Kitchen Sojourn » olive oil

Black Bean Tacos

Greg Turner — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:06:34 +0000

I love transferrable skills. It’s one of the reasons I do my best to talk about understanding food rather than memorizing recipes. If you understand food, then you can take an idea and move it across an entire spectrum of entrees. Like, for example, the idea of including onion in a recipe without really including onion, an idea I got from this Salt & Fat post on Tomato-butter sauce and transferred to black bean tacos.

The results? Stellar, and without any onion bits to dissuade a finicky 13 year old (or any texture eater) from gobbling up dinner.

(And before you suggest just leaving out the onions, it’s probably best you move along. You can’t have black beans without red onions. It’s just not done.)

Black Bean Tacos
(feeds 3 with plenty of leftovers)

Ingredients:

28 oz cooked black beans
8 oz water
1/2 large red onion
At least 9 corn tortillas
16 oz uncooked long-grain rice
4 oz shredded Monterey jack cheese
12 oz cup shredded cheddar cheese
- Note: you can alter the ratio of cheddar to jack cheeses depending on how sharp or mild you want your cheese sauce. You just want to have 16 oz. of cheese, total
1 cup (8 oz) half-n-half
olive oil (about a tablespoon)
a couple big cloves of garlic
kosher salt
black pepper
ground cumin
hot sauce (optional)
cayenne (optional)
lime juice (optional)

Supplies:

Large skillet
Small sauce pan
Large pot with a tight-fitting lid

Begin by making the rice. Boil three cups of water in the large pot, add your rice, stir about a minute, cover, and reduce the heat to low. Set a kitchen timer for 20 minutes.

Put a splash of olive oil in your skillet and set it on the stove over medium-high heat. While it heats, cut your onion half in half. Set the pieces in the skillet ring-side-down so they begin to caramelize and release their flavor into the oil. While they’re cooking, go ahead and mince the garlic. After the onions have cooked about two minutes, add the minced garlic and give it a stir for about 15 seconds, then add your beans and about half a cup of water (4 oz). The water will help the beans heat evenly, prevent them from burning, distribute all your flavors, and provide a nice sauce once you’re done. Let them heat through for a couple minutes, then reduce the heat to simmer. Stir in a generous pinch of salt, a couple grinds of pepper, and a generous sprinkle of cumin. Give the mix a taste. If it doesn’t taste enough like food from your favorite Mexican restaurant, sprinkle in a little more cumin. At this point you could also add some cayenne pepper for heat and a splash of lime juice to bring a little brightness to the mix.

Note: as you finish out the remaining ingredients, keep tasting your beans. If too much of the water simmers out, the flavors will become too concentrated and the beans will get dry. If you need to, feel free to add an extra splash or two of water. Also, feel free to doctor the ingredients as you go. Don’t be afraid to play!

When there’s about a minute left on the timer, heat your tortillas (I use the microwave) and store them in a clean tea towel (paper towels will do just fine). Then set the remaining sauce pot on the stove over medium heat and add your half-n-half.

When the timer beeps, pull the rice off the burner, give it a stir, put the lid back on and set the rice aside. Begin sloooooowly adding the cheese to the half-n-half, a big pinch at a time, and give one or two stirs with each addition. After you’ve added all the cheese, stir slowly and smoothly until it’s blended to a sauce.

To serve, spoon rice and beans into a tortilla, set it on a plate and smother with cheese sauce. Bask in your family’s loving gaze and applause.

Spinach sald with Gorgonzola and balsamic walnut vinaigrette

Greg Turner — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:55:39 +0000

I wish I had a clever beginning, some pithy line or sage comment that would speak to freshness or seasonality or something. But I don’t. It was a relaxing weekend, and I made some food and and it was mostly good.

But this one thing was great. And simple.

So simple.

Spinach salad with Gorgonzola and balsamic walnut vinaigrette (serves 2, 4 if served as a side salad)
Enough spinach to fill a good-sized bowl (you know how much you want to eat)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
4 tbl crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
4 tbl extra virgin olive oil
2 tbl balsamic vinegar
kosher salt

Tear the spinach leaves and pile them in separate bowls. Divide the crumbled cheese and sprinkle liberally over the spinach. In a small skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. When it develops a slight sheen, carefully add the walnuts. Cook them until they begin to release a rich, nutty aroma (probably about 2 minutes), and the color begins to deepen. Add the balsamic vinegar and let it sizzle and reduce, about 30 seconds. Sprinkle with a couple good pinches of salt, then pour the walnuts, oil and vinegar over the spinach and cheese. Serve warm.

I had the salad for lunch on Sunday, and it was perfect. Seriously perfect. The hot dressing wilted the spinach just slightly and melted some of the cheese. The wonderful nutty flavor of the cooked walnuts complemented the rich, salty flavor of the Gorgonzola and the spinach provided the perfect delivery vehicle.

For simplicity’s sake

Greg Turner — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:32:54 +0000

Fresh citrus fennel salad

Ingredients (serves 4)
2 medium fennel bulbs, greens attached
4 teaspoons lemon juice
8 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 + 1 teaspoons orange zest

Technique
shave
mix

Shave the fennel using a mandolin or other slicer. Trim the fennel greens and give them a fine chop. Stir together in a large bowl.

In a small bowl, mix together the lemon juice, olive oil and salt.

Using a micro-planer, zest several oranges, until you have the 2 teaspoons of orange zest. Set half aside.

Pour the dressing over the fennel mixture and add a teaspoon of the orange zest. Mix everything together. Your hands are the best tools for the job. Don’t worry. You can always wash them.

To serve, separate into four bowls and top each with a bit of the remaining orange zest.

How to cook vegetarian

Greg Turner — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:15:58 +0000

On the way back from my in-laws Christmas day, my daughter announced she was officially a vegetarian. My wife and I weren’t surprised. We knew it was coming the day she disavowed bacon, and I’ve been encouraging her since reading Michael Pollan’s “Farmer In Chief,” which includes striking information on environmental impact of the US food industry. Still, it throws a wrench in my overall plan of learning again how to cook.

To mark the occasion of my daughter’s vegetarian transformation, I wanted to do something special. An appetizer. In the past, we’ve enjoyed the frozen spinach artichoke dip produced by T.G.I. McGuilicutty’s (and yes, I’ve hated myself for it). Why not do something similar? Luckily, I’d seen a close recipe in Rocco’s 5 Minute Flavor. Did I mention how I already hated myself a bit? Don’t judge. It was heavily discounted, and there must be some merit, some universal truth in spending $7.95 on a book that lists at $26.95 by a former chef (he’s just a cook now) who enjoyed one of the most well-publicized and precipitous falls from favor in the public cooking world.

And I tell you this: if there is no other recipe in the whole book, the artichoke dip alone is worth the price of admission.

Ingredients (serves 4)
1 14 oz. can of artichoke hearts, finely chopped (I’m a fan of Virgo. They’re organicish and inexpensive, which is much more than I can say for Progresso)
3/4 cup mayonnaise (the original recipe suggested low-fat or reduced fat, but that doesn’t quite have the same wonderful unctuous mouth feel as the real stuff)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated fine
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped fine (yes, fresh counts here. I wouldn’t dare use the dry stuff for this recipe)
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (this is my addition, for color and some texture)
1 fine French baguette

Technique
Mince
Chop, fine

Method
Bake

To make the dip, simply combine the artichoke hearts, mayonnaise, garlic, parmesan cheese, and basil in a 8” * 8” baking dish. Stir them all together then sprinkle the top with the bread crumbs. Cut the baguette on a bias and arrange the slices on a baking sheet. Put the sliced bread and the artichoke dip in a 425(degree F) oven for about 5 minutes. The bread will crisp up and the dip will get nice and bubbly. Right at the end, zap the dip under the broiler for about 30 seconds to brown the bread crumbs and give them some additional crunch.

For the main course, I went with an old standby, spaghetti and tomato sauce with garlic bread.

Ingredients (serves 4, without being piggish)
For the sauce
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, mostly drained
1 8oz can tomato sauce
four garlic cloves, crushed and copped fine
kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano (or more, to taste)
1/4 cup grated parmesan + 1/4 cup grated parmesan held in reserve

For the pasta
1 16 oz package of dried spaghetti (duh)
2 level tablespoons kosher salt

For the garlic bread
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 loaf of crusty Italian or cu ban bread, cut in half lengthwise

Technique
Chop, fine
Mince

Method
Boil
Simmer
Broil

Fill a 6 qt stock pot with four quarts of water. Add two level tablespoons of kosher salt and set the water over high heat

While the water is coming to a boil, set a large sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil. The pan is at temperature when it feels warm to a hand that’s several inches above it. Add the garlic and let it soften and turn translucent at the edges. Make sure to keep it moving so it doesn’t burn.

note: burned garlic is very bitter and gives a hard, sometimes unpleasant edge to sauces and soups.

When the garlic has softened some, add the diced tomatoes and the tomato sauce and stir it all together. Let the mix come to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low (low-medium), and allow the sauce to simmer. Give it a taste and add a little salt, if necessary.

Without any extra ingredients, the sauce will taste very bright and acidic, like a slightly under-ripe tomato. Add the oregano, stir it in, and taste. The sauce should taste more mellow now. Gone is the tannic edge and in its place is a rounder, deeper flavor. If the sauce still tastes tart, try adding a bit more oregano or a couple grinds of black pepper. As a last resort, you could add a trace of sugar, but then you might as well have saved yourself the trouble and just bought the jarred stuff at the store, savored its cloying sweetness.

When the sauce tastes good (tasting along the way is the secret to an excellent tomato sauce), slowly stir in 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese and then leave it alone. From here on out, the sauce will take care of itself.

Your water should be boiling now, so go ahead and carefully place your pasta in the pot, give it a stir, and let it go. Set the timer as directed on the box (I usually go for the lowest suggested time so I don’t inadvertently cook my pasta to mush), and give it a good stir about two minutes into the cooking time. That’s when the pasta will release most of its starch into the water and thus will be most likely to stick together into a giant spaghetti rope. Looks cool, but is pretty inedible.
After you’ve given the pasta the second stir, It’s time to toast the garlic bread. Set a small sauce pan on one of your remaining burners (sorry, Bittman) and bring it to medium-high. Add the olive oil and butter. When the butter has melted, add the minced garlic. Don’t let it sit in the pan. Stir, keep the pan moving and heat the garlic until it begins to go translucent, then use a slotted spoon to remove it from the pan. Get a brush (or you could just pour it over the bread) and brush the bread with the butter mixture.

Note: If you want an extra garlicy touch, reserve the minced garlic to spread on the bread once it’s out of the oven.

Stick the bread in the oven under the broiler for about a minute (check it at 45 seconds, just to be safe). When the bread begins to brown on the edges, take it out.
When the beeper beeps, drain the pasta.

Plate the pasta, cover with a couple spoonfuls of the sauce, and serve with the garlic bread, sliced. Put the remaining Parmesan cheese on the table so guests can adjust the sauce’s cheesiness to their liking.

A good spaghetti sauce is easy to make. Cook it slow, taste along the way, and add nothing in huge quantities. Use the best ingredients you can (don’t you dare use off-season tomatoes; go for canned), and keep it simple. It’s a formula that’s served me well for a long time, evidenced by this exchange:

Daughter: What are we having for dinner?
Me: Spaghetti and tomato sauce.
Daughter: The stuff you make, or the stuff from a jar?
Me: The stuff I make.
Daughter: Good.

That vote of confidence from a picky eater? It’s a wonder I don’t make the stuff every night.