Category: Cooking, exotic-style

“Just keep shipping.” Or in my case, just keep posting. Whether this quote came from Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, or Seth Godin, it is has been on my mind. And this recipe is definitely worthy of a post.

Despite my normal need to explain every single detail of why this recipe works- and it does- I have chosen instead to illustrate some of the incredibly simple steps that it takes to make this- or, what happens when sweet potatoes and lentils, stewed with vegetable broth and tomatoes, are added to sauteed cabbage with onion and garlic, then topped with coconut milk. That’s right, coconut milk; the distant cousin in flavor profile of this delicacy we all probably grew up on (a tropical delight I believe comes from the exotic “take-the-water-out-of-cows-milk-and-somehow-make-it-last-for-decades” tree).

Also, word to the wise- cabbage takes a while to cook. Do not, as I did, overload your skillet with cabbage and expect it to behave like spinach and wilt up instantly.

Maybe one of these days I will actually learn to be patient while I cook. Maybe. Please teach me how to do this.

Also, check out my new favorite cooking blog, A Pinch of Yum. Lindsay is a cooking and photography inspiration. Jealousy+Admiration+her writing makes me laugh= my feelings towards this blog.

This recipe is taken from A Pinch of Yum and can be found here.

Creamy Thai Sweet Potatoes and Lentils

You will need:

• 1 cup lentils, rinsed
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, unpeeled and diced.
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1 tablespoon butter (I found I didn’t need the butter; it depends on your taste buds.)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 head green cabbage, thinly shredded
• 2 jalapenos, ribs and seeds removed, minced
• 2 teaspoons fresh minced ginger (I also didn’t use the ginger because I am not a huge ginger fan. If you like ginger, I would suggest you put it in. If you don’t, then don’t. Thank-you-very-much.)
• 14.5 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
• 2/3 cup regular coconut milk
• salt to taste (I would suggest adding salt and pepper as you cook; I find mine lacked a bit of salt once I served it.)

You will:

1. Pour lentils, broth, and sweet potatoes into a large pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer on low for 30-45 minutes, or until lentils and sweet potatoes are just barely done cooking. Add the turmeric, tomatoes and ginger (or not) to the pot and cook for another 10 minutes.
2. Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet. Add garlic, onions, and jalapenos. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the cabbage and cook for 10 minutes, or until cabbage is cooked through. (This is where you should be patient. This is where I was not.)
3. Add cabbage to lentil pot and stir in coconut milk. Top with cilantro.

This looks like:

In case you are wondering, this dish is super healthy and doesn’t have much fat or calories. Which means I will now down my Whoppers milk shake. What to do with leftover Easter candy? Make that. You totally earned it.

Commitment.

Yes, that is the theme of today’s post. Most of you will probably conjure up images of couples, married for 50+ years, holding hands, walking along a beach. Or someone climbing Mt. Everest. However, not for this blog. Today, I confess that there are few recipes that have required as much commitment to tweaking as today’s endeavor to make a delicious black bean burger.

As you well know, I. love. black. beans. (And, to be clear- I love you, my readers, more than black beans.) But, the quintessential black bean burger has eluded me. To me, black beans are the Mary Poppins bag-of-tricks for the culinary world. Craving brownies? Puree a can with water and add to brownie mix. Fresh Salsa? Chop up cilantro and garlic, add some crushed tomatoes and corn, and voila- deliciousness. But whipping out a burger that actually tastes like a burger (juicy, with full, rich flavors and a slightly smoky undercurrent laced through) from BB* has yet to happen for me.

However, today’s recipe is one step closer to our goal.

This, to me, is the closest I have come yet to a BB burger that has depth of flavor, and the addition of cumin gives it that smokiness I look for in a good meat burger. Plus, the Panko bread crumbs are a brilliant addition that help hold the burger together and give it a crispy exterior (other recipes I have seen look like someone took a mudpie, threw it on a skillet, and called it a day).

So enjoy the recipe, and post below to let me know how you create your perfect black bean burger.

I came across this recipe from the fabulous Ree Drummond (aka Pioneer Woman) and her Tasty Kitchen site; my modifications are in italics. Does making things in italics seem so much more dramatic to you? I feel like whenever I do this it automatically makes things intriguing. I think should  all should do this more often. 

You will need:

• 1 can (16 Oz. Size) Black Beans (you know what brand to use)
• ½ whole Onion, cut into wedges
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and rough chopped (I used four because I have a slight addiction.)
• 1 whole red pepper, stem and seeds removed, chopped
• 1 whole egg
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (Because the recipe calls you to rinse/drain the beans, I thought they needed some extra salt.)
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha hot sauce (For us Southern girls, Texas Pete does the trick.)
• ½ cups finely chopped cilantro
• 1 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 4 whole burger buns or kaiser rolls (I used thinly sliced everything bagels here and it worked great.)

You will:

Drain the can of black beans. In a mixing bowl, mash the black beans with a fork or a potato masher. I forgot this step and had to do this with a pastry cutter after I added the onion/garlic/red pepper. Actually, it was really fun, and I felt like I was working out my biceps. 

Use a food processor to chop the onion, garlic, and red pepper until very fine. Stir the mixture in with the beans. See note above.

In a separate mixing bowl, combine the egg, cumin, onion powder, chili powder, salt, Sriracha (or Texas Pete) and cilantro. Add this to the bean mixture and combine well.

If the mixture has a lot of liquid, strain with a cheesecloth or let it strain through a colander with very fine holes. When I make this again, I will strain my bean mixture. They were a bit watery, and that made it harder to form the concoction into patties. Once the excess liquid has drained off, return the bean mixture to the bowl and stir in half of the bread crumbs.

Use your hands to form four evenly sized patties. Coat the outside of the burger patties in the remaining bread crumbs. I just dunked each patty in bowl of Panko- this was also fun and satisfying. See, with black beans, the fun just never ends.

Heat the oil in a skillet on medium high heat. Cook burgers in the pan until heated through and slightly browned on both sides. To cook these more evenly, flatten them a bit with your spatula. You can also put them in the over for a few minutes if you like them more well-done.

Put the finished burger on top of a bun. Dress with all your favorite burger condiments and enjoy! In my case, this involved tomato, lettuce, guacamole and mayonnaise. For my hubby, who does not yet understand the joys of oil and egg whipped together into heaven, just guac.

*If it is alright with you, and I am now going to abbreviate black beans with BB. This makes my writing sound much better because I can not find an alternative to this word.

Let me begin this post by saying I am very, very far from mastering the art of Chinese cuisine. My experience with Asian food began at the tender age of five going to pseudo-Japanese steakhouses and filling up on so much fried rice that I could not get my wee body out of the pseudo-stool I was pseduo-sitting on.

That sentence felt very intellectual.

Moving on.

However, a dear friend of mine recently invited myself and a few others to accompany her to a “Authentic Chinese Stir Fry” class at a local cooking store. Slightly intimidated by my lack of skills with a wok and/or chopsticks, but intrigued my love of the aforementioned fried rice, I pressed on.

What I found was absolutely delightful. Not only is stir fry easy (well, Susan made it seem that way), it was tasty and quick. And to help all of you out there who might feel threatened by the sight of a hand-hammered wok, I have listed below my top 5 tips I learned while at the class.

Top 5 Stir Fry Tips

1. You need a wok to stir-fry correctly. Yes, I said wok. Not pan, not cast iron skillet. I thought I could get away with using my oversize non-stick pan and forcing as many items as possible inside. It turns out you can’t because the oil has to get hot enough (thus the word stir-fy) to cook the ingredients properly. Also, apparently I am violating health codes by attempting to get my nonstick pan that hot.

2. Smoking oil is burnt oil. I did not know this. In my mind, the steam coming off of oil in a pan seemed like something I would see in a magazine spread. When you stir fry, you want your oil simmering, not smoking. Simmering– it just sounds so romantic.

3. Organization is key. Make sure all of your ingredients are pre-chopped and ready on your counter in the order they need to go into the pan. This helps the stir-fry process flow a lot more smoothly and allows you to avoid the “WHERE THE HECK IS MY SOY SAUCE!!” epidemic/panic common to cooks in small kitchens. Yes, this should be a diagnosed disorder.

4. Don’t crowd the pan. I learned to cook the meat/thicker veggies first, take it or them out to rest, then put it/them back in at the end with your sauce.  Do not, like me, try to cook everything at once. Your veggies will steam and relase juice into your pan, and your ingredients will not have the chance to caramelize and get crispy. Thus the watery mess I had experienced with my former non-stick situation.

Side note: If you use mushrooms in your stir fry, also cook those separately and add them in at the end of your cooking. They have the ability to release a ton of water and turn your saucy stir fry into a watery stir fry. This is not good eats. (Insert your best Alton Brown imitation here.)

5. Use shallow serving platters to serve your stir-fry. When you pile your golden goodness into a big bowl, the heaviness of the bowl takes out some of the juices. It is best to use a wide, shallow pan, and serve it immediately.

Extra tip: Japanese soy sauce is different than Chinese soy sauce. Chinese is darker and has more molasses, thus making it tastier. Please impress your other foodie friends with this fact.

And, to go out in a blaze of stir-fry glory, we also learned about a local Chinese foods store if anyone wants to take a trip and get their own stir-fry a wokkin’.

“Do not post something involving cheese” (see previous recipe below). Noted. Result? Thai shrimp noodle bowls.

Thai food is a new love of mine. The spiciness, use of nut-based-sauces (Peanut sauce on everything? Yes please), and layers of flavor appeals to just about everything cooking is to me. The challenge I faced with my newfound passion was two fold- a.) Thai food can be expensive and b.) Thai food is expensive.

And then I come across this recipe- marinated shrimp in a soy-lime broth- all for about the cost of what one Thai dish would be at your local restaurant, if not less. Oh, and the best part? You bake the shrimp pouches in the oven. Anytime you get to say the word pouches in a recipe it automatically makes it cuter and a bit quirky.

Pouches. You’re welcome.

So get your Thai on, take out the stress of your day by breaking up some ramen noodles, and make an aluminum pouch, dang it.