Beans! Part 3

I did it! I continued on with the Cooks Illustrated recipe for Cristianos & Moros and it was completely worth it! I don't think I've ever seen my wife enjoy any version of rice & beans nearly so much. I apologize that this post is spread across 3 postings, a complete ingredient list is given at the very end of this post.

So continuing from Beans! and Beans! Part 2, at this point, I had already soaked the beans overnight (1 c. black beans in 2 quarts water + 1 1/2 Tbs salt), then rinsed them the next day and put them back in the dutch oven and simmered with 4 c. water, half a bouillon cube, 1/2 onion (whole), 1/2 head garlic (whole), 4 bay leaves, 1/2 bell pepper (whole) for 30 min until the beans were just soft. *By (whole) I mean don't chop any of those vegetables up! Remove the bay leaves and veggies when the beans are done. Drain the beans, SAVING THE BEAN STOCK. You can leave the beans in the dutch oven in the fridge for a couple of days until you're ready to continue with the recipe if need be. 

To finish cooking:
Take the beans out of the dutch oven. Do not clean the dutch oven, but let it come to room temperature (if it's coming out of the fridge). While it does that, you can prep the veggies and rice:

1 large onion halved, chopped into 1/4 in pieces (or 1 whole med onion)
1 1/2 green bell peppers, chopped into 1/4 in pieces (I used 4-5 small yellow bell peppers!)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 c. long grain rice
canola oil
1-3 Tbs tomato paste (or salsa? I used homemade catsup... yep all about emptying the fridge out!)
4 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
2 Tbs red wine vinegar

1) Adjust the oven rack to the middle of the oven and preheat to 350o F. Rinse the rice under cold running water for ~1 1/2 minutes until the water runs clear. Shake to remove excess water. Set aside.
2) Place dutch oven on stove top burner and heat to medium. Pour in canola oil (2-3 Tbs?) and saute the onion until browned and soft (15-20 min with lots of stirring). Add in the bell pepper, garlic, oregano, and cumin and saute until the pepper is softened. Add tomato paste and rice, stirring to coat for ~30 sec. (if you need to add a bit more oil to keep things from sticking to the pan during this process, it's fine, add more oil!)
3) Stir in the beans, 2 1/2 c. reserved bean cooking liquid, vinegar, and 1/4 tsp salt. Bring contents to a simmer (may  need to turn up the heat on your stove), but stir a couple of times to make sure there is no burning on the bottom of the pan. Cover and put in the oven. Bake for 30 min (liquid should be absorbed and rice cooked). Fluff with a fork and leave covered for 5 min, then serve.
Lime wedges and tortillas go excellently with this meal.
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Total ingredient list:
1 c. black beans (uncooked)
2 c. water
2 c. broth
4 bay leaves
salt
1 large onion
2 large green bell peppers
1 head of garlic
1 1/2 c. long grain rice
canola oil
1-3 Tbs tomato paste (or salsa? I used homemade catsup... yep all about emptying the fridge out!)
4 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
2 Tbs red wine vinegar

Asian Salmon Cakes

In addition to the wide selection of UGO's that I inherited from my last friend who moved, there was also a can of salmon, which has lingered on our shelf for the last 9 months. Today I resolved to clear it off the shelf by making some asian influenced salmon cakes. Little did I know what awaited me by opening the can... apparently I have only dealt with canned tuna up until now. Salmon in a can is so frightening! Full of bones and skin that is supposed all soft and chewy ...  umm no. So after picking out about half of the contents of the can and deeming them suitably satisfactory to be consumed, I whipped up some fast & easy salmon cakes! The cat was very happy to help out with the other half of the can.

Asian Salmon Cakes  
1- 213g - can of salmon (or fresh if you're lucky)
1 green onion finely chopped (white and green bits)
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1/4-1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp salt (?)
1/4-1/2 c. panko (or breadcrumbs)
1 egg, beaten well
sesame oil (or canola oil)
flour
sweet chili sauce

Stir salmon, green onion, ginger, garlic and salt together. Mix in egg and panko. I added panko until it was a consistency that I could shape into a burger, then pat the outsides with a bit of flour to help get a crispy edge. Form 3 salmon cakes. Heat oil in a skillet on medium heat. Place salmon cakes in the skillet and cook until browned/crispy on one side, flip, and repeat. Serve with sweet chili sauce.

Beans! Part 2

Well, I wasn't home to finish transforming the beans into a meal so I left my wife in charge, which is never a good idea. I may have recipe ADD, but she has domestic blindness when it comes to ingredients, especially ingredients that I've gone ahead and prepared to save her work!!! Never finds them in the fridge, or remembers that I told her that I prepped them. But I love her anyways because she still goes out of her way to complete the recipe despite the "missing ingredients".

Unfortunately I did not get to taste the stock from the crock pot beans, but she claims the beans were tasty so we'll go with that. I imagine that if you were going to serve the beans direct from the crock pot, they might actually need some more flavor like some fried onions, cumin, etc, but they did work wonderfully well in the "burgers". This is in quotes because they're really more like pancakes. They don't achieve a thickness that's quite satisfying for layering toppings on and stuffing in a bun, but don't let that deter you from their tastiness!

Black Bean Sweet Potato Burgers (adapted from Extra VeganZa)
2 c. cooked black beans (which means starting from 1 c. raw black beans or using a 14 oz can)
1 c. sweet potato, grated (I used the large grater size)
1/2 c. natural peanut butter (or almond butter)
1/4 c. black olives, diced
1/4 c. whole spelt or whole wheat flour (we ended up adding 1/2 c. in total -- I think  some combo of flour and bread crumbs might work well also)
2 tbsp tamari (or a mixture of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce to taste)
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger

Mash the beans in a medium sized bowl and then stir in the remaining ingredients. Make sure the thickness is appropriate. Heat a cast-iron frying pan to medium heat and add a bit of canola oil. Scoop 1/3 c. of batter for each burger into the pan and fry for ~3-5 min on each side until browned, then flip and brown the other side. (We actually flattened the burgers in the pan, but the original recipe may suggest just leaving it as the ball of batter that emerges from the scooping process since it wanted you to fry each burger for 7-10 min on one side...)  Make sure the burgers are cooked through. You can always turn the heat down if the outside is cooking too quickly. Serve with sweet chili sauce on buns or alone!
Makes 10-12 burgers.

Oh and the other pot of beans in the dutch oven was rinsed after almost 24 hours of soaking, put back in the dutch oven and simmered with 4 c. water, half a bouillon cube, 1/2 onion, 4 bay leaves, 1/2 bell pepper for 30 min until the beans were just soft. I think the beans would have been amazing if I had used homemade veggie stock for the cooking process, but at this point I'm not sure if they will become rice in a very basic rice & beans dish or if I will muster up the courage to continue with the Cooks Illustrated recipe! 

Beans!

Once again, recipe ADD has me in a tizzy this week - I've somehow managed to purchase ingredients for curried lentils and potatoes, black bean sweet potato almond burgers, and chickpea quinoa burgers... ACK! I've decided for now to go with the black beans. Luckily enough, my first copy of Cooks Illustrated arrived this week with an article on how to make the best Cristianos y Moros (rice & beans in less than PC terms) using a dutch oven. I decided to use their method of flavorful bean cooking as the base for my burgers.  But, since I would prefer to be able to cook beans in the crock pot while I'm at work, I started a similar batch that will be prepared with the exact same ingredients in the crock pot. Then I can compare the two versions! That is, if I can resist converting the dutch oven version to the Cristianos y Moros recipe...

The beans are currently spending the night soaking (1 c. black beans in 2 quarts water + 1 1/2 Tbs salt. I may regret the high salt amount later....) Tomorrow, the cook off!

Update: The crock pot beans were rinsed after a 10 hour soak and put back in the crock pot with 6 c. water, a half onion, a large chunk of carrot, a rib of celery, 5 garlic cloves, 4 bay leaves, a 1/4 - 1/2 cube of veggie bouillon and half a red pepper. Turned them on for 8 hours on low.

Dutch oven beans continue to soak while I am at work...

Strawberry Spinach Salad

The beautiful box of strawberries intended, but unused, for our fabulous tea sandwiches was begging to be used, so I happily obliged with the most standard salad pairing: spinach! Beautiful bright green tender bunches of leaves and now that I know sorrel can be a stand-in, I will be using that as well next time. I modified a recipe from Extra VeganZa, which I haven't used much yet, but intend to soon!

Walnut Strawberry Spinach Salad
1 bunch fresh spinach, cleaned and stems removed
strawberries, stems removed and thinly sliced (for an individual serving, about 4-5 strawberries)
walnuts, coarsely chopped (untoasted) (for an individual serving, about 1/4 c.)
red onion, thinly sliced (you won't need more than 1/2 of a red onion for a large bowl of salad, for an individual serving, just a sprinkling)
*goat cheese is optional*

Dressing
1 1/2 tbs raspberry wine vinegar (red wine vinegar would also work)
1 1/2 tbs cider vinegar (used because I ran out of raspberry wine vinegar)
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs canola oil (again you can use 2 tbs of either oil if preferred)
2 tbs maple syrup
1/4-1/2 tsp seal salt
1 tbs poppy seeds
 2 tsp Dijon whole grain mustard 

Place the spinach in a large bowl (or small plate) and top with strawberries, red onion, walnuts, and optional goat cheese in desired quantities.
For the dressing, whisk together all ingredients (or shake in a lidded jar). Pour over salad before serving. Note that the poppy seeds don't really settle into the dressing, so if you're only using part of the dressing, for an individual salad, I recommend gently whisking while pouring to ensure some of the poppy seeds stay in the jar :)

Confessions

After reviewing a couple of my recipes, I feel the need to apologize that many of the ingredient quantities listed in my recipes are vague! It's because I always start with a base amount and continue modifying with certain ingredients until it tastes the way I want it to. We all have different tastes in food so why not give a range that expresses the flexibility needed to suit different people? And I promise that it's not because in the process of modifying, I don't precisely measure how much more salt I have added, or that last amount of garlic... what kind of type A, scientist person would do that?

Similarly, I have to confess a need to bake less. We simply don't have enough people to fob off baked goods onto, or people who are into spontaneous eating fests. The quantity of baked goods consumed by the two individuals in our household is becoming too great relative to the amount of exercise the two of us get. I am going to TRY to focus more on non-dessert and non-baked goods items. *Fingers crossed* We'll see how long it lasts...

And just because I can post it here: the new giant kitty tree that dominates our living room. Molly loves it, to say the least.

Oh, and not that I made it, but because I'm so impressed with my wife's pasta making skills!

To dress the pasta, we had sauteed onion, leeks, button mushrooms, and zucchini in a rosemary infused olive oil and homemade pesto.

Lavender-Earl Grey Scones for a Royal Wedding

Once again an evening or afternoon spent with M. always seems to end with all of us completely overstuffed and certain food items on the menu remaining unmade or uneaten due to our complete inability to plan a rational amount of food for a gathering of 3 people. Exhibit A: Good Friday Fish Supper. Exhibit B: Gathering to watch the Royal Wedding (and yes, I was only there for the food). The menu included: cheese scones, lavender earl grey scones, whipping cream & jam to top the scones, deviled eggs, watercress and cucumber sandwiches, salmon sandwiches, strawberries and baslamic cream cheese sandwiches, chips, vegetables & dip, oh and donuts. Ridiculous, yes??

In the end, we didn't make any of the planned tea sandwiches, but the scones were a smashing success. I used my basic scone recipe from the buttermilk chai ginger scones, and added decaf earl grey tea and a lavender-tulsi tea. I think next time I will try to add a bit of orange zest and leave out the lavender altogether.

Lavender Earl Grey Scones
2 c. all purpose flour
1 Tbs baking powder
1/3 c. sugar
a dash of salt
1-2 tsp earl grey tea (from a tea bag - if you use whole leaves, grind them in a coffee grinder first)
1/2-1 tsp lavender tea (same as above)
1/3 c. butter
1 c. buttermilk (I rarely buy buttermilk and just use 1 c. milk to which 1 Tbs. vinegar, white or cider, has been added and let sit for 5 min or so)


1 heaping tsp (total) earl grey/lavender tea steeped in 1/4 c. boiling water

Steep the tea and boiling water for ~1/3 min. Remove tea bag (or strain if using loose leaf tea). Set aside.

Sift the dry ingredients together and stir in the tea. Cut butter into the dry ingredients until a coarse crumb texture is achieved. Mix in the dry tea leaves. Use 1 Tbs of the steeped tea stirred into the buttermilk. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir just until mixed. Knead on a lightly floured surface gently, adding a bit more flour if the dough is too wet, and then press into a circle ~ 1/2" thick. Cut into 8 wedges and place on a baking tray. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 min until golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack before wrapping.