Chimayo Red and Hatch Black Bean Chili

Coming home today after being on a business trip in Washington DC for the past five days I felt the need to cook something.  Eating out three meals a day gets old after awhile and I enjoy my own cooking a lot more than many restaurant meals.  I wanted to make a spicy soup but I ended up making more of a chili and it was really different and tasty.  I made half of it with no meat and half with organic chicken sausage.  Both were equally good.  It may not look all that great in the photo but it was wonderful.  My version is in the photo but my husband's had shredded cheese and chips.

3 cans Westbrae Organic black beans, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 small onion, diced
2 small carrots, diced
1 medium potato, diced
3/4 cup diced Hatch green chile* (mine was from fresh, roasted Hatch chile, frozen last month)
2 tablespoons Masa Harina
1/3 cup spice mixture
1 box Kitchen Basics unsalted vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste
(Chicken sausage version:  12 ounces Pedersen Farms Organic Mild Italian Chicken Sausage, removed from casing and diced)

Spice mixture
1/4 cup fennel seeds, ground in spice grinder
1/4 cup ground cumin
1/4 cup New Mexico red chile powder ** (I used my Chimayo chile powder I got last year in Chimayo and keep in the freezer.)
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt

Drain and rinse beans and set aside.  Heat oil in large pot, add the onions, carrots, and potatoes and saute until the onions are translucent.  Add the green chile, masa harina and spice mixture.  Stir well until smooth.
Add the beans and vegetable stock and stir until mixed well. (If using chicken sausage, add now.)  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until potatoes and carrots are tender.  Adjust taste with salt and pepper.

Ladle into bowls and top with a dollop of Mexican crema or sour cream and any of the following: diced avocado, scallions, chopped cilantro, salsa, shredded cheese, crumbled tortilla chips.

*My Hatch chile is mostle mild with some hot mixed in, so adjust if you don't like it too hot and use mild only.
**Reduce red chile by half or less if you don't like things too spicy.

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Crispy Rice Chewies

I've been making rich desserts for special birthdays lately. I made a decadent turtle cheesecake and a banana rum filled cake with cream cheese frosting, as well as chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.  I have sampled a bite of each of the dessets but just a bite, (well except the Mexican chocolate cupcake that I succumbed to last night).  I had to make something a bit healthier so tomorrow at work when I'm serving the banana rum filled cake I would have something equally good to munch on.  I had seen a couple recipes for desserts using brown rice cereral in a couple of my whole foods, plant based diet books.  In keeping with my goal of staying away from refined sugar, white flour, and empty calories, I thought the combination of organic brown rice cereal, brown rice syrup, almond butter was perfect.  I even got to use my favorite Callebaut dark chocolate chips.
The squares of nutty, chocolate, crunchy goodness made me very happy.  There are many variations of this dessert and I believe anyone would enjoy it.  Just don't tell them it's from the "Forks over Knives" people!

Crispy Rice Chewies
Makes 16 squares
1 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 cup almond butter (or any nut butter)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (grain sweetened, non dairy if possible)
3 cups crispy brown rice cereal

In a large saucepan, heat rice syrup and almond butter over low heat until creamy.  Stir in chocolate chips until they melt.  Remove from heat and stir in rice cereal.  Mix and coat evenly.  Place in 8 inch square pan and press down slightly.  Allow to set until firm.  Cut into squares and serve.

Variations:
omit chocolate chips and add 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
add 1/2 cup roasted almonds or walnuts
1/2 cup currants, raisins, or chopped apricots



 Don't eat these!

White cake with Banana Rum filling, Cream Cheese Frosting

Turtle Cheesecake

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

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Brown Rice Salad

I ordered my favorite brown rice from Massa Organics and it arrived in the mail a couple days ago.
Massa Organics is a family owned farm in California which produces the nicest brown rice you could imagine.  You have to order it on-line but it is worth the shipping.  As I've written in previous posts, my method of cooking brown rice is different, but produces light, fluffy, and perfect grains of brown rice, not the gooey clumpy type you sometimes get in a rice cooker or on the stove.
I use an 8 quart pot, fill it 2/3 of the way with water and bring the water to a boil. I rinse the brown rice, anywhere from 2 cups to a whole bag (1 pound). I simmer the rice uncovered, just like you would cook pasta, for about 30 minutes. Check it and if it's still too hard, cook a little longer.I then drain the rice in a colander and place the rice back in the pot, put the cover on and let it steam for about 10 minutes, off the heat. It will be tender, fluffy, and perfectly cooked, ready to eat plain or in various recipes. Use right away of measure out 1/2 -1 cup portions in zip loc sandwich bags or small plastic contaners and freeze, then when you want to serve brown rice for a meal or take in to work, it's always in your freezer. 

Brown Rice Salad

2 cups cooked brown rice
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce (Kikkoman's)
few drops toasted sesame oil
1 tsp canola oil (optional)  tastes fine without the added oil
2 scallions, thinly sliced

Mix all ingredients together and serve at room temperature.  If you start with refrigerated rice, heat it briefly in the microwave to soften it.  If the salad has been in the referigerator, heat it briefly in the microwave (a few seconds). 
You can add any other vegetable such as sprouts, thinly shaved radishes, finely chopped cucumbers, etc.
I had a bowl of the rice for breakfast with a sprinkle of furikake (seaweed) and some Japanese red pepper mixture. 

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Redfish on the halfshell with grilled corn and ginger herb dressing

I happened to walk in the room yesterday when my husband was watching John Besh on PBS.
He was cooking grilled redfish with a corn salad.  It looked so good and happened to be from his New Orleans cookbook.  I pulled out my cookbook and saw the recipe.  I knew I would modify it by reducing the amount of oil from 1/2 cup to a couple tablespoons at the most.  I made some other minor changes such as browning the top of the fish.  The ginger herb corn salad is really delicious and would go with fish, beef, chicken, or just by itself.

Grilled Redfish on the Half Shell with Grilled Corn and Ginger Herb Dressing
Adapted from My New Orleans by John Besh

6 ears corn, shucked with the outer husks left intact
12 cherry or grape tomatoes, chopped
1 large half red fish, skin and scales on, approximately 1 pound
2 T canola oil
salt and pepper (freshly ground)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons minced ginger
2 scallions, chopped
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon red chile flakes
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tsp fresh mint, 1 tsp fresh basil, 2 T fresh cilantro, all chopped

Light a charcoal or turn on a gas grill. Grill the corn with the husks still attached for approximately 10 minutes over medium heat.  Remove corn from cob and set aside. 

Rub the redfish with 1 T of canola oil and season with freshly ground salt and pepper.  Place skin side down on grill over medium heat.  Close lid and grill for 10 minutes.  Flip fish over to grill top side.  Grill for 3 minutes.  Turn back over and remove from grill.

Heat a large skillet and add 1 T canola oil.  Saute the garlic, ginger and scallions for 2-3 minutes.
Add the corn, chopped tomatoes, sugar, pepper flakes, vinegar, lemon juice, mint basil, and cilantro and cook, stirring often, until the corn is heated through, 3-5 minutes.  Spoon the warm corn and tomatoes over each fish fillet and serve.  Sprinkle a little fresh cilantro on top.

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Kanpachi Nabe

My daughter Helen, her boyfriend Will, his son Atticus, and my granddaughter, Grace were in town a few days ago and we had a dinner together to celebrate my birthday.  One of my gifts was the Uchi cookbook.  Uchi is a very famous restaurant owned by Tyson Cole, an award winning chef, in Austin.  A second location opened recently in Houston.  Helen and Will went to the Austin location for Helen's birthday in May and told me all about it.  I had heard of it but never eaten there.  I am very anxious to try it now, especially after reading the cookbook from cover to cover.  What interesting dishes he has created.  One of the dishes that caught my eye cas called, "Kona Kanpachi" or on his restaurant menu, "Hamachi Nabe".  I had a feeling this would be a really great dish so I just had to make it.  I didn't have a small nabe (clay donabe pot) so I ordered an authentic one on line.  It is a beautiful brown clay pot from Japan, about 7 inches in diameter.

The dish consists of sushi rice cooked in a hot donabe, marinated fresh kanpachi (yellowtail) added to the hot donabe topped with an egg yolk, furikake, scallion, and a special sauce.

I don't usually get that excited about food (well I really do, but not THAT excited), but this was out of this world good.  Steve went crazy over it too.  I modified the recipe a bit so mine is not exactly the same as the one in the cookbook.  It is worth anything you have to do to make it, including purchasing a $54.00 authentic donabe pot from Japan.  Take my word for it.

Kanpachi Nabe

Adapted from Uchi Cookbook, Tyson Cole

1 serving

1 T vegetable oil

2 ounces kanpachi, diced

salt and pepper

1 cup cooked sushi rice

Sauce

5 ounces sake

7 ounces mirin

5 ounces reduced sodium soy sauce

1 tsp dashi

2 garlic cloves, smashed

Sesame Relish

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 large shallot, minced

1 small Thai chile

1 tsp sesame oil

2 T vegetable oil

Garnish

1 egg yolk

Furikake

Bonito flakes

3/4 stalk scallion, diced

For the sauce:  Heat sake in a medium saucepan and burn off alcohol, about 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Combine remaining ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and let steep for 15 minutes. (You will have extra sauce so you can make 3 or 4 servings or use the sauce for other dishes.)

For the sesame relish:  Finely dice (brunoise) the garlic and shallot, and thinly slice the Thai chile in rounds.  Mix the vegetables with the oils.  Set aside

Heat a nabe, or Japanese hot pot, on the stove with a little bit of oil.  Toss diced kanpachi with the sesame relish and season with salt and pepper.  Just before the oil reaches its smoking point, add the rice.  Next add the kanpachi.  Top with the egg yolk and sprinkle of furikake, bonito flakes, and finely sliced scallion. The hot ingredients will partially cook the fish and it will be ready immediately.  Pour 2 tablespoons kanpachi sauce on top (or more to taste).  Serve in hot pot at the table on an insulated place mat.

(I used Hon-dashi, a dried dashi powder similar to bouillon.  Furikake is a Japanese seaweed seasoning.  Both Hon-dashi and Furikake are sold in Asian stores and Central Market in Texas.)

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Spicy Braised Tofu and Garden Vegetables

I found the best recipe for tofu!!  It is from the Vermont Zen Center of all places.  I was trying to search for a "braised tofu" dish like the one I had in San Diego at the Mission Cafe that was served with egg whites, grilled zucchini, and brown rice.

I have adapted it more to my tastes and find it to be very versatile.  It goes really well with brown rice (or any rice) and vegetables, either cooked with the tofu or separately.
A typical weeknight, after working out at the gym, I looked for something to cook in the refrigerator, grabbed a package of medium firm tofu (but the recipe works with any type of tofu), drained it, cut it into slices about 1/2 inch thick and set it on paper towels to dry out a bit.
I went out to the vegetable garden to see if anything was ripe and found a summer squash, a couple pieces of okra, a bell pepper, and some cilantro.  I had some carrots already cut up in the refrigerator from lunch and a piece of onion.
After braising the tofu I heated 1/2 tablespoon of canola oil and stir fried the cut up vegetables with a tsp each of garlic and ginger and a little low sodium soy sauce. I sprinkled the minced cilantro on top after they were done.  Brown rice was cooking in the rice cooker. The finished dish was full of flavor from the garden fresh produce and the gingery sauce on the tofu.  I had some cooked Thai beef in the freezer from another meal so I defrosted it and served it along side Steve's dinner.  He would not consider tofu, rice, and vegetables alone to be "dinner".

Spicy Braised Tofu

2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar or evaporated cane sugar
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1 minced garlic clove
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Combine all ingredients and mix well.  Set aside.
1 pound tofu, medium to firm
1/2 tablespoon canola oil and a few drops sesame oil
1 scallion, chopped for garnish
1 tsp grated ginger for garnish

Cut dried tofu into bite size cubes.  In a large skillet, heat the oil and saute tofu until lightly browned.  Stir sauce again to combine, then add to tofu.  Cook stirring occasionally unti sauce comes to a boil.
Simmer until thick and sauce is no longer milky.  Sprinkle with scallion and ginger.

The braised tofu also tastes great for breakfast with an egg white omelet and toast or rice, or cut up a put on a salad. 

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Barney Butter, my new favorite spread

I subscribe to a monthly food box called "Love With Food" and received a couple packages of Barney Butter last month.  I didn't think too much of it since I am not that fond of almond butter, but when I tried this product I was surprised at how good it tasted.  It is also packaged in 1 tablespoon size servings which is the right amount for me, about 90 calories and 7 grams of fat.  For breakfast a piece of Artisan Baking Company multigrain bread spread with the Barney Butter is delicious! Try it.  I looked on their website and discovered their other products and recipes. I am interested in trying some Asian sauces with the Barney Butter or using it to make some desserts as well.

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