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Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers (Baked!)

20 Jan

In my other life I am a full-time college professor teaching intensive academic English to immigrants and foreign students who need a bit more English to be able to make it in the mainstream of our local community college.

I don’t make a whole lot of money (although there are other perks to living the higher education life!) and until my son enters kindergarten, I have a big fat daycare bill every month, so I am not dropping $10 a day on going out to lunch. No WAY.

I try, as much as possible, to prepare three wholesome, homemade meals a day for me and my son (and they are not always the same meal  — my kingdom for a dishwasher….) and do it on the cheap. I triple recipes and freeze portions for greater efficiency. And I am always searching for new takes on standard ingredients.

So here is a new recipe for black bean burgers, inspired by Vegetarian Times. This addition of quinoa — a super-grain that is super-easy to prepare — creates a phenomenal texture and you can really substitute whichever spices you like; here I used adobo powder to good effect. ATTENTION VEGANS: the quinoa holds everything together, so there are NO EGGS needed!

You can also freeze the extra; a great plus. I did them from dry beans, soaked overnight with a bit of salt, then simmered for a couple of hours, but I include the measurements for using canned beans too.

Full disclosure: Leandro loved the texture and did not like the taste AT ALL. So I will get to pack them for my lunches for the next few weeks and next time I make these, I will fiddle around with flavors. VegTimes suggests steak seasoning (which is vegetarian) so maybe I will go that route.

Here’s to a delicious and healthy Spring Semester, starting now at a college near me!

Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers

1.5 Cups cooked quinoa (prepared according to package directions)

1 small onion, chopped fine (about 1 Cup)

6 sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained indifferently and finely chopped

1.5 Cups cooked black beans (or 15 oz. can black beans rinsed and drained, divided in half)

3 cloves garlic, minced (about 3 Tbs)

2 Tbs adobo

(Optional: Burger fixings – buns, sliced onion, cheese, mustard, ketchup, sliced avocado, etc)

Saute onion and tomatoes in a large nonstick skillet and cook over medium heat (you probably won’t need additional oil as the tomatoes will have enough).  Cook 5 minutes, until onion is well-softened. Stir in black beans (half if using canned), garlic, adobo and 1.5 Cups water and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated and the beans are softened (you may need more water if using beans from dry). Season with salt and pepper if necessary and allow to cool.

Transfer bean mixture to food processor. Add half the quinoa and process until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl and mix in the remaining quinoa (and remaining beans if using canned).

Preheat oven to 350°F and coat baking sheet with cooking spray. Shape bean mixture into ½ Cup patties (8-9) and place on baking sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes on each side until both sides are crisp and brown and serve with fixings of your choice.

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Inside-Out Guacamole

16 Jan

I invented this recipe for my beloved Single Mothers by Choice support group; we meet up once a month at someone’s home and our kids go mental playing, while we bring snacks — often home-made — drink tea and coffee, and discuss — among other momentous questions — whether a date for Valentine’s Day is possible, do-able or desirable (Some women have married out, so the answer might just be yes).

I joined the group when considering embarking on single parenthood and started going to the local meetings when I got pregnant(!), so it’s been about five years, and let me tell you, there is nothing better than a supportive and understanding peer group to help you navigate your ups, downs, and angst. Leandro considers some of the kids among his best friends and we share times with them outside regular meetings, so it is really important to us.

So thus inside-out guacamole – a speedier way to the same great flavor.

And this guac without the mashing is not just for single chicks…It’s got NFL cred…try it on Sunday when Big Blue shows that team from San Francisco where they can put that candlestick….

Inside-Out Guacamole (can be doubled or tripled)

2 ripe Haas avocados (unpeeled flesh should give a bit when pressed with a finger), peeled and chunked

Juice of half a lime

½ Cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half

¼ red onion, sliced very thin

1 clove garlic, minced or pressed

¼-1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/8-1/4 tsp salt (to taste)

Place avocado chunks in a bowl and sprinkle with lime (for flavor and to prevent browning)

Add the rest of the ingredients, mix gently and serve with large tortilla chips or tortilla scoops.

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Breadfruit – Panapén – High Seas History (and a rant)

13 Jan

Fried Pana – Nirvana!!!!!

We are just back from almost three weeks in Puerto Rico with my parents at the home of my late grandmother, during which I ate loads of classic Puerto Rican Christmas food — perníl, pasteles, morcilla, arroz con gandules — O.M.G. I am fat and happy to have my food fixes fixed!

However, I did not do a lot of cooking! I thought my dad and I would take the opportunity to mash it up in the kitchen for the duration, but….my dad, who has a history of embarking on new eating plans that — for better or worse — consume the rest of us, chose THE HOLIDAYS IN PUERTO RICO TO START THE CRAZIEST DIET OF THEM ALL!?! Did he have to purge now!?! Are you kidding me!?!

It’s okay that he became a vegan overnight, it’s okay that additionally, sugar and things like bread, rice and pasta are not allowed, but in this version of vegan there is a whole ‘nother complication: you can’t mix food grown under the earth in the same meal as food grown on top of the earth. So you want to saute garlic with your leafy greens? No. You want onions in your chayote salad? No. It’s a big old pain, and while this diet has had great effects for our cousin and other people we know and I hope it resolves whatever my dad hopes it resolves, I just wish he could have put it off until we had had a lot more fun in the kitchen. And I did guilt the churrasco recipe  out of him finally!

Rant over.

Let’s talk about my single most favorite starchy produce item in the whole wide world: breadfruit, or panapén or pana (as we call it in Puerto Rico).

Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is a very tall, lusciously-leafed relative of the mulberry. It originates in Southeast Asia and it prolifically produces canteloupe-size green-peeled starchy fruit that is denser and sweeter than potato. It can be boiled, roasted, fried…anything.

Credits to Wikipedia for this image!!!!

Remember The Mutiny on the Bounty? Well Captain Bligh was trying to bring breadfruit to the Caribbean from Tahiti (as a way to feed the increasing numbers of slaves) when he was set adrift by his mutinous crew. He eventually succeeded — but legend has it the slaves refused to eat it.

Anyway, breadfruit was not supposed to be in season during this holiday, but my admirers (yes I have some) — the LeBron brothers of the Plaza del Mercado of Mayagüez — managed to obtained some for me and in their desire to please, peeled and sliced it for me before I had a chance to photograph it (thus the borrowed image).

Anyway, the recipe is simple:

Salt an abundant amount of water in a large pot, bring to a boil (either with or without the peeled, sliced breadfruit already in), reduce heat and boil gently for about 15 minutes until tender. Drain and serve with olive oil and salt (and salt cod in vinaigrette, if you’ve got, but that’s a recipe for another day).

I mash mine up on my plate with abundant oil, but the pictures didn’t come out very well so a I could not include them.

The following day, I took the leftover boiled pana and sliced it into flat squares that I fried in a small amount of vegetable oil. The insides were so creamy…just thinking about it makes my mouth water…And that you can indeed see in the picture.

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Chayote Salad (Ensalada de Chayote)

2 Jan

After some of the excesses of the holidays (and believe me when I say excesses), I decided that a cool, crisp, low-cal, high-fiber, generally good-for-you salad would be just the tonic. However, me being me, I wanted to go a different direction from just a serviceable green salad.

Enter the chayote (Sechium edule — you may know it as christophene if you are French, or alligator pear if you are not). It is a fruit that is used as a vegetable, can be eaten raw or cooked and has many, many uses.

My chayote salad is one of the simpler ways to love it (and at just 11 calories per half cup for chayot, pre-dressing, you will very much love it). The whole thing is reputed to be edible, skin and all, but I do not care for the skin, so I peel it. I do love the seeds (my family has no idea they are edible because I eat them surreptitiously before they ever get to the table!); try them and see what you think!

Look for firm fruit – they may be minty green or white – both are great!

Ensalada de Chayote (Chayote Salad)

Serves four as a side salad

4 Cups water (enough to cover chayotes in a pot)

¼ tsp salt

2 chayotes (firm), rinsed and sliced in half or quarters lengthwise

4 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp cilantro leaves, chopped fine (optional)

¼ red onion, sliced thin

1 tsp roasted red pepper, diced

1-2 tsp capers

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Boil water and add salt. Add chayotes, return to the boil and cook for 15-20, until they slide off easily when pierced with a knife.  Allow chayotes to cool.

In the meantime, whisk olive oil and vinegar in a bowl until blended. Whisk in cilantro leaves. Stir in red pepper and set aside.

 Peel cooled chayote with a paring knife (it will come off in sheets if you use the knife to pull the peel off). Chop into rustic chunks. You may eat the seeds right then (which is what I do! Don’t tell) or chop them up and add to salad.

In a bowl, mix all ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve. Makes a great side salad for four.

 

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The Best of 2011 – closing the year with my Top Five

31 Dec

Thanks to all my visitors  – regular and occasional – for a great year of cooking!

Unlike the rest of the year, this week has been a slow one for culinary adventure (I’ll explain that one later), so rather than do nothing, I’ve collected this year’s top five recipes – the ones that get hit time and time again to let you know what other folks are trying out in their kitchens.

I hope you will give them a try…and I will certainly try to do more things using these ingredients that you loved!

Best wishes for a wonderful and delicious New Year!

Natalia

NUMBER FIVE

Oatmeal, Cranberry, Raisin, Walnut Cookies (click name of dish for recipe!)

NUMBER FOUR

Cheesy Broccoli and Chorizo Pasta (click name of dish for recipe!)

NUMBER THREE

No-Crust Broccoli and Feta Quiche (click dish name for recipe!)

NUMBER TWO

Pastelón de Yuca (Puerto Rican Shepherd’s Pie) (click name of dish for recipe!)

NUMBER ONE!!!!!

Yuca en Escabeche (Yuca Salad) (click name of dish for recipe!)

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Banana Maple Walnut Muffins

22 Dec

I’ve crossed to the dark side and I am never-ever-ever going back. After years of greasing — and subsequently washing — four trays of mini-muffin baking cups (that is 48 — forty-eight, count ’em– little tiny cups each with its own pain-in-the-cuticles little edge that gets full of burnty-bits because, of course, they are also a pain-in-the-cuticles to grease) I finally bought some paper muffin cup liners and I don’t think I’ll ever bake naked again.

Good thing, because this is a nice little recipe that I would like to do again, but might have put it off because of the aforementioned greasing and washing thing.

Full disclosure: Leandro is usually deeply involved in all baking activities. This time, however, he had a friend over and they didn’t feel like it and they were very happy (meaning: not bothering me) so, why eff up a good thing? Also, in retrospect, the many tiny 1/4 teaspoons of this and that really aren’t suited to baking with kids who prefer to throw puffs of flour and baking soda around. So I went ahead and made these myself – his little friend’s mom arriving just in time to help me fill the cups – and had a lovely time.

This was a big hit with my colleagues and everyone else who tried them. Leandro was not so keen (today I seem to have a great deal to disclose, don’t I?), at least he wasn’t at first, but later warmed up to them and loved them in his lunchbox with yogurt for dipping. Oh yes, and the original recipe comes from Food to Live By, by Myra Goodman of Earthbound Farms fame!

Note about the maple syrup: I am pleased to say it comes from New York State! Sugar Brook Maple Farm in Kerhonkson, NY (845-626-3466) to be exact. It is lovely and rich and mellow and thanks to Hatti and Emma for pointing it out to us on our (somewhat) recent visit to her place in New Paltz!

Banana Maple Walnut Muffins

2 Cups flour (mix of whole wheat and white is fine; all whole wheat is too heavy)

1.5 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

2 large eggs

½ cup pure maple syrup

½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup whole milk (lowfat is okay)

¼ cup vegetable oil

¼ tsp vanilla extract

2 Cups mashed very ripe bananas (4-5)

¾ Cup walnuts, chopped fairly fine

Position rack in center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°. Line muffin tins with liners or grease with butter.

Place flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon in a large bowl and combine well.

Place eggs, maple syrup, brown sugar, milk, oil and vanilla in a medium bowl and whisk to combine well. Add the bananas and stir to combine.

Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Fold in the walnuts. Do not overmix or the muffins will be tough. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filing almost to the brim.

Bake muffins until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean (13-15 minutes for mini-muffins; 20 – 30 for standard-size muffins).

Let tins cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove. They will keep for about three days in an air-tight container. Reheat for 10 seconds in a microwave or 350° oven for 5-10 minutes.

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Pear, Berry and Goat Cheese Hors d’ouevres ¡Que Chévrere!

16 Dec

Once again, I underestimated how much time I had to make food and how much time each item would take. Regular readers know that I am trying not to fuss when guests come over, but I got a bit ambitious for a Lucas and Amanda playdate and ended up slicing and cooking more than talking for a good part of the early evening.

However, my trip into the weeds of food prep was well worth it, if only for this one new, festive appetizer that looks so pretty and explodes with flavor.

Inspired by a holiday recipe I saw in a magazine last time I went to get my hair done, I picked up some Bosch pears. The original recipe called for Camembert, but I couldn’t find it during my very brave (or ill-advised or just plain crazy?) trip to the nearest Costco Warehouse in the middle of the holiday shopping season with its completely lawless parking lot with a just a half an hour before I had to pick up both little lunatics from the daycare. I cut my losses, grabbed some goat cheese, extricated myself from Costco without incident, and hit the refresh button on my recipe plans.

I had just got the litle guys into a groove at home (which involved unforeseen complications, like my son’s grumpy mood, and taking out the old-fashioned spiral corer and peeler for them to prepare their own apples and other such mommy activities) and Amanda was already at the door! But no harm done – the fizzy stuff was cold and all I had to do was some quick assembly for the starters.

Later I bunged Lucas’ favorite Flex-Mex Shredded Chicken chicken in to a pot and all was well (although admittedly the kids were moaning for food by the time I had it all together – why, why, why do kids decide to get hungry EARLY just when you are overwhelmed? And is there any sound more grating — and distracting — than the whine of your little emperor child when you are trying to concentrate on getting him what he wants anyway? Sheesh!)

So, for the holidays, try this with a dry sparkling wine – we had Frexienet, but I might go with a dry prosecco the next time. Amanda, my colleague, Maryanne, and I loved this up and I think you will too!

Pear, Berry and Goat Cheese Hors d’ouevres (makes a light appetizer for two)

1 Bosch Bear, core removed and sliced into thin wedges (I used a push-down apple core-and-slicer and then sliced each segment in half)

1 tsp lemon juice

2 Tbs creamy goat cheese (chevre)

2 Tbs walnuts, chopped fairly fine

1 Tbs lingonberry jam (raspberry or red currant would also work)

Arrange pear wedges on a plate. Sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent browning. Add a dollop of goat cheese. Top with walnuts and a bit of jam. Serve immediately.

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Sage Butter (with Grilled Butternut Squash or Steak)

12 Dec

This is a bang-together butter to dress up a grilled meal. My dad halves butternut squash lengthwise, removes the seeds and grills, skin and all, until tender when pierced. It looks fab and tastes great. Does it need the butter? Well, probably not, but sometimes you just have be generous with yourself and go for the extra unctuous goodness.

Sage Butter

2 Tbs shallots, chopped fine

2 Tbs sage leaves, chopped fine

½ tsp lemon juice

1 stick salted butter, softened (1/4 lb)

Sprinkle of fresh ground black pepper

Spin the shallots and sage together in a food processor (or mince really fine and mix well). Add remaining ingredients and mix well. You may place in a dish and chill, or roll into a tube, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze, cutting off thin disks a needed. Dollop over grilled butternut squash or steak, or slather on bread.

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Tostones: Puerto Rican French Fries – Made of Plantains!

8 Dec
If you have ever eyed those oversized, overthick, green banana-looking things in the supermarket and wondered what people do with them, this is your great revelatory moment.

Pre-soaking in salted, garlicky water

Those things are plantains – Musa paradisiaca – a kind of banana we in the Caribbean use to make all manner of delicious, stodgy things, preferably plunged into hot fat and heavily salted. Plantains originated in SouthEast Asia or the Near East or thereabouts and came over with colonialism. They flourish in the tropics and are now integral to the Caribbean culinary canon.

Fry and smash

Tostones – called patacones in other parts of Latin America – are disks that – much like French fries – are sliced and fried twice -once to cook through and the second time to crisp. As the holidays approach and I feel more and more festive, I am saying “Calories be damned, I need some of those!” So I’ve been making tostones for dinner. Yes, the whole meal. And we are all loving it.

Assembly line: note beautiful Pipo Grajales-made tostonera in background

My son dips them in ketchup, my favorite Dominican restaurant serves them with a garlic mojo sauce, and Puerto Ricans like them dipped in mayo-ketchup, a quick stir of mayonnaise and ketchup (that Kraft actually markets on the island!). These days I just sprinkle salt on them; some folk like garlic salt or powdered garlic. Years ago my friend, Chef Patricia Wilson pioneered serving them topped with sour cream and caviar at noted Old San Juan restaurant Amadeus…with a flute of dry sparkling they dress up real nice. You can dip them in hot soup too…mmmmm.

So give tostones a try; the first soak in water is critical; the second one less so, but it doesn’t really add much time to the procedure and it does add flavor and texture, so why not?

 Tostones (Fried green plantains, serves four as a meal, 6-8 as a side)

(Note: you will need two boards or two plates to smush the disks between rounds in the frying pan)

5 green plantains*

3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

4 Cups water

2 tsp salt

¾ – 1 Cup vegetable oil (for frying, enough oil to be about ½ inch deep in your chosen frying pot or pan)

Preparing the plantains:  Slice both tips off. With a knife, make lengthwise slits through the peel on two sides. Try not to pierce the flesh too much. Peel the thick skin off.

Stir garlic, water and salt in a bowl. Slice the plantains into ½ inch chunks, on the bias, and place slices in bowl of salted water. Soak for 15 minutes to one hour. Drain on paper towel.

Heat the oil in a heavy pot or pan.  When the oil is shimmering, add as many plantain slices as will fit comfortably. Fry until golden (really golden – not just beige) turning with tongs.

This is where you begin to make an assembly line. Be ready with a couple of plates covered in paper towels for absorbing oil.

Remove and lay the first set on paper towels and place the next round in the hot oil. While the second set is frying, take the first set (the one you’ve already fried) and squash fairly flat in a tostonera, if you’ve got, or between two plates. Dip in the salted water and lay back on the paper towels. You may have another raw set to go (it depends on the size of your fry pot).  Follow the same pattern until all plantain disks are pre-fried until golden, squashed flat, and dipped. Then start returning plantain disks for the final fry to crisp them up. Remove when beginning to brown and lay on clean paper towels until cool enough to eat.

*Look for firm, green, thick skins. As they yellow, they become sweeter and have other uses…

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Classic Spanish-Caribbean Black Beans (Frijoles Negros) and Perfect White Rice

4 Dec

I have a four-year-old boy, so you know that toilet humor reigns supreme around here. I don’t particularly like all the burp and fart and poop talk, but I am a pragmatic woman; I try to make my reality work for me and try not to dwell on the way things “should” be.

So, what passes for classic poetry in my house starts out, “Beans, beans, good for your heart…” and you probably know the rest. I have no problem getting Leandro to eat beans several times a week; what preschooler could resist the lure of stinking out family and friends with such jackhammer potency? It goes much the same for asparagus; I reeled him in with the promise of sulphurous-smelling pee and now it’s one of his favorite (of very few) vegetables.

This is perhaps not the most appetizing of ways to introduce a recipe, but I’ll take my chances that you are interested enough in making fast, easy and healthy black beans that taste just as good as whatever you get in your local Cuban joint to overlook the other factors. Or, if you are a boy of any age, perhaps it is just the intro you need to start incorporating more beans into your diet!

(Note: the more often you eat beans, the better your body processes them, so some of the gassy part dissipates over time. And the low-fat, fiber, protein benefits are incredible. They are also cheap, especially if you soak your own*).

Classic Latin Black Beans (Frijoles Negros)

1 Tbs olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

½ red or green bell or cubanelle – Italian long sweet – pepper (about ¼ Cup), diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

28 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained (4 Cups if using dried*)

½ Cup water (you can add more as needed)

1-2 stock cubes (vegetarian vegetable is fine; I use Knorr chicken)

1 Tbs dry oregano (or 1.5 fresh)

1 tbs cider vinegar (optional)

Heat olive oil in a heavy soup pot at medium high until fragrant. Add onion and peppers and stir to coat. Lower heat and cook until softened, about five minutes. Add garlic, stir to coat and cook another minute. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then cover and lower heat to simmer, about 15 minutes. Serve with white rice (recipe below).

*Soaking dried beans: Rinse a pound of beans (from a store that seems to move a lot of dried beans – one of the problems is that if the beans are old, they will never soften up nicely), soak them in two quarts water overnight. Change the water in the morning and in the evening rinse and change water. Simmer them for two hours and holy legumes, Batman: 1.5 quarts of beans to play with.And talk about cheap: a pound of dried beans costs about the same as a 15.5 oz can of them and you choose how much sodium you want with it.

 

Perfect White Rice (you can halve this recipe if you are not big into carbs)

1 Tbs olive oil

2 Cups long-grain white rice (Sello Rojo, Goya or other Latin brand preferred)

4 Cups water

½ tsp salt

Place olive oil in a medium pot (with a tight lid). Begin heating to high while adding the rice. Stir to coat, Add water and salt. Stir once, then bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium and allow water to evaporate until it goes below the surface of the rice and there are a couple of holes in the surface. Turn rice over once with a big spoon. Cover and cook on low another ten minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve.

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