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.

What the hell happened?

I’m not entirely sure.  I’ve been cooking and mostly loving my time in the kitchen, but I haven’t had the luxury of time to write it all down.  Part of it is a new photography project I’m working on.  Sorting and processing photos is surprisingly time-intensive, but relaxing and not as mentally strenuous as writing.  Writing’s hard work, and I just don’t have the energy for more than a few scrawled notes in the evening.  And I don’t have time in the mornings.

My son’s been waking early.  The time I normally devoted to writing up blog posts, from 5:30 to 6:00, is now spent laughing and bouncing and tickling and reading.  And given that choice, the blog’s going to lose every time.  Sorry, but it’s true.

So that’s that?  Well, not entirely.  As I adjust to the new time schedules, I’ll fit the blog posts in when I can, and I’ll try to get back in the habit of writing on Sunday afternoons or something.  Rather, cooking Saturday and spending a couple hours Sunday morning to capture it, keyboard to screen.  Until then, maybe we can talk about last week’s dinners, the failures and successes.  The surprise winner of the week? Arugula. Seriously.

Sunday- I have no idea what I made for dinner a week ago.  I would have to find my menu plan and shopping list, and I can’t right now.  They might have ended up in the recycling.

Monday-I teach Monday nights and my wife and daughter are left to fend for themselves like some kind of woeful pioneer family. I think they had a California style pizza that was delicious.

Tuesday-Lentil soup with spinach, then Parmesan orzo with garlic bread

An utter tragedy.  Not that anything tasted bad.  The lentils were made with three cups of water and a generous sprinkle of kosher salt.  I added the spinach at 20 minutes and allowed it to wilt down a bit before serving.  The orzo I made with arborio rice, white wine, kosher salt, water and Parmesan cheese, and it cooked up delicious and creamy.  But I managed my time poorly, and I took two times longer than expected to cook dinner.

Wednesday-Frozen pizzas: roasted vegetable and margarita.

I love my wife. After Tuesday’s fiasco she figured I could use a break from the kitchen.  It had been a hectic week and it was only Wednesday.  So she stuck some pizzas in the oven, they were ready when I walked in the door and it was the best mid-week present ever.

Thursday-tofu pad thai noodles and something forgettable

Average. Completely.

Friday-Flat iron steak with a simple arugula salad (so good!) and a top-notch Spanish wine I’d been saving since Christmas

Since my daughter went vegetarian we haven’t been eating a lot of meat.  I will sometimes roast a chicken and make my daughter a helping of tofu for her meal’s protein, but for the most part we’ve gone vegetarian too.  Friday my wife and I ate alone, and it was great.

Salad dressing on the arugula? Two parts extra virgin olive oil to one part lemon juice; a sprinkling of salt; toss.  The peppery taste of the arugula was the perfect compliment for the steak and the dressing provided just enough salt and acidity.

The wine was amazing.

Saturday- broccoli and cheddar soup

Good, but it was decided the potato leek soup is the best and this comes in second.  In my defense, the potato leek soup was seasoned perfectly and this batch of broccoli soup was not.

Sunday- black bean burritos with white cheese sauce

Given the choice I think we might eat this every night.

Begin with the rice

When the rice is done, combine a couple large spoonfuls of rice and beans in a tortilla, wrap, plate and drench in cheese sauce.  If you want, you can top with salsa, taco or hot sauce (or any combination).  Just an amazing, simple meal that comes together in about 20 minutes.