Quick and Spicy Vegetarian Rice and Beans

1 cup rice
2 cups cooked beans
2 cup water or broth
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp blackening seasoning
salt, if desired

Saute the onion in some olive oil until translucent, add the garlic and stir for ~30 seconds. Add the rice and stir to coat in the oil. Add the liquid, seasoning and beans, cover and cook until the liquid is absorbed. That's it.

Note: You can start with dried beans. Take a cup of rinsed/sorted dry beans, put them in a pot and add water until they're covered by a couple inches. Add ~tsp of the blackening spice and let simmer until tender, ~2 hours. You can them use some of the liquid you cooked the beans in for the rice, I did half that and half broth.

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Here's a quickie, guess what makes for a killer rice and beans seasoning? The blackening seasoning from the shrimp last week! I know, shocking. I wanted something easy, so I looked over my pantry. I had pasta, rice and beans. I've been eating a lot of pasta so I went for rice and beans. I started with dry beans, but you can just use a can and it would maim the cooking time. Although you wouldn't be able to use any of the cooking liquid from the beans, which does add a nice flavor and texture. I guess it all depends on the time frame you have. With canned beans you could have this on the table in less than a half hour, I'm guessing. And who doesn't love that? Not that I ever eat at my table these days, unless you count the dinette set table my computer is on. Heh. The one thing about the seasoning is that I found it didn't have quite enough salt for this kind of thing. It was plenty for the shrimp, but rice and beans want a little more. Although it's not really required, you could easily do a low salt thing and it still tastes wicked good.

If you wanted to un-veg it you could add some bacon or sausage. Or put it in a tortilla with some taco or carnita stuff. That would also be wicked good.

Chipotle Jalapeno Beans

2 cups dry pinto beans
2 slices thick cut bacon, chopped
1 cup diced bell pepper
1 cup diced onion
1 clove diced garlic
1 tsp chipotle powder
1-2 jalapenos, sliced
salt and pepper

Rinse the beans, pick out any debris. In a good sized pot start the bacon for a minute or two then add the onion and pepper. Once they are tender add the garlic. Saute for ~30 seconds, then add the beans and enough water to cover them ~ 2". Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover and let cook for about an hour. Add the jalapenos, black pepper and chipotle. Cover again and let cook til tender, checking the water level periodically. Don't let it get too low, but don't add too much, it should be thick. Salt to taste.

adapted from Spicy Beans by Pioneer Woman

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Wow, I'm actually posting something I said I would and only several weeks late. Heh. So, like the recipe up top says, this is adapted from the legendary PW. Her recipe looked lovely (although I'm not sure why she added all the veggies raw in the middle of cooking, but I'm sure she has her reasons), but since I have to be me I changed it up. With bacon.Because I love bacon. I also wanted to cook at least the onions, garlic and peppers (my jalapenos were canned, so I figured whatever for them) because... well, because I wanted to. And since I'm the only one I'm cooking for I can do that, dammit. None of you can stop me! You don't even know my real name! Ha! Ahem. Excuse me.

So I don't have many prep shots, this was made before I got a table and this is what I had to work with. That's the most stable place for the cutting board (and the entirety of my counter space) and it still rocked back and forth. Hm, does the danger make this extreme cooking? Maybe I should be doing it in a moving vehicle of some sort...

Anyway, I did get a few shots, like this one. Note, everything is better when it comes from a Lord of the Rings glass. Studies have shown it although I'm far too busy to look them up right now. And here we are, ready to sit and simmer for hours, making my apartment smell awesome and my neighbors jealous. And this is the jalapenos. Since I'm cooking for just me I added lots and left in the seeds and ribs. It was almost too spicy actually, but it tasted like... freedom of choice. Heh. So, here it is all done. Not too pretty, really. Looks ways better when you spoon it over some corn bread, even if the corn bread is crap from a grocery store. Might as well be yellow cake with cornmeal in it, stupid jerk bread. But! The beans are still awesome and they freeze really well. So I suggest you make some, you can make mine or PW's or create your own. They're beans, do what you want to do. Just make sure there's some pork fat in there, beans aren't the same without it.

One Pan, Spicy, Black Bean, Chipotle Sloppy Joes. Or Maybe Chili.

1 lb ground beef
16 oz can black beans, drained
16 oz can of plain tomato sauce
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced green pepper
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tbls red wine vinegar
1 tsp chipotle powder
sharp cheddar cheese
hot sauce to taste
salt and pepper to taste
oil for browning

Crumble and brown the beef over medium high heat until ~3/4 cooked, then push it to one side of the pan. Add the onions and peppers, saute until the onions are translucent, then add the garlic. Saute for ~30 seconds more then mix everything together. If the beef starts to over brown while you're dealing with the vegetables just give it a little stir. Add the vinegar and stir real quick to deglaze a bit. Turn the heat down to low, add the tomato sauce, beans, chipotle powder, brown sugar and let it simmer for ~15 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until it's as sloppy as you want. Add the hot sauce, some salt and pepper if it needs it and serve on a toasty roll with the cheddar. If you put the cheddar underneath it melts when you put the sloppy joe stuff on.

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If you put beans in sloppy joe does it make it chili? Not all chili has beans, but they share most of the same ingredients. I guess my chili recipe is more broth based than tomato based and it's more complex than sloppy joe. Plus I probably wouldn't use canned tomato sauce in chili... hm.

Anyway I think I'm going to call it sloppy joe, since I ate it on a roll. I didn't really get any prep shots, but I did get one that I think shows pretty much what it's like in my new kitchen. Peppers in the dish drainer, can of tomato sauce in the sink. Yeah, that's a paper plate for a cutting board, none of my real boards fit in a safe way and my knives need sharpening anyway. My spices are behind me on top of a big, round, plastic sugar container so I'm afraid you can't see them. Once I get a kitchen table set up (in the bedroom, with the fridge of course) I'll have a lot more prep space and that will be good.

I like doing it all in one pan like this. Not only because it's just one thing to wash, but as the beef sits to one side finishing cooking the fat drips down and kind of auto-greases the pan. At least it does if your stove is slanted like mine, otherwise you can just tip it a bit with the onions and peppers towards you every once in a while so some gets down there. I like 90/10 beef, personally, I find it just the right ratio so I don't need to add more fat or skim any off at the end.

And now here's a gratuitous pan shot to pad out the end of the post since that's really all I've got. Like how I slipped that in real subtle? Heh.

So, what do you guys think, sloppy joe or chili?

Caramelized Onion and Beer Rice and Beans

Look! Food! Food that I actually made! Course, I don't have a recipe. Or more than that one picture really.... but it was pretty good. And hey, baby steps to getting back into blogging, right? Heh. Not to mention learning how to cook in my kitchen cubicle.

Part of the reason I don't have a recipe is that I actually somehow managed to ... misplace... all of my measuring devices and not a few of my other kitchen things in my most recent move. I know where some of them are, but I could have sworn I packed up my measuring spoons in with my pots. Ah well, good thing my mom taught me to cook without caring too much about exactitude.

I had never made rice and beans before so I just kind of winged it. I caramelized the onions, deglazed with some Sam Adams Boston Lager, added spices (mostly mexican, I think) added rice and a can of red beans and that was that. It was even vegetarian. Oh! And some green bell pepper, since I had some that wanted using. So sometime soon I'll have to remake it when I can tell you guys what I actually did. Heh.

Mega Nachos

Ok, I know what you're thinking, is he really back this time? Well, I'm not telling. I'm a man of mystery and I like to keep things mysterious. But since I'm back, I figure I'll share these nachos with you.

Yeah. It started with a big chunk of chorizo, some hamburger, onions and garlic getting browned up. Then we added some salsa, black beans... uhm, other stuff too. I don't really remember. Cumin, that went in there. Cheese. And we heated the whole thing up in the oven. It seemed the perfect time to try out the hot sauces I got from Cholula. They were all good (and free in exchange for a review. That's adequate disclaimer, right?), but the best one was definitely the chipotle. I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for that in stores. At some point I'm going to remake the nachos and write down a recipe, they were wicked good. We topped them with sour cream and more salsa, but other toppings would be good too. Anything you'd put on nachos, really...

Mexican Pizza #1: Shredded Beef, Beans and Sour Cream

Yep, that's right, sour cream on a pizza. Or were you perhaps more concerned about the beans? Well I assure you, both were wicked good. Unfortunately this was done on a whim and with various leftovers so I don't have anything approaching a recipe for it, but I can tell you basically what I did.

I had made the beef and beans some time ago and had a little bit leftover that I had frozen. What it was was a couple pieces of seared steak tips that was leftover from something else (heh, this is like a third generation pizza) which I cut up into smaller chunks, then I tossed a can of beans (pinto, I believe and rinsed of course) a bit of chicken broth and some Mexican seasonings (cumin, cayenne, cilantro, oregano, garlic, onion, etc) in a pot and let it simmer for several hours, until the beef was shreddable. Then I shredded it and at the time we just scooped it up with tortillas.

Like I said, I froze the bit that was leftover and one day decided to make a pizza out of it. To add a bit of something different I decided to dollop some sour cream on there and it worked out really well. The little bursts of tangy sour cream went perfectly, although not surprisingly, with the spicy beans and beef and the whole thing just came together really well. While I can't give you a specific recipe (yet, that is) I strongly recommend trying out the concept, it was a lot of fun and wicked good.