Broke Beans

Beans + Rice + Wine

Highly recommend a cast iron skillet.

For Emily, mah Sistah Bear.

Gather some:
Onion
Garlic
Red bell pepper
Cilantro- finely chopped or chiffonade if you want to be fancy
Lime or Lime juice
Vegetable broth
Olive or canola oil.

Optional additions:
Canned tomato
Tofu cubes
If using dried beans, soak them over night in 3:1 water to bean ratio.

Place drained beans in a pot, cover with water. Bring to a boil, simmer for several hours until tender. This is great to do ahead in large batches and then freeze the remaining beans in ziplock bags for future use.

Cook rice in another pot, 2:1 rice to water ratio, or 3:1 if using brown or wild rice. Place rice in pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, cover, lower heat to a simmer.

Meanwhile, julienne onion, mince garlic, as much of each as you like.

Roast bell pepper over a burner with a fork or tongs until blackened and peel off skin (when cooled!). Julienne or dice.

Heat a large pot (2-4 quarts depending how much rice and beans you are making). Add small amount of oil, then add onions, stirring often. Salt the onions well to draw out excess moisture and caramelize them. When they are translucent, add garlic stirring often to prevent burning.

Deglaze pot with some of your red wine (about 1/2-1c). Deglazing is, essentially, using a liquid to remove all the caramelized sugars from the bottom of a pot/pan and incorporate them into a sauce. Scrape all the lovely brown bits from the bottom and stir. Add your bell pepper, drained tomatoes (if using) and simmer roughly 10 minutes to cook off that raw alcohol flavor. Keep an eye on it so as not to over reduce.

Even if you're poor, you can still be punk.

Add your cooked rice and beans, cilantro, and some vegetable stock to this mess. Cook 8-10 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed, season with salt and pepper. Pour another (I assume you've had several by now) glass of wine, scoop some mess in a bowl, or coffee mug, and enjoy. Post-punk-poverty cuisine at its finest!

xoxo

I highly recommend, for anyone who is just getting into their cooking-jammies, to find/borrow/purchase/don't steal the book The Tassajara Cookbook. This will really help with knife skills and grain/legume cookery.

Happy rainy Tuesday!

Mmm Yucateca

If you are coming here from my personal blog, you already know that today was quite a swell day, but enough personal crap, let's get to the food!

I took a day off from my day job to learn some Yucatecan cuisine, as well as eat some of this deliciousness. We made Sopa de Lima, Enchiladas con Mole, and X'nipek.

Sopa de Lima, translating to "Lime soup", is really more lemony. In the Yucatan they do their lemons and limes "al revés", and lemons are "limas" and limes are "limones". I didn't get to sample any of this because they made it with chicken broth, but one could just as easily make it veg.

Vegan Sopa de Lima
veggie boullion (enough to make about 6 cups)
a white onion
2 green bell peppers
3 or 4 plum tomatoes
corn tortillas
3 lemons, 2 limes
well done baked tofu

First, before you even get started on the broth, you want to cut the corn tortillas in strips and fry them in a skillet until they are golden and crunchy, then let them dry on some paper towels to soak up the excess oil. Having done that, whether you make your own baked tofu, or bought some, the tofu must be extra well done. This is so that in the soup it will not be spongy and soak up all the broth. Just pop in in the toaster oven or fry it up til it is a little burned, but still edible. While doing this, boil about 6 cups of water and chop up the onion, peppers, and tomatoes. Throw the veggies in the water and let simmer for about 20 minutes or so. Pour the veggies and water into another pot, but strain out the veggies using a colander or strainer. Then add your boullion. Squeeze the juice of 2 lemons and 2 limes into the broth as well, reserving one lemon to slice for garnish. Simmer for a bit longer until all of the boullion is disolved, taste, and salt and pepper til it suits you.

Chop the baked tofu roughly (strips would be best) and put some in each of the bowls to be served, along with some of the tortilla strips and lemon slices. Then pour a ladlefull of brother over everything and add some fresh cilantro on top if you like.

X'Nipek
X'Nipek literally translated from Mayan means "dog's nose", perhaps from the super spicy after effect of eating this! It is also called "Pico de Gallo" in other parts of Mexico, but in the Yucatan, we keeps it real yo.

a little less than 1/2 lb of white onion
2 lbs of tomato (roma or plum tomatos work best)
one bunch of fresh cilantro
Habanero* to taste
1/4 naranja agria juice, OR
1 T grapefruit juice
1 T orange juice
2 T lime juice
salt to taste

Dice/Mince everything up super fine, in pieces no bigger than 1/4". Mix together the veggies, and then add the juice and salt.

*NOTE, when handling habaneros, PLEASE be cautious. These fiery little bastards have been the cause of many an embarassing story, or mainly painful. If using a habanero pepper (you can also substitute with habanero sauce if you're timid about handling it), either wear gloves when dicing or use a fork to hold it in place. Wash your hands THOROUGHLY with lots of soap and hot water when finished handling. These peppers don't play! As one of the top hottest peppers, if even a smidgen of the juice were to get onto a mucous membrane of your body (like if you were to touch your eyes or go to the bathroom eek!) it could mean fiery hottness. So, just please be careful.


Consider making these tasty treats for your Cinco de Mayo fiesta! Or maybe even today, mmm...

Happy Cookin'! ¡Que tenés un buen tiempo en tu concina también!