Black Beans: Simple and delicious

My dear friend Erin is leaving Champaign for Salt Lake City.  Our community will be less without her.  Last night, we held a farewell party for her, and several attendees asked me to post the some of the recipes.  I cooked for two lovely, but hot days.  Tacos for 45.  Now that's a lot of tacos!  I made 4 salsas: de arbol, roasted tomatillo, roasted tomato, and a mango xnipek that was hot enough to blow off your head; 3 fillings: chicken with red chile sauce, sautéed vegetables in a tomatillo sauce, and a wonderfully delicious poblano and chard rajas; lime and cilantro rice; corn salad with jicama; queso fresco, and these wonderful black beans.  This recipe is vegetarian and can easily be made into a soup with the addition of vegetable broth.  I hope you enjoy it as much as my guests did.

Ingredients for cooking beans
1 lb. dried black beans, picked over and washed
2 serrano chiles
1 t. garlic powder
2 bay leaves
1 t. dried epasote
1 t. Mexican Oregano

Ingredients for finishing beans
3 T. vegetable oil
1 white onion, chopped into 1/4 inch dice
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 chipolte pepper in adobo, finely minced
1 t. adobo from chipolte can
1/2 t. cumin powder
1/2 t. dried epasote
1/2 t. dried mexican oregano
1/2 c. orange juice
1/2 lime, juiced
salt
1/4 c. cilantro, finely chopped

Directions


The night before you make your beans, sort them looking for stones, wash them and soak them in a large pot with at least three times as much cold water as you have beans.  About 4-5 hours before you want to eat them, rinse your beans and throw out the now purple water.  But the beans back in a large pot (preferably a pot with a heavy bottom such as an enameled cast iron pot).  Add enough water to cover the beans by 4 inches of water.  Add serrano chiles, garlic powder, bay leaves, epasote, and oregano.  Bring the water to a boil and simmer until the beans are tender (taste 4-5--they should each be soft).
In a second heavy bottomed dutch oven, heat the oil and sauté the onions until they are browned on the edges and are quite golden.  Add the garlic, chipolte, adobo, epasote, cumin, and oregano.  Saute for 1 minute more.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer the beans into the pot a few large spoons at a time (leave behind the bay leaves and chiles).  Mash the first cup of beans with a potato masher.  Add the rest of the beans and enough cooking liquid to make the beans rather soupy.  Add the orange and lime juice and simmer on low for at least an hour.  You can add more bean water to make the beans the consistency you want.  Season with salt to taste.  To finish, add the cilantro and serve.  Enjoy!

Amazing Baked Beans: Summertime BBQ

My dear friend and fellow foodie Tim had a barbecue last night to celebrate his 33rd birthday.  Knowing that Tim, like myself and many of our friends, are food lovers, I had a hard time deciding what to bring.  After much contemplation, I decided to try, once again, a dish I have never had success with, and that is baked beans.  Now, you may be asking yourself why this would be a hard dish to make.  Trust me, I ask myself that a lot.  Perhaps it is that I've gotten used to the cloyingly sweet beans that are so readily available in a can.

I did some research and found a recipe that was made by Alton Brown.  I read the reviews, and made some simple adjustments, and honestly, these turned out amazingly well.  For this party, I made one pound of dried beans, but when I do it again, I'll double the recipe.  It all got eaten up so quickly!  Now, if you're not a pork eater, don't even bother with this recipe.  I mean it.  It needs the bacon.  Sorry, but it's true.  In fact, if you can get your hands on some slab bacon, all the better.  For this recipe, I used a very high quality, naturally hickory smoked, thick cut bacon that I trimmed of the huge hunks of fat.

How many will this serve?  Well, I don't know.  I think this is a good sized batch for a barbecue of 10-12.  Any more than that and I'd double it.




Baked Beans

      1 pound dried Great Northern beans

3/4 pound slab or thick cut bacon, chopped (remove sections that are solely fat)

1 large onion, chopped medium

2 jalapenos, serranoes, or Thai chiles, finely chopped

1 6 oz. can tomato paste

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

2 T. barley syrup (or, if you don't have it, additional molasses)

4 cups chicken broth

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons dried mustard

Directions

Heat oven to 250 degrees F.

Soak beans in a plastic container overnight in just enough cold water to submerge them completely.

Place a cast iron or enameled cast iron Dutch oven over medium heat and stir in the bacon, onion, and jalapenos until enough fat has rendered from the bacon to soften the onions, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, dark brown sugar, barley syrup and molasses.

Drain the beans. Add the drained beans to the Dutch oven. Add the chicken broth, salt, pepper, worcestershire, cayenne and dried mustard. Give them a stir and cover with the lid. Place the Dutch oven in the oven for 6 to 8 hours, or until the beans are tender, stirring occasionally. When the beans are tender, remove the lid and raise the oven temperature to 350.  Bake, stirring every 15 minutes, until the consistency is what you like (do this step if you don't want your beans to be soupy).  This may take up to an hour.  Taste for salt and add to your liking.  

Enjoy!

Spinach Stuffed Tomatoes: A Lovely and Delicious Side Dish

Last night, I decided to finally cook the sirloin steak I had been dry aging for a dinner last weekend for a friend who never came to visit.  I didn't really feel like making all the side dishes I had planned for as they just seemed like too much work for a meal just for me.  So, I set out to see what I had in my refrigerator, freezer, and pantry.  I made this recipe up on the spot, and it was the absolute best part of the meal.  That week long dry aged steak au poive was good, don't get me wrong, but it was clearly overshadowed by this tomato. 

The tang of the ricotta salata along with the bitterness of the spinach made for a lovely, complexly flavored dish.  In fact, I liked it so much, I made it again for lunch today, so I could write down the recipe.

Ricotta Salata may not be readily accessible, but don't be daunted.  Next time you go to an Italian market, or a place that sells specialty cheeses, just keep this recipe in mind and buy a big block of this cheese.  It freezes very well and makes for a wonderful cheese on a simple salad.  It also tops pasta.  This cheese is somewhat like a good feta, or mizrithra.  It does not melt, and has a salty bite.

I hope you will enjoy this recipe as much as I  do.  Vegetarians, delight, meat eaters, alike.

Spinach Stuffed Tomatoes

(serves 4)

4 baseball sized tomatoes

1 T. olive oil

½ t. crushed red chile flakes

½ cup onion, chopped into ¼ inch pieces

2 garlic cloves, minced

4 slices sourdough bread (about 2 cups), cut into ¼-1/2 inch pieces

¼ c. half and half (or milk, or, go crazy and use cream)

1 cup frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed fairly dry

2 t. fresh thyme

¼ cup plus 2 T. ricotta salata (this is dried ricotta cheese, not the kind in a container), crumbled

Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut off the top ¼ inch of the tomatoes, and reserve.  Run a knife (preferably a serrated knife along the inside wall of the tomato, being careful not to break through the bottom.  Use a tablespoon to scoop out the filling of the tomato.  Remove the seeds from the center of the tomato you’ve just removed.  Cut this, along with meat from the tops into ¼ inch pieces.  Use a spoon or your fingers to remove the seeds leftover in the inside of the tomatoes.  Salt the insides of the empty tomatoes with a sprinkling of Kosher salt and place upside down on a plate while you prepare the filling. 

Heat oil in a non-stick pan.  Add red chile flakes.  Saute onions in 1 T. olive oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and reserved tomato pieces.  Cook 1 minute.    Add sourdough bread and sauté for one minute longer.  Add ½ and ½ as well as the thyme.  Cook for 1 minute.  Add the spinach and cook for one additional minute.  Remove from heat and add ¼ cup ricotta salata.  Fill each of the tomato cavities to over flowing.  Press tightly.  Place the stuffed tomatoes in a lightly oiled pie tin.  Top with a sprinkling of the remaining ricotta salata.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes until the skin of the tomato slightly splits and the top is slightly browned.