Quick and Spicy Vegetarian Rice and Beans

1 cup rice
2 cups cooked beans
2 cup water or broth
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp blackening seasoning
salt, if desired

Saute the onion in some olive oil until translucent, add the garlic and stir for ~30 seconds. Add the rice and stir to coat in the oil. Add the liquid, seasoning and beans, cover and cook until the liquid is absorbed. That's it.

Note: You can start with dried beans. Take a cup of rinsed/sorted dry beans, put them in a pot and add water until they're covered by a couple inches. Add ~tsp of the blackening spice and let simmer until tender, ~2 hours. You can them use some of the liquid you cooked the beans in for the rice, I did half that and half broth.

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Here's a quickie, guess what makes for a killer rice and beans seasoning? The blackening seasoning from the shrimp last week! I know, shocking. I wanted something easy, so I looked over my pantry. I had pasta, rice and beans. I've been eating a lot of pasta so I went for rice and beans. I started with dry beans, but you can just use a can and it would maim the cooking time. Although you wouldn't be able to use any of the cooking liquid from the beans, which does add a nice flavor and texture. I guess it all depends on the time frame you have. With canned beans you could have this on the table in less than a half hour, I'm guessing. And who doesn't love that? Not that I ever eat at my table these days, unless you count the dinette set table my computer is on. Heh. The one thing about the seasoning is that I found it didn't have quite enough salt for this kind of thing. It was plenty for the shrimp, but rice and beans want a little more. Although it's not really required, you could easily do a low salt thing and it still tastes wicked good.

If you wanted to un-veg it you could add some bacon or sausage. Or put it in a tortilla with some taco or carnita stuff. That would also be wicked good.

Mini Leek and Asparagus Quiches

So my brother calls me up the other day and says "Hey, I'm making mini quiches, want to come take pictures?" To which I responded "Of course!"

I mean not only is cooking with my brother a good time in general, but I would be able to use both hands to hold the camera and I wouldn't even have to do the dishes (I'd get to eat some too, of course). How could I not? Heh. So I head over to his house and he has everything all set to go. He was making them lightish, so we have a couple eggs, but also some egg substitute, half and half, a little milk, Gruyere and Parmesan. First he prepped and roasted the leeks and asparagus. These leeks were extra sandy and wound up coming apart when he washed them, but it worked out fine in the end. Then it was just grating the cheese, whipping up the egg mixture and prepping the phyllo. He made little cups of the dough in muffin tins, filled them with the veggies and cheese and then the egg mixture. Then he cooked them up. A little spillage, but that's no big deal. There was a minor issue getting them out of the tin (and into, but that's phyllo for you), but nothing a little perseverance couldn't fix. Again, no big deal. But the bottom line, how did they taste? They were fantastic, you couldn't tell they weren't full fat. Plus they reheat well, which makes them perfect for a quick breakfast or snack.

And because I think so highly of you all I'll even ask my brother for the recipe that I forgot to write down while I was there. Heh.

Spicy Veggie Stuffed Crust White Pizza

Stuffed crust pizza: have you had it? I hadn't until yesterday. Turns out it's wicked good. I decided to do it on a whim while I was figuring out what to make for lunch and it came out quite well. Next time I'm going to put a little more stuff in there, maybe some herbs or bacon, something like that. For some reason I had it in my head that it would be difficult to do, but really it was pretty easy. I even have instructions for once.

Just roll out your dough (here is the recipe I use) and put some cheese or whatever all around the rim. Then fold the dough over and press it firmly. Repeat until the whole edge is crimped around the filling. Now you just treat it like pizza. I made a white one with some olive oil, crushed black pepper, red pepper flakes and fresh basil. And some mozzarella, broccoli, red onion and garlic. And it worked out very well. I had two big fears making this. One was that the cheese would just come out of the crust, making all the work pointless. The other was that the crust would fill up with molten grease, searing my flesh and making me wonder why oh why I had ever made such a thing (I've heard that was a major complaint against a certain chain pizza place who does this). Neither of these things happened. I think that's because I didn't over-stuff it or use something that makes a huge amount of grease like, say, pepperoni. Of course, now I want to do it with pepperoni. And I will. But I have a plan and I think it will work. I'll get back to you guys about that.

So do you do this? If so, what do you stuff it with? If not, what would you stuff it with?

Hoisin Glazed Carrots

1 tbl hoisin sauce
1 tbl soy sauce
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 tsp honey
pepper to taste
2 cups baby carrots

Mix together everything but the carrots and garlic. Put the carrots in a med-hot nonstick pan and cook for a minute. Add the garlic and cook till fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the hoisin mixture and cook till it clings to the carrots, about another minute. If you like the carrots more soft you can blanch them first or leave them in longer in the initial cooking.

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A wicked quickie for you guys today. Also it's a side dish, I don't post about those much. Mostly because I cook for two almost exclusively and any side we have is a quick sauteed veggie. Kind of like this, only there's a sauce so I figured I'd share. I don't have step by steps for it, but it's really easy. In fact the sauce is almost exactly the same as my chicken with cashews , which is also very easy. Other than the directions up top the only thing I would advise is to taste the sauce before you add it, in case it's too sweet or not sweet enough. Other than that I suggest you just whip these bad boys up, they are a good time. They go with pretty much anything too, they are sweet, salty and crunchy. Unless you cook them till they're squishy. Then they're not crunchy.

Potato Flat Bread (Paratha)

1/2 cup of cooked, peeled potato
1 cup flour*
1 tsp fresh chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp dried onion
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup warm water
salt and pepper
melted butter

Mash the potato well with a fork. Add salt, pepper, cilantro and sugar, mix well. Add the flour and water and mix until the dough forms a ball (it'll be pretty sticky). Heat a griddle to medium heat. Pinch off 1/4 cup balls of dough and roll it out about 1/4" thick on a well floured surface. Brush one side with melted butter and place it, buttered side down, on the griddle. Brush the other side with butter. Once it's browned on one side (about a minute) flip it and brown it on the other side (about another minute).

Makes 4 breads

*Atta is the authentic choice, but whole wheat is fine if you have it. I used plain, white, AP flour and they came out delicious.

(lightly adapted from here)

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I've been on a quest for the perfect, easy and most important, quick flat bread. Something I can whip up on a moments notice whenever flat bread is desired. With this recipe I am one big step closer to my goal. I made quick flat bread once before and wasn't too thrilled with the results. The recipe had baking powder and baking soda in it and it gave it a pancakey taste that didn't do it for me. But this one, man, this one was awesome. The texture was great, a bit chewy, which I like and the flavor was wicked good. I did bland the recipe down a bit from the original since I didn't want it too... ok, I just don't really like Indian food. It's too heavily spiced for me. It's not the heat of it that get's me (I like spicy), it just all seems far too seasoned. So if you like Indian food you might want to try the original, but if you don't then this version is probably more up your alley. I'm not done tweeking this recipe yet and eventually I want to make one that doesn't use potato so it's even faster. But in the meantime I'll be making these over and over. What's that? You want step by step instructions with pictures? Well, sure!

First, mash up a half cup of potato. I used Yukon gold, because that's what I had. And I boiled it, because that's how I felt like cooking it. Then I just tossed everything else in there and mixed it up. One thing I liked about this recipe is there is no kneading (even though I do enjoy kneading) and no resting. Cooking the potato is the longest part of the prep, if you happen to have a leftover baked potato then it would be even faster. Now you just take quarter cup chunks of dough and roll them out. Brush one side with butter. And now I'm afraid I'm going to ramble for a bit, bear with me please (or go ahead and skip down to the next picture, that's when the action picks up again). During the course of my reading about paratha I found that some people insist (in a couple cases quite, er, insistently) that you not brush butter on them when they are uncooked. Often this meant flipping the bread four or more times in the pan, once per side unbuttered and once per side buttered. I couldn't do that, I have a phobia of stuff sticking. I could have used my anodized aluminum pan (most of these folks were using cast iron), but I really wanted good browning. While the anodized aluminum browns a lot better than nonstick, it still isn't half as good as steel.

So I buttered it first. I don't know what the difference is, since I haven't tried it the other way yet, but it seemed that the sites who said to start it unbuttered were the more authentic ones. You know, the ones made by Indians instead of white dudes like me and the guy I got this recipe from. At some point I'm going to be brave and make them the other way. When I do I'll do an update post to let you kids know how it goes.

This is also the simplest method I found, there are a lot that are stuffed or twisted or layered and they look like a good time, too. But, back to the ones I actually did make. Butter side down in the hot pan. More butter on the other side (but no picture), cook it for a minute or so and then flippsies. Cook it until it's brown on that side (about another minute) and that's it. Eat as soon as it's cool enough to not do you too much harm. They're best as fresh as possible, but they reheat well too. Just gently wrap them in foil and toss them in a 350 degree oven for a minute or so and it's all set. The texture of these was great. Flexible and ... toothsome? Chewy isn't really the right word, but they weren't exactly tender, either. You knew you were chewing them, but it wasn't difficult. I wrapped one around some spinach and carrots with a little spicy mustard. Hey, it's what I had on hand and it was good. Next time I'm going to use caramelized onion in them, instead of dried, I think that will be bad ass. They would be awesome for scooping up a nice thick stew too.

So, most of the people I know either love or hate Indian food. I like the breads, but not anything else, really. Heh, fortunately my girlfriend doesn't like it either, otherwise there would certainly be drama. Naan is the bomb though and I'm definitely a convert on paratha. Where do you folks stand?

Oven Baked Potato Wedges

So this is another one that isn't really a recipe, more of a method. My brothers method, to be precise. We had these with those burgers I posted about the other day and several people expressed some interest in how they were made. Can't blame them, they are mad good. But there isn't really any measuring involved, he just tosses it all together. And here's how.

He takes a whole bunch of red potatoes, scrubbed and such, and slices them into wedges. Tosses them in a bowl, a little olive oil (enough to coat them)and seasoning. You want enough to give a decent coating too.You can use whatever seasonings you like, they're potatoes so pretty much everything goes well with them. He, however, uses 21 Seasoning Salute (and salt). It's a good time.If you use a big bowl you can just toss them to coat. Spread them on a tray and toss them into a 350 degree oven for thirty to forty minutes, depending on the size of the 'tatos. Once they are cooked crank the heat up to 450 for another 15 minutes or so. That gives you this lovely golden crispy side. You could flip them at one point or another, but then you wouldn't get this super crispy bit. It's kind of like potstickers with the brown crispy bottom and softer top. But that's it. Simple and delicious.

How to Caramelize Onion

1 cup onion, sliced or diced
1 tsp olive oil or butter
pinch of salt

Heat oil over medium heat and add the onions. Add a pinch of salt and stir the onions to coat them with the oil. Let them sit for a about 2 minutes, then stir. Repeat till they are a deep brown, about 20 minutes. If they are browning too fast, turn down the heat. If they aren't browning enough let them sit for longer.


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All right, show of hands, how many of you like caramelized onion? Yeah, I thought so. I mean, how can you resist this? Sweet, savory little chunks of flavor. I've put them on pizza, in bread dough, on burgers, on steaks, on chicken, mixed in meatloaf, most recently in chicken salad. You can put them on a green salad, in an omelet, stick them under the skin of a chicken you're going to roast, in stuffing, the possibilities are endless.

I've known a disturbing number of people who either don't know how to caramelize onions or are afraid of doing it, assuming they will just burn them. Now they are something you need to watch pretty carefully (the onions, not the people), there is a lot of stirring and it has to be timed right. Both those things scare some folks off. Me, I like watching carefully and stirring. That's why I always make stew on the stove, so I have to stir it every ten minutes or so. But when you're caramelizing something you can't stir it too much or else it won't do the thing. So you need to let the onion sit to brown, then stir them before they burn. I have some visual aids...

First, you need onion. Although you can caramelize pretty much anything. If it doesn't have enough natural sugar in it you can just add a little. I had caramelized sauerkraut once. It was... interesting. But, onion is what we're doing here. Put some olive oil (or butter or both) in a pan. You should use one that has good surface area, the more contact between the onion and the pan the better. I've never measured oil for this, but I used about three quarters of a cup of diced onion and maybe a teaspoon of olive oil. Heat the pan to medium and add the onion. Add a pinch of salt. You can add a little sugar if you want, to help them get going, but I've never found it necessary. I chopped the onion pretty fine because I was putting it in that chicken salad. I would do rings or half rings if I was putting it on something instead of in it. Now just stir it all to coat then let it sit for a couple minutes.Repeat. If it's browning too quickly, turn down the heat. Burning = bitter and bitter caramelized onions aren't so great. All told, this can take up to an hour, depending on how much onion you are making and how big the pieces are. I was just making a little and it was cut pretty small, so it only took about fifteen or twenty minutes. Here's about halfway through. And this is the goal. You'll notice there are still some that aren't very brown. Since my pieces were small some were flirting with being burned, so I decided to pull them off a little early. It didn't make an appreciable difference in the end product. If you want to you could deglaze the pan at this point and make a great onion pan sauce. A little red wine or balsamic vinegar and broth, maybe some Dijon mustard and black pepper. Then spoon it over some steaks. Or potatoes. Man, that would be good. That's what I'm doing next time I make crash hot potatoes. Now I charge all of you who haven't done this before to go forth and caramelize! You'll be glad you did.