Weekend Cookbook Challenge is being hosted by La Mia Cucina this month and the theme is…pressure cookers (which I am scared of), crockpots (which I love) and Dutch ovens (which I also love, but I use pretty frequently already).

So, crockpot it is! And the cookbook I used was Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson. This is also the only crockpot cookbook that I have. Typically, I just get crockpot recipes off that Internet thing.

Oh and Happy Saint Patrick’s Day — now, here’s a Mexican recipe!

Pinto Picadillio
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cumin
3 cups slow-cooked* or two 15.5-ounce cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
One 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
One 4-ounce can diced green chiles, drained
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 cup vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups cooked long-grain white or brown rice
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup sliced black olives, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves (originally it called for parsley)
handful of chopped green onions
2 tbsp slivered almonds, toasted

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper and cumin. Saute until softened, about 5 minutes.

Transfer the vegetables to a 3 1/2- to 4-quart slow cooker. Add the garlic, beans, tomatoes, chiles, apples, and stock; season with salt and pepper, cover, and cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours.

About 10 minutes before serving, stir in the rice, raisins, olives, cilantro, green onions and almonds. In addition to a dinner right out of the crockpot, this makes a great lunch. Add some cheese, sour cream and chips. You know you want to…

* Cooking dried beans in your crockpot is easy! And fun. But kind of boring. Anyway, soak your beans overnight, then, drain put into your crockpot and cover with water (I covered by about 3 inches). Add an onion, halved and a few cloves of garlic, cracked open.

Cook on low for about 8 hours. Mmmm….beans. And, the nice thing is, I just drained out my beans, measured 3 cups out and then just used the crockpot to cook the Pinto Picadillio.

Thanks again to La Mia Cucina for hosting!

February’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge is hosted by Foodie Chickie this month and she’s chosen Nigella Lawson as the theme. This is awesome as I recently got a Nigella Lawson cookbook. Perfect!

This is a super quick dinner (it’s from Nigella Express) and it was pretty tasty. Something about bacon drippings (or pancetta, I s’pose), wine, rosemary, white beans and tomatoes. Mmm!

Pollo alla Cacciatora
1 tbsp garlic oil
1/2 cup pancetta cubes (alternately, you can the fat from cooking 1 piece of bacon and add a clove or two of garlic)
6 scallions, finely sliced
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 pound chicken thigh fillets, each cut into 4 pieces (I used breast meat)
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 cup white wine
1 (14-ounce) can chopped tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp sugar
1 (14-ounce) can cannellini beans

Nigella writes to put the garlic oil into a pan with the pancetta, sliced scallions and chopped rosemary and fry for a couple of minutes. Now, what I did is use some bacon grease I had in the freezer (instead of the pancetta), about a teaspoon and a half’s worth and sauteed the rosemary and green onions in that. I also added two minced cloves of garlic here. Worked well. But was there really any doubt? No. Not really.

Add the chicken pieces, stirring well, and sprinkle in the celery salt.

Pour in the wine and let it come to a boil before adding the tomatoes, bay leaves and sugar. Put the lid on and let everything simmer for about 20 minutes. Next, drain and add a can of cannellini beans and let it go for an additional 2-3 minutes.

Dish up, grab a spoon and nom-nom-nom-nom-nom.

Next time, I might try dredging the chicken in a little seasoned flour just to see what (if anything) that adds to it. Just because I’m like that.

Thanks again to Foodie Chickie for hosting this month’s event!

I came across a recipe by Michael Chiarello for white bean waffles a while ago and was very intrigued. So much so that I completely changed the recipe to be black bean waffles. Recently I had some time, a can of black beans and a waffle maker. Here’s what happened…

Black Bean Waffles
For the beans:
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 dash tabasco
1 handful fresh cilantro
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the waffles:
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 eggs
1 cups milk
3 tbsp olive oil

Preheat your waffle device of choice. In a small pot combine the beans, chili powder, cumin, tabasco, and chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and teaspoon salt.

Add the beans, their cooking liquid and the cilantro to a food processor and pulse to puree. Add the eggs, milk, and olive oil to the bean mixture and puree until smooth. Whisk the wet mixture into the dry slowly to avoid any lumps. Let the batter rest briefly and griddle the waffles according manufacturer’s instructions.

Now, what can you do with these little snacks? Well, the first night we had a couple of wedges on the side with some grilled turkey breast tenders. Very good.

The next day (a Saturday), two waffle wedges each were re-toasted, stacked with spinach leaves, avocado, poached eggs, cheddar cheese and salsa and served as a kind of faux, mexican eggs benedict. I completely recommend this option.

To poach an egg quite easily –

1. Fill a large skillet with a few inches of water. Add about a teaspoon of vinegar and some salt. Put on a lid and bring to a boil.

2. Crack your eggs into ramekins.

3. When the water is boiling, gently pour each egg from the ramekin into the water.

4. Turn off the heat, replace the lid and poach for 2.5 - 4 minutes, depending if you like runny yolks or not. I did about 2.5 - 3 minutes for medium runny yolks.

5. Scoop eggs out with a slotted spoon, briefly draining on a towel-covered saucer if you want. This can get tricky, though, as you still have to lift the poached eggs from the towel to the plate.

Stack everything together and you have a wonderful morning treat. Top with chopped cilantro and green onions if you have any.

Keep the rest of the waffles in the fridge and heat up in a toaster for a quick snack.

I came across the Legume Love Affair event and well, I that sounded fun as I love beans too. Around the house, we sing a song called, “Beans, the Man they Call Beans”, to the tune of the Jayne’s folk hero song on Firefly (Jaynestown episode). There really aren’t any lyrics other than the “Beans, the man they call beans,” part, but trust me, it’s very amusing. Hmmm, perhaps I have said too much.

Anyway, I am a fan of the lima bean. I think it all started as a child — after being presented with a bowl of Campbell’s vegetable soup, I would begin my hunt of picking out all the lima beans and eating those first. When they were gone, I was less enthused about the soup.

So really, it is my destiny to create a recipe for a soup with just lima beans.

Creamy Lima Bean & Tarragon Soup
2 1/4 cups frozen lima beans — don’t bother defrosting
1 tsp dried tarragon
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 1/4 cups chicken stock to cover
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
salt & pepper to taste
Optional: a few sprigs of fresh tarragon

In a soup pot, heat the oil and saute the onion and garlic until soft. Add the dried tarragon and mix to combine.

Next, add the frozen beans and the chicken stock. Bring to a boil and simmer about 20 minutes. Add the parmesan cheese and milk. Stir and remove from the heat. Let cool briefly to blend safely.

In batches, puree until smooth. Return to the pot and salt and pepper to taste and rewarm as needed.

Thanks again to the well seasoned cook for hosting a fun event!

First off, goodbye Summer theme…hello again Autumn theme! I’ve missed you!

Now, this recipe is from my friend Vanessa. We met at DePaul freshman year of college and then both transferred to other places. We managed to stay in touch for a few years after school, then kind of went on with our lives for a few years after that and just recently got back in touch. Hooray!

She even gave me this awesome recipe for tuna and white beans as a great week night, comforting, quick dinner. It really is…and it fits right in with my (and jwa’s reluctant) goal to eat more economical fish. Frozen tuna is about $6.99/pound at Trader Joe’s. That’s vs. about $20/pound fresh. So, while I will always love the fresh, seared, rare ahi more than anything, it’s good to have a few tricks with frozen tuna. Add this to the list because it’s great!

I didn’t change much from the original, but I did add orange and olives. That’s what so great about this recipe — you can really alter it to fit what you have on hand or flavors that you are in the mood to eat.

Baked Tuna & White Beans from Vanessa
1 medium to large onion, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
4-5 medium garlic cloves - crushed and roughly chopped
2 cans Cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
1 lb tuna (defrosted frozen is really good for this — albacore or ahi)
salt and pepper
Olive oil
2 sprigs fresh thyme
Optional: 1 orange, zested and juiced
1/4 cup green olives

Saute onion along with the carrots in olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook (but don’t brown).

Next, throw in drained beans just to get them fusing with onion/garlic/olive oil. Add the orange zest and juice. Salt & pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a casserole dish, add half of the bean mixture to bottom. Sprinkle the beans with half the thyme leaves. Cut tuna into 4-6 chunks so it cooks faster and put on top of beans.

Dump other half of bean mixture over top of tuna. Drizzle with little more olive oil and the feta cheese.

Bake (uncovered) for about 20 minutes or until tuna is cooked/flaky. Before serving, use a spoon to stir everything up so that tuna flakes and is distributed (in small flakes) through beans. Serve with more fresh thyme and green olives.

You could also use fresh basil and Parmesan in place of the thyme and feta. Vanessa first described with with the parm and basil, which I would have done, except the garden thyme was much closer to the kitchen door and it was raining. So there. Also, if you use basil, just add that at the end, after it comes out of the oven.

Here the meal is with some tasty crostini slathered with arugula pesto. How did I make that? Well, a few very big (overflowing, really) handfuls of arugula leaves, about 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 2 garlic cloves salt and pepper. Add to a food processor and combine. Stream olive oil in until it’s smooth and looks like pesto. Get a big bowl of pasta, some crostini or a spoon. All done.

Okay, now off for a bike ride with jwa!

We recently did a first grilling of the season test by making two huge, juicy cheeseburgers. There are no pictures of the cheeseburgers because I did not trust jwa with my plate so that I could go get the camera. Plus, it was so delicious I did not want to leave it. Sometimes, this is what happens when you have an awesome cheeseburger meal.

To accompany the cheeseburgers, I threw together some lemony and herby three bean salad. This recipe is based on one I found at Whole Foods Market.

Thee Bean Salad
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 big bunch of green beans, trimmed and steamed until tender
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
Dressing
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp sugar
salt & pepper to taste
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Mix all salad ingredients together.

In a separate bowl, whisk together all dressing ingredients. Toss over the salad beans. Adjust seasonings and oil-to-vinegar ratio to taste. Let it all meld in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours before serving.

Next, start the grill…

Friday’s post will involve a drink recipe. Woo!

This is based on a recipe by Michael Chiarello that used potatoes instead of white beans. I thought white beans would go really well with the lemon, garlic and rosemary, as I love white bean dip with all those ingredients. My hypothesis was correct.

Be careful to rinse, drain and pat the beans a little with a paper towel or the extra moisture on the beans could cause the olive oil to splatter a bit. The beans don’t get crunchy per se, but they do get a little dry and golden brown. They definitely gain some flavor from the heat of the pan.

The sauce is indeed lemony. Add the butter, it will be good. Also, a little feta cheese on the top of the plated chicken is tasty. Trust me on that one.

Chicken with White Beans, Rosemary & Lemon
(Serves two like this; double for four)
1 lemon
salt & pepper
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 15-oz can white beans, rinsed, drained, and patted dry with a paper towel
2 small cloves garlic, minced (or 1 large clove)
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves (I think I added a little more than this)
1 tbsp unsalted butter, optional
Rosemary sprigs, for garnish

Preheat the broiler. Cut the lemon in half crosswise and then arrange, flesh side up, in a flameproof nonreactive baking dish. Brush with olive oil and season with salt.

Broil the lemon halves about six inches or more from the heat until browned and soft, about 5-8 minutes. Cool slightly. Squeeze the lemon halves over a sieve suspended over a bowl. Push and stir the pulp through the sieve with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to get as much juice out as possible. Discard the lemon peels.

Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and heat the olive oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add the chicken, lower the heat to medium, and cook, turning once, until brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Remove chicken to a plate or baking sheet.

Return the pan to medium-high heat, add the beans, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring and tossing, until a bit golden, about 3-5 minutes.

Arrange the chicken breasts on top of the beans and place in the oven until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the chicken to a platter and the beans to a bowl — cover both with foil while making the sauce.

Return the pan to medium-high heat, add the garlic and rosemary, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. If the pan is pretty dry, add about a teaspoon of olive oil. Add the chicken broth and reserved lemon juice. Stir and scrape up all the browned bits that cling to the bottom and sides of the pan. Bring to a simmer stir in parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. If the sauce tastes too lemony, add a tablespoon or two more of broth and stir in the optional butter.

To serve
Add a few big spoonfuls of white beans to a plate and then top with a chicken breast. Pour the sauce over the chicken and beans and serve immediately, garnished with rosemary sprigs.

I just made this to bring to a potluck at work and I think I’m in love with it. jwa and I had some for dinner tonight (I made extra) and it was so good. I highly recommend it. I’ve adapted it from Bon Appétit magazine, by adding the cheese, cilantro and tortilla strips. Oh and a little hot sauce.

Funny story — when I read through the recipe I could have sworn it said “figs”, to which I thought, oh! awesome, I have just about that many in a bag at home!. Then, when I got ready to make the salad, I reread the recipe and realized it said “dates”. Oops. Well, I used the dried figs anyway and I think they worked just fine. Dates (or figs) and honey may sound weird in a dressing for black beans, but it all comes together very well. I did find that I really did like it with a few dashes of the green Tabasco sauce, though.

The salad would probably also be very good with a diced avocado added to the mix — this was jwa’s suggestion. I think it’s a pretty good one.

Black Bean Salad with Bell Peppers and Tortilla Strips
Serves 6-8

Vinaigrette
1/2 cup water
16 dates (about 4 ounces), pitted, chopped — or, you know, figs’ll work too
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (3-4 limes, depending on how much juice you get from each one)
6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp dried oregano
4 tsp honey
4 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
dash or two of hot sauce (I used jalapeno Tabasco)
salt & pepper

Salad
4 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed, drained
1 chopped red bell pepper
1 chopped yellow or orange bell pepper (I used a little of both kinds)
1 chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup crumbled Cotija cheese (you could substitute cubed cheddar or crumbled feta)
3 corn tortillas, halved , then cut into strips
1/3 cup canola oil
salt

Boil water and dates in heavy small saucepan for 2 minutes. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 1 hour to soften.

Transfer date mixture to blender. Add lime juice, oil, oregano, honey, cumin and coriander. Then purée. The mixture will be nice and thick. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (This can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Let stand 1 hour at room temperature before using.)

Heat oil in a large skillet and fry the tortilla strips (in batches if necessary), until crisp. Salt and let cool on paper towels.

Combine beans, bell peppers, onion, cheese and cilantro in large bowl. Toss with enough vinaigrette to coat nicely. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed. Top with tortilla strips.

And look — your compost pile will be happy too!

Ah, the first recipe from the most recent Eating Well — the one with the asparagus on the cover. Except there’s no asparagus in this one. It’s a Moroccan-influenced pork ragu. This even included a special trip to Pasta Works (which has kind of become my go-to place when I need an imported, out of the ordinary, ingredient). In this case it was preserved lemons.

This really cooks pretty quickly, so I guess it’s a cheater’s ragu as I think normally it’s something you would cook for hours and hours. You’d also, because of that, use tougher meat. But the pork chops the original recipe calls for and the cubes of pork tenderloin that I used, both are very tender and don’t need to cook for hours.

I changed a couple of things from the original recipe — added a bit more olive oil, sauteed the veggies, used tenderloin instead of chops since that’s what I had in the fridge and doubled up on the butternut squash.

Moroccan Pork Ragu
2 lemons
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon plus 1 pinch ground ginger, divided
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork chops (1 inch thick), trimmed of fat, cut into 1-inch cubes (or 1 pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat and cut into cubes)
14 oz chicken broth
2 cups diced butternut squash
1 cup sliced carrots (1/2 inch thick)
1 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup diced tomatoes (canned or fresh)
2 tbsp chopped rinsed preserved lemon (optional — if you can’t find it just leave it out)
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce, such as Tabasco (or a bit of chili paste)
Pinch of ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground allspice
6-8 leaves of fresh spinach, sliced into strips

Chopped preserved lemon

Zest and juice the lemon(s) to get 1 tablespoon zest and 2 tablespoons juice; reserve the zest. Combine the juice, 1 tablespoon oil, paprika, turmeric, coriander, cumin, pepper and 1/4 teaspoon ginger in a medium bowl. Add pork; stir to coat. Marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or up to 4 hours.

Heat the remaining oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook, stirring, until no longer pink on the outside and beginning to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the pork to a plate. There should be a nice coting of the pork marinade in the pot — leave it in there and cook everything else in that.

Add the squash, carrots, garlic and onion. Saute for about five minutes and then add the broth chickpeas, tomatoes, preserved lemon (if using), tomato paste, hot sauce or chili paste, cinnamon, allspice, the reserved lemon zest and the remaining pinch of ginger to the pan. Whew! A lot of stuff, but it mostly goes in at once.

Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally; reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Next, stir in the pork, return to a simmer and cook, stirring, until the pork is just cooked through, 5-8 minutes more. The kitchen will smell all fragrant and you will be hungry. Call it done and get some bowls.

We had this over some rice. I thought it looked very orange so I garnished it with a little spinach. Very pretty. Oh I also added a dollop of yogurt to the top because that’s just like something I’d do. jwa was a little skeptical at first. He gave it a few sniffs (as he’s apt to do with new meals), tried a bit and decided that he liked it very much, as did I. We both had leftovers for lunch the next day. So there you go. It’s quite tasty!

*

Today’s Super Foods recipe is a little like falafel — ‘cept it’s not. Instead of garbanzo beans it uses lentils. I was very surprised by the overall flavor difference, in that there was one. These have a nuttier taste and were very, very good. Even jwa expressed a surprised liking for these. That’s quite a recommendation as he typically does not get too excited about lentil recipes.

These were a little crumbly, so you probably don’t want to over stuff the pita. Two-three patties per each sandwich.

Next week, Sugar High Friday kicks Super Foods Friday to the curb.

Lentil Fritters with Yogurt Mint Sauce
From a recipe in Gourmet Magazine
1 1/4 cups lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/2 cup rolled oats
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
dash of red pepper flakes
1 large egg, beaten lightly
Olive oil for frying
6 pita pockets, split (or flat bread)
Spinach leaves
1 tomato, chopped
1/4 cup olives, chopped (mine were feta-stuffed)

Yogurt Mint Sauce
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup cucumber, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced

Add lentils to a large saucepan of salted water and bring water to a boil. Cook lentils at a bare simmer until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.

In a blender or food processor grind oats into meal.

Drain lentils and combine in a bowl with the garlic, coriander, pepper flakes, cumin, and 3 tablespoons of the ground oats. Mash mixture with a potato masher.

Stir in egg and salt and pepper to taste and form mixture into small patties — I got about eight.

Coat burgers with remaining ground oats and chill, uncovered, 15 minutes.

In a small bowl stir together yogurt, mint, and salt and pepper to taste.

In a large skillet heat a liberal coating of oil (a few tablespoons) over moderately high heat until hot but no smoking and fry burgers, in batches if necessary, until browned and crisp, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

Serve burgers in pitas with lettuce and yogurt mint sauce.

Super foods used: beans (lentils), oats, and yogurt.