

Ladle some burrito filling in a line in the centre of your wrap. Add salsa, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, coriander or any combination of these things.

Wrap as below and enjoy either very messily with your hands or much more politely with a knife and fork.

Image description: Four photos of a hand rolling a burrito

Romily Alice Walden is a transdisciplinary artist whose work centers a queer, disabled perspective on the fragility of the body. Their practice spans sculpture, installation, video and printed matter, all of which is undertaken with a socially engaged and research-led working methodology. Recent work has shown at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art: Newcastle, Hebel Am Uffer: Berlin, SOHO20: New York and Tate Modern: London. In 2019 Romily was a Shandaken Storm King resident and in 2020 will be resident at Rupert, Lithuania. Romily is currently a fellow of the UdK Graduate School, Berlin.

Audio description of Romily Alice Walden’s Burrito recipe