RogueChef
“It IS all about the TASTE”
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Black Bean Taco’s
It’s too hot to cook, (actually it’s too hot to think), but I need to get something on the table anyway. Looking at the pantry I have a number of canned black beans, and I know I have some tortillas in the fridge. Really all I need is some cheese, spices, and maybe a sauce to bring it all together.
This is a quick and simple little dish that is tasty, textured, and very, very fast to complete. The simple slightly spicey and smokey flavor of the beans, with the tang of the sauce, creaminess of the cheese, crunch of the hard taco, and the mouth feel of the soft taco provide an experience in each bite.
Given recent comments:
Well, It had to happen.. The loyal fan club has started kvetching that I am introducing too many new foods, too many new ideas, too many new tastes. Seems they like boring.. (To me boring is only good in a combat zone…)
I’ll try to keep this simple, but still provide a decent dish.
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BBQ Black Beans
It is cooler here this weekend, and I am venturing out of my cool room to cook my first real meal in many weeks.
Since I was asked to cater a BBQ dinner party to celebrate a friends 40th, I have about 1/2 of a smoked brisket, a good quantity of BBQ sauce and I need to use them both. The brisket has been kept in a air tight container, but still has began to dry out, so a low, slow and wet cooking method is required, say like cooking beans in a slow cooker.
There are probably as many recipies of BBQ beans as there are pit masters. What defines this recipie, besides the beans, is my bourbon barbecue sauce, the smoked brisket, and coffee. Coffee adds a depth of flavor and a slight bitterness that offsets the sweet-spicy of the barbecue sauce.
For the smoked meat, I have smoked / barbecue brisket. This will add a smoky flavor from a meat that can be cooked low and slow. As for the beans, I used black beans, but you could easily use red kidney or pintos.
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Hearty Lentil Soup
I’ve been entirely too lax about my eating habits, falling back to stuffing myself at breakfast, eating a large lunch, eat dinner and then snack all evening. (Mostly because it is too hot to cook , and what I’ve been eating is SOOO TASTELESS….)
The high temperature and humidity have also limited my exercise, so I am putting on weight faster than I would have ever thought.
(Way too many fruit iced teas, sorbets, and entirely too much ice cream. But at least no soft drinks.)
Time to get back to the basics of a Mediterranean diet. Less meat, processed sugar, less fat, more fiber, etc, etc.
Researching said Mediterranean / Mid Eastern diet, I came up with a tasty, low fat, meatless soup, that cooks quickly (therefor causes less heat), in a pressure cooker.
Lentil soup is a soup of lentils, served hot. Lentil soup is usually vegetarian, but can also be made with meat stock or pieces of meat. Red or green lentils may be used. Other ingredients may include vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, celery, parsley, and onion. Common added flavorings include garlic, cumin, lemon juice, olive oil, and vinegar. It is sometimes garnished with croutons or chopped herbs.
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Beef and Bean Stew – Cholent
A dish I have recently been introduced to, and a dish I am rapidly becoming addicted too. It is NOT a light dish, it is in fact one of the most filling dishes I’ve eaten, but given the high vegetable content it possibly the healthiest of all the “filling and hearty” meals, also given the high legume content, small portions are advised…
(Thanks Ben, for introducing me to the VIP Deli in Borough Park Brooklyn.)
I know it is summer and hearty / filling just are not things you think about when it is warm outside, but we’ve had a number of rainy / cool days and the forecast shows more, so I’ll give this a spin.
I already acknowledge the fact that the “fan club”, will be writing me on ALL the mistakes I’ve made. (Send me your recipes, I’ll try them all)
Using my slow cooker on low I’ll simmer this for at least 10, maybe 12 hours, or until the collagen in the meat melts …
Wikipedia says:
Cholent (Yiddish: טשאָלנט, tsholnt or tshoolnt) or hamin (Hebrew: חמין) is a traditional Jewish stew simmered overnight, for 12 hours or more, and eaten for lunch on Shabbat (the Sabbath.) Cholent was developed over the centuries to conform with Jewish religious laws that prohibit cooking on the Sabbath. The pot is brought to boil on Friday before the Sabbath begins, and kept on a blech or hotplate, or placed in a slow oven or electric slow cooker until the following day.
There are many variations of the dish, which is standard in both the Ashkenazi and Sephardi kitchens. The basic ingredients of cholent are meat, potatoes, beans and barley. Sephardi-style hamin uses rice instead of beans and barley, and chicken instead of beef. A traditional Sephardi addition is whole eggs in the shell (haminados), which turn brown overnight. Ashkenazi cholent often contains kishke or helzel – a sausage casing or a chicken neck skin stuffed with a flour-based mixture. Slow overnight cooking allows the flavors of the various ingredients to permeate and produces the characteristic taste of cholent.
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Refried Pinto Beans
It is a bit cooler but still quite hot, I have a large project load to work on, so I need something that will cook with minimal interaction, is fairly healthy, and will not bulk me up on fats, that when not burned to keep me warm, produce a wonderful spare time at about waist level
Refried beans are most commonly made from pinto beans. They are served as a side-dish with most Tex-Mex restaurant meals. They also have become very popular as a dip for corn tortilla chips. Refried beans are also a primary ingredient in many tostada, chimichanga, and pupusa recipes. In addition, they are a typical ingredient in layered dips, such as seven layer dip, in nachos, and are especially implied when a dish is referred to as nachos grande or burrito grande.
All these dishes, (in something resembling their original form, not the Tex-Mex Trash from El Puko) are high on the fiber side, and low on the fat side, and make wonderful “Assemble your own damned dinner, I’m busy“, fare.
In the cuisine of my home state (Texas) , refried beans are usually prepared with pinto beans, but many other varieties of bean are used in other parts of Mexico, such as black or red beans. The raw beans can be cooked when dry or soaked overnight, then stewed, drained of most of the remaining liquid, and converted into a paste with a potato masher, with a fork or the back of a large flat spoon. Some of the drained liquid, or chicken or vegetable stock, is added if the consistency is too dry. The paste is then fried with lard or vegetable oil and seasoned to taste with salt and spices. For vegetarians, or in cases when lard is unavailable, it can be replaced with oil.
I’ll start by soaking a bag (~2lb) of pintos, per my post, which I will then pressure cook.
Put beans into a pressure cooker with a 15 lb weight. Add water, up to the max fill line. Cook until the beans are soft and the skins are barely breaking open. (30-35 minutes). After this is complete we’ll toss the cooking water and rinse.
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BBQ Beans
Ok, there are just some things that are required for a good BBQ. Good seasoned and aged meat, smoked until it is falling apart, a good sauce and some serious sides. The FIRST one of these is bbq beans. the dish consists of beans in a sweet and tangy sauce, maybe with a bit of burnt ends or meat drippings mixed int.. The flavor is similar to baked beans but with a southwestern twist. BBQ beans are served stewed or baked, depending on the recipe.
Again pit masters are a secretive about their bbq bean recipes as they are about their rub, and their sauce recipes. The items you will see in this blog are “GENERAL IDEAS“, my own recipes were given to me by my mother, grandmother, and great grand mother… I’ll hand these down to my children at some point.
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Lentil and Veggie Soup
AS I have spoken prior :I’ve rambled on about this before, in my posts about controlling sodium, but I need to start laying out some ways to work tasty healthy food into the diet of the denizens.
My concept cuisine would be a Asian / Mediterranean fusion with a bit of vegan thrown in. If we look at both Asian and Mediterranean cuisines, we find that meat is a flavor or a side dish. ~50% of the dishes are vegetarian or very close to it, and another %25 use meat, not as a main course but as a flavor boost to the main dish. (I do speak of authentic dishes, not AmerAsian or some such fusion.)
Tonight is one night that meat is a flavor and legumes are the “meat and potatoes” of the meal. Lentil soup was once a food for the poor, now it is recognized as highly nutritious, particularly as a good source of protein, fiber, iron and potassium.
Lentil soup is a soup of lentils, served hot. It is popular all over the Middle East, and in Hungary and Germany. (In Hungary and Germany, a thicker version, called lencsefőzelék, is more popular.) Lentil soup is usually vegetarian, but can also be made with meat stock. Red or green lentils may be used. Other ingredients may include vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, celery, parsley, and onion. Common added flavorings include garlic, cumin, lemon juice, olive oil, and vinegar. It is sometimes garnished with croutons or chopped herbs.
A hearty lentil soup, chock full of veggies and pasta, served with bead and butter. Just the ticket for a cold and wet night, and even more the ticket to dropping the empty calorie count.
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Tuscan White Bean Soup
I’ve been on a soup and stew kick, which matches the weather being on an ice and snow kick. The problem being, that I have consumed so much meat and meat products, it is time for something a little less meaty.
Maybe a bean soup, since my last post was Northern Italian, and the region of Tuscany is well known for it’s bean and pasta soups, perhaps a review of their dishes is in order.
Filled with flavor, this satisfying soup is a mainstay of Italian country cooking. Tender beans give it creaminess without fat, and olive oil, garlic, and leeks add health benefits as well as great taste. You can add some grated cheese on each serving, or make a vegan version and never miss the dairy.
Simplicity is central to the Tuscan cuisine. Legumes, bread, cheese, vegetables, mushrooms and fresh fruit are used. Olive oil is fresh made. White truffles appear in October and November. Beef used for Florentine steak, comes from the cattle of the Chiana Valley and from Maremma.
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