A week of firsts

alexandra — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:02:49 +0000

For a week that I felt singularly uninspired and did not make it to the Wednesday farmers’ market, it proved a good week food-wise. I made my first black bean burger based on this recipe sent by a friend of mine. I changed it slightly by substituting the 4 scallions for one small onion, doubling the garlic, replacing the oregano for za’atar (no oregano in the house! the shame!), and the red pepper flakes with 1tsp ancho chili powder and 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder. Oh, and I used two 19oz cans of beans – one of black beans and one of adzuki beans. The result? VERY yummy bean burgers that will definitely be repeated. Below you see the burgers ready to go into the fridge for about 15 mins to set.

And my light lunch that day:

But my real achievement happened today. I tried making cheese for the first time! Inspired by Mark Bittman’s very simple recipe, I got so excited that immediately made a mistake. The recipe calls for only three ingredients: milk, buttermilk, and a bit of salt. All you have to do is bring the milk to near-boiling point, pour in the buttermilk to curdle it and an optional bit of salt. What did I do? I mixed the milk, buttermilk & salt before bringing it to the stove. I thought it was a loss for sure, but then when it got near boiling point I simply added a bit more buttermilk and a splash of vinegar. Luckily it curdled and I was able to proceed with the recipe, which involved much twisting of the curds wrapped tightly in cheesecloth. I don’t think I twisted enough as the result was not nearly as dry or hard as it was supposed to be but it was very nice – silky and smooth like really good ricotta cheese. I enjoyed it as one does it Catalonia: with a bit of honey and walnuts.

Navy beans with Spinach a la Española

alexandra — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:41:52 +0000

It all started with a bunch of spinach from the farmers’ market, a red pepper, a recipe from Mark Bittman, and this picture on flickr. I wanted to cook the spinach and browsing Bittman’s book, I came across his recipe for spinach with currants & nuts. I remember seeing spinach cooked this way when I lived in Spain so he may be right in describing it a “Mediterranean classic”. The picture is of Botifarra amb mongetes, a very typical Catalan dish that consists of roasted sausages served with white beans. Mixing up those elements with parts of Bittman’s recipe, I came up with this:

Ingredients:

1 can white navy beans (or any other bean), rinsed

2-3 cups spinach, washed and coarsely cut

2 garlic cloves, slices

3 tbsp sunflower seeds, lightly toasted (pine nuts would also be nice)

3 tbsp currants

1 red pepper

1/4 cup white wine (or water or stock)

olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat the broiler on high for a few minutes while you wash the pepper and spinach. Once the oven is hot, place the whole pepper on a cookie sheet underneath the broiler and roast it until it is charred on all sides (about 10 mins). Remove the pepper from the oven and wrap in tin foil. [This is based on the method described here]. Once the pepper is cool enough to handle, unwrap it and peel off the skin. Chop it up.

2. Soak the currants in hot water for about 10 mins.

3. Meanwhile pre-heat a skillet on medium heat and add 2 tbsp olive oil. Add the garlic and cook until golden (be careful not to burn the garlic!)

4. Add the spinach, season with a bit of salt & pepper. Once it starts to wilt, add the white wine.

5. Once the white wine has evaporated somewhar and the spinach is wilted, add the currants (drained), sunflower seeds, & beans and mix well. Lower the heat.

6. Mix in the roasted red peppers and serve.

We had it warm and it was very tasty. The next day I added some balsamic vinegar to the leftovers and ate it as a bean salad. It was even better!

Mató & Maple Syrup » beans

A week of firsts

Navy beans with Spinach a la Española