Archive for the ‘budget recipes’ Category

Newer Entries »

Beans and greens tacos, with salsa verde and queso fresco

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

I love beans. I love all kinds of beans. And the great thing is, beans are pretty economical food. They’re cheap and filling with all their fiber and protein. Unfortunately I have developed a taste for more than your average 99 cent bag of supermarket pintos (although there will always be a special place in my heart for you little pintos). Once you’ve had heirloom beans, you will never be the same. And I’m actually not even that fond of beans out of a can anymore. Have you tasted the difference between canned garbanzo beans and the ones made from dry beans at home? It’s shocking. That’s why I bought a pressure cooker. I can have beans in like 30 minutes flat, which opens a whole new world of bean possibilities. Like cooking beans for dinner on weeknights!

This week I needed to use up a head of curly kale and I had a recipe on file from Amy Scattergood of the L.A. Times for Christmas lima beans tacos with wilted dandelion greens. Well, I had kale. And frankly, I had a rather traumatic experience with the only bunch of dandelion greens I have ever attempted to cook which I really don’t want to get into right now. So Christmas lima beans and kale tacos it would be. Sounds exciting doesn’t it? I know, it doesn’t, but trust me. These were really good. Shawn ate seven of them.

Now, about the beans: I don’t know exactly why they are called Christmas limas. Maybe it’s their speckled red and white coloring. Or maybe it has something to do with their meaty chestnut flavor. Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo says that if you think you don’t like lima beans, you owe it to yourself to give these a try. Needless to say, you can’t buy these beans just anywhere. You can order them from Rancho Gordo (if you do, be prepared to place an order to try out several varieties of their beans to justify the hefty shipping charge). You may also be able to find them at a well stocked grocery store like Whole Foods or at Central Market if you live here in Texas. I got mine at Central Market for $4.99 for a 12-oz bag. You could also try this application on a different variety of bean. Black beans, pinto beans, or borlotti/cranberry beans would also be good.

To get started, cook your beans. If you are using the Christmas limas, follow along with me. If you are using a different kind of bean and you have a favorite way of cooking them, that’s fine. If you are cooking the Christmas limas, all they really need for flavor is a generous cup of diced onion and a few cloves of garlic. Sweat the aromatics, add the beans and about three cups of water (or enough to cover) and cook 45 minutes or 15 minutes or so in the pressure cooker on the highest setting.

At this point add about a tablespoon and a half of kosher salt to the pot, add more water if needed to keep the beans covered and put the lid back on. There are all sorts of arguments about when to salt the beans. I don’t really think it matters. If you think that is blasphemy, do it your way. Bring the beans back to a simmer (or back up to pressure if you’re using the pressure cooker), put the lid on and cook for 45 minutes to an hour more or another 15 minutes on high in the pressure cooker.

In the meantime, wash your kale really well and wilt it in a pan with some garlic and olive oil. Add a small amount of water and a lid and cook just until the greens are tender. Add salt to taste.

To assemble each taco:
1. Place 2 corn tortillas per taco on a plate (or 1 flour tortilla per taco if you prefer) 
2. Fill each taco with about 1/3 cup of beans and some of the kale
3. Top each one with a little prepared salsa verde (I used Herdez in a small can)
4. Crumble some queso fresco on the top or another cheese of your choice. Goat cheese or feta maybe?
5. Squeeze some lime juice over the whole thing

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in budget recipes, main dishes, mexican, vegetables, vegetarian | 1 Comment »

Kale Chips

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

Sounds a little strange, I know. But as I looked in my refrigerator and saw the massive pile of greens building up right before my very eyes, I knew something had to be done. The kale would have to be sacrificed as soon as possible. I had been thinking about trying this for a long time, but I thought I would save it for a time when I needed to eat some greens up pretty fast. After being sick for three days and not cooking anything, I thought now was as good a time as any since: A. My green vegetable quota had seriously suffered this week thanks to a diet of all things white and bland; and B. My Greenling delivery will be showing up on Monday instead of Tuesday because of the holidays, which means more food will be here before I know it. And I must say, if you ever have an urge to eat an entire head of kale in one sitting, this is a really good way to do it. You won’t even flinch, I promise

So this, my friends, is some sort of curly purplish kale. It’s exact scientific name seems to have slipped my memory. If it looks vaguely familiar to you, you’ve probably seen it before. It was probably a garnish on a catered tray of food and it probably got thrown away. Believe it or not though, you can eat this stuff and it’s actually pretty good.

So here is what you do. There are lots of recipes floating around for “kale chips” and the general idea is you put a light coating of oil on it. Then maybe you add a sprinkling of apple cider vinegar or soy sauce for flavor and a small pinch of salt (use less salt than you think, and you can probably omit the salt if you use soy sauce). Toss it all together and then lay it out on a single layer on a baking sheet (I had to do this in two batches). Bake it at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes, flipping it over halfway through. The key is to dry it out as much as possible without letting it turn too brown (it becomes bitter). It will become crispy and crumbly and highly addictive and you might eat all of it before anyone even knows what you’ve done.

These actually reminded me of another highly addictive snack: toasted and salted sheets of nori. I went the apple cider vinegar route when I made these, but I think next time I will use soy sauce and a little bit of sesame oil so that they will taste more like toasted nori.

Now if I could just figure out what to do with all those lemons.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in appetizers, budget recipes, vegetables, vegetarian | No Comments »

Venison Hot Tamales for Martyrs

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

So, here it is, as promised, the recipe for my venison tamales. I would recommend that you make the filling the day before, not because it needs to sit overnight or anything, but because making the tamales themselves is more than enough work for one person to do in one day. Another good strategy would be to do this when you have out of town house guests that have nothing better to do than help you. Or even better still, use child labor. This recipe makes quite a few tamales—unless I have a lot of people available to eat them right away, mine go straight into the freezer in a gallon ziplock freezer bag once they’re made.

Venison Hot Tamales          

This recipe has bacon drippings to add moisture to the venison, which is very lean. If you don’t have venison or you can’t find it, beef would work just as well. But, since most ground beef has a higher fat content than venison you may want to reduce the amount of bacon drippings when substituting beef, depending on how lean your beef is.

Makes about 30 tamales. 

For the Filling

2 lbs ground venison 

6 ancho chiles, stems and seeds removed 

3 tbsp pureed chipotle peppers in adobo  (use less for a milder tamale)

4 cloves garlic, minced 

1 teaspoon cumin seeds 

1 teaspoon coriander seeds 

2 tablespoon tomato paste 

1 teaspoon sugar 

3 tablespoons bacon drippings 

salt to taste

For the Tamales

6 cups masa harina

1 pound lard 

1 1/2 teaspoons fine grained salt 

3 teaspoons baking powder 

6 cups chicken broth (warmed slightly)

1 package corn husks, soaked

1. Soak the ancho chiles in boiling water until soft and puree in a food processor with some of the soaking water. 

2. Toast the cumin and coriander seeds in a small skillet and grind in a spice mill or with a mortar and pestle. 

3. In a large dutch oven, brown the venison in bacon drippings. Add both pureed chiles, garlic, sugar, spices and tomato paste. Add 6 cups of water and cook until reduced by half. 

4. Using an immersion blender puree the mixture to make a smoother mixture. Cook until the water is completely evaporated and the meat looks like a paste. Cool. 

5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the lard until light and fluffy. 

6. In a separate bowl, whisk together the masa, salt, and baking powder. Add the warm chicken broth and stir to combine the wet ingredients with the dry. 

7. Add the masa to the stand mixer in batches and beat thoroughly on high speed in between additions. Beat the masa until a spoonful dropped into a glass of water floats. 

8. Spread about ⅓ cup of masa across each corn husk and fill with about a tablespoon of meat filling in a vertical line down the center of the masa. Roll the husk to enclose the filling inside the masa and fold and tie the ends with strips of leftover corn husk.

9. To cook the tamales right away, steam them for 30 minutes. To cook frozen tamales steam for 45 minutes.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in appetizers, budget recipes, game meat, mexican | No Comments »

(Almost) Painless Vegetarian Tamales

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I made vegetarian tamales. Now if we were talking about your traditional meat-filled tamales I would say, “if you’re ever feeling like you’ve just had it too easy lately and you really want to punish yourself, keep reading because I’m going to tell you exactly how to do it.” These tamales, however, are not “filled” in the way that typical meat tamales are. Instead, the vegetable filling is stirred into the masa. Thus, they are much faster and easier to put together and you could probably knock out a few dozen of them in a couple of hours.

And I know what you’re probably thinking, who cares if they’re easy. Vegetarian tamales? That’s an oxymoron. Tamales are supposed to be soft, greasy, lard-laden little bundles of joy with a meaty surprise inside. This is true. However, I’ve done some research and it appears that the more heart-healthy variety has quite the following. If you don’t believe me, hang in there. The recipe for the venison tamales that I also made over the Thanksgiving holiday—the ones that took all day long and left me twitching in a useless heap on the couch for the remainder of the evening—is coming.

Vegetarian Tamales with Sweet Corn, Carrots, Hatch Green Chiles and Cheese

These tamales are made with a combination of olive oil and butter instead of the more traditional lard. You could use vegetable shortening and they would still be vegetarian, but vegetable shortening is bad for you and it tastes like nothing, so where’s the fun in that? Make sure to season the veggies well and use a flavorful vegetable stock. Offer these with all the fixin’s: salsa, sour cream, guacamole, shredded lettuce, chopped onions, jalapenos and cheese.

Makes about 30 tamales.

6 cups masa harina

2 teaspoons salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon cayenne

4 cups flavorful, room temperature vegetable stock

3 tablespoons pureed chipotle peppers in adobo

1 cup olive oil

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 onion, 1/4 inch dice

2 carrots, 1/4 inch dice

1½ cups corn (fresh off the cob is best, but frozen is fine)

6 hatch green chilies, roasted, peeled and diced

8 oz grated cheese (cheddar, monterrey jack, queso quesadilla or a blend of the three)

1 package corn husks, soaked and rinsed

1. Caramelize the onion in a little oil or butter. Add the carrots and cook for several minutes. Add the chilies and the corn and cook until the mixture is fairly dry with no visible moisture. Set aside to cool.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the masa harina, seasonings, salt and baking powder. Stir in the stock, chipotle puree and two cups of water.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter on high speed until fluffy. Add the olive oil and continue to beat until combined. With the mixer on medium speed, slowly add large spoonfuls of the masa mixture. Then increase the speed and beat for several minutes until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. To test the readiness of the dough, drop a small spoonful into a glass of water. If it floats, it’s ready. If it doesn’t, keep beating.

4. With the mixer on low speed stir in the vegetables and the cheese.

5. Fill each husk with 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the masa. Roll the husk to enclose the filling and secure the ends with strips of corn husk if you like.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in appetizers, budget recipes, mexican, vegetarian | No Comments »

Spicy Pine Nut Hummus

Friday, November 28th, 2008

My hummus-making has evolved a lot over the years. The first batch of hummus I ever made (I cleverly called it bean dip so that Shawn might eat it) was a pasty combination of canned chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, and an assortment of spices I threw in haphazardly with hopes of overpowering that weird tahini flavor. Shortly after that, I developed a flavorful hummus that became my new obsession. It included roasted garlic, a whole jar of roasted red bell peppers, parsley, green olives, canned black olives and only a small amount of tahini. While that was all well and good and it was delicious, it was sort of expensive to make for a dip and it didn’t quite have the creaminess I was looking for. But my new favorite is this: spicy pine nut hummus. It gets some of its creaminess from the addition of pine nuts allowing me to eliminate some of the tahini from the recipe for a more (I think) balanced flavor. I also found a great tip for giving it some spice with a red pepper infused olive oil here. And best of all, Shawn now asks for my hummus and I don’t have to call it bean dip.

Spicy Pine Nut Hummus

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup dry garbanzo beans, cooked and drained (or 2 cups canned)

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

1/4 cup tahini paste

1 clove garlic, sliced

1/4 cup boiling water

1 lemon, juiced

Salt to taste

1. In a small skilled warm the olive oil with the red pepper flakes to infuse the oil, being careful not to burn the flakes. Once the oil has begun to take on a rusty hue, remove from heat.

2. In the bowl of a food processor pulse the garbanzo beans, toasted pine nuts, tahini paste and garlic. With the machine running pour the hot water into the feeder tube until the hummus becomes smooth and creamy.

3. Add the lemon juice and salt and combine. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve with chips or use it as a sandwich or wrap filling.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in appetizers, budget recipes, mediterranean, vegetarian | No Comments »

Fresh Peppercorn Pasta with Greens

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

Okay so now you have fresh pasta. Now what? Well there are a number of things you could to with it. The simplest of those is some butter and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese (and lots of black pepper if you’re like me). You might even throw in some fresh herbs. But, how about adding some wilted greens like Luisa Weiss did?

My Greenling box had some collard greens and kale. For this I used the kale, but I’m sure other kinds of greens would work. Although, now that I think about it, I would probably avoid beet greens or red chard as they would turn the pasta an unappetizing shade of pink. But who knows, maybe you like that kind of thing? Edit: I have now had pasta made with beet greens and I found that “pink noodles”, as I called them, are sort of amusing. They were also rather delicious. Maybe it’s just me, but I wasn’t put off at all by the color of the noodles. I thought I would be. Sorry to judge prematurely. LESSON. LEARNED.

So here is what you’re going to do:

1. Melt some butter in a large skillet. Add 1/4 of a cup of chopped onion and two minced cloves of garlic. Cook for a minute or so. Then a few handfuls at a time add two bunches of greens (thoroughly washed, with tough stems removed and chopped or torn into small pieces). Stir after each addition to wilt the greens a little before adding the next handful.

2. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste, then add about a cup of water or stock and cook until the greens are tender and the liquid is mostly reduced.

3. At this point you should have timed your pasta to be done cooking. Drain the pasta reserving some cooking liquid. Add 1/3 cup of garlic and herb cheese (i.e. Boursin, Alouette, or Full Quiver Farms Basil-Garlic Cheese Spread) or ricotta cheese. Salt to taste.

4. Melt the cheese into the greens and add some pasta cooking water to thin it out if needed. Then, dump the pasta into the greens and cheese mixture and toss. Finish with some black pepper and grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in budget recipes, main dishes, pasta, vegetarian | 1 Comment »

Newer Entries »