Crab Tostadas

This more about chopping than cooking. Comfort food pure and simple. Select your favorite tostada toppings, chop them up and put each in a little bowl or dish. Some of them are best cooked and others are better raw.

Preheat oven to 400F.  Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Start with a tostada shell, basically a flat corn tortilla. Place the tortillas onto the parchment paper. You might want to pre-crisp them in the oven for 5 minutes before adding toppings.

The main ingredient on these is crab, or to be more precise, imitation crab. If you have actual crab as we do now and then from crab legs, then that would be a definite upgrade. No crab? I really like these with refried beans as the base, too. Distribute the crab over the tortilla or spread the tortilla with a layer of beans.

Next ingredient is grated cheese. I like organic cheddar, but use whatever cheese you like including vegan, like Daiya. Cover the tortilla with cheese.

Now for the toppings that will be cooked. These include chopped onion, black olives bell peppers and jalapeno peppers. Add them to the tortillas.

Put the tostadas into the preheated oven and cook until bubbly, about  10 minutes.

When they come out, plate them and let everyone top them with the rest of the condiments. These include cherry tomatoes or chopped fresh tomatoes, cilantro, and (vegan) sour cream.

We had these with a side of Spanish Rice and refried beans. Another Tex-Mex night.