Refried Beans

Refried Beans, originally uploaded by michele wynne.
Refried beans are a little kitchen staple that I make all the time...or used to...until my recent job change. Lunch burritos and/or breakfast burritos were a weekly kitchen occurrence when I had to plan packing office lunches and quickie breakfast bites, thus purchasing several bags of beans a month I usually  from my neighborhood Latino produce market.

Months ago I pedaled across town to Costco for something I don't even remember. Whatever it was, was forgotten when I came across ginormous bag of pinto beans. A few mental mathematical calisthenics later I weighed the practicality of carrying around this burden of a bag and bought them anyway... and here they've sat, in a giant restaurant sized olive jar for these many months.

So months after committing my day to beans I finally cooked up a few.

The slow-cooker has become my go-to method for cooking all beans. I don't soak the beans first but I do pick them over for stones and funky looking bits before rinsing. I usually start them just before bedtime and cook them on low all night. You can also start them in the morning. The great thing about slow cooking beans that ultimately end up pureed or mashed is that the recipe doesn't seem to suffer much if you sleep in or hit happy hour after work and over cook the beans. Place 2 cups of the dried beans in the slow cooker with 6 cups of water. You can flavor the water with chicken seasoning and a few sprigs fresh thyme if you want, but I add so much flavoring after the beans are cooked that this is probably not necessary.

At any point during the bean cooking process, heat a skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. If you don't have caramelized onions in the fridge already, thinly slice an onion,

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion thinly sliced
salt
2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2  teaspoon red pepper flakes
cooked beans
1 cup of chicken bouillon

sriracha to taste

salt

Heat the oil in a skillet on a medium high heat and add the sliced onions, cook until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Lower the heat to medium, add a dash of salt and cook until the onions are browned and caramelized

what to do with 'em:

 

Nachos:

Cut about 6 corn tortillas into wedges, toss in a bowl with a splash of olive oil, a little salt and a dash of cumin, then bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes until crispy, remove from the oven and let cool a little and reduce the oven temp to 350 degrees.

Spread the refried beans across the bottom of a shallow baking dish or pie plate, place the tortilla chips over the beans, dipping them into the beans so they are standing at an angle rather than laying flat on the surface of the beans. Sprinkle with shredded sharp cheddar cheese and bake until the cheese is melted, another 5 minutes or so.

Serve with sour cream and salsa on the side.

 

Dip:

stir in some of your favorite jarred salsa and grated cheese into the refried beans and heat in the microwave until the cheese is melted, stir to distribute the melted cheese and transfer into a serving dish. Top with a little more grated cheese and chopped cilantro and serve with tortilla chips.

 

Quick Quesadillas:

My favorite quick snack is to shred a little sharp cheddar cheese, heat up the refried beans in a microwave (I heat them in a bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap which I puncture with a fork) , then warm up 3-4 corn tortillas in a microwaveable steamer for 1 minute (this is to keep them soft and pliable for subsequent folding). Spread a thin layer of beans on the warm tortilla, you can also add a dollop of salsa if you like, and then finish with a sprinkle of shredded cheese. Spread the filling evenly over the surface of the tortilla, fold the tortilla in half, then in half again so you have filled triangles.

 

Of course, the beans are always a great addition to omelettes, burritos, enchiladas and tostada salads.

Fish Tacos

Fish Tacos, originally uploaded by michele wynne.

I should call these Revelation Fish Tacos.
 

I can't begin to describe how freakin' delish and easy this was. I've never had any desire to eat, much less make, fish tacos. Actually, that's a big fat lie.  Several months ago, at a company Christmas party at Tacolicious, a platter of fish tacos passed before me. I tried one, just 'cuz it was there. Wow! Amazing! Who knew? No fish taco made it past me for the rest of the evening. I'm not a big fan of fish, yet, I remember thinking quite seriously: "I must figure out how to make these!" Then I forgot all about it. Until now.
 

While waiting for Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook to make it's way through the library wait-list to me, I got My Father's Daughter again. I am a big fan of this book. The photo of her fish tacos and fixin' spread was the first thing that caught my eye and attention this go-round with the book.

The fish (something white and flaky like cod or halibut is recommended-but if you're a big 'fraidy-cat like me, frozen tilapia works just fine) is cut into strips and batter fried in a 1-1 ratio of beer and flour with a little salt and pepper. Super simple.

 

The fixin's include:

• shredded cabbage with lime juice and salt
• crema: sour cream with lime juice and salt
• pico de gallo: red onion, halved cherry tomatoes, cilantro, lime & salt ~ chopped jalepenos optional
• sliced avocado sprinkled with lime and salt
• corn tortillas heated on the stove burner

 

Done & De-lish.

Spring Vegetable Pot Stickers

Spring Vegetable Pot Stickers, originally uploaded by riptideredsf.

Pot Stickers Round Two:
I spent the morning attempting to embrace the journey rather than speed to the destination. This can be difficult for me at times but now,  100 potstickers later it's still a time sucking endeavor but, I think I got this. This video helped...so at least my tucking and pleating has made some strides.

This recipe for Spring Vegetable Potstickers comes from Smitten Kitchen (big surprise there)...another timely post celebrating fresh Spring vegetables when I'm oh so obessessed with them now, both in the little kitchen and in my new job. We got fiddlehead ferns and chiogga beets in yesterday-stay tuned.

Anyhoo, smitten put this recipe on my radar just as I was uptomyelbows in my first attempt at the potsticka. Her recipe intrigued and challenged me on a couple of levels. Her ingredients include fava beans and tofu in addition to my beloved asparagus. I was soooo jazzed up to make these that I pedaled over to Bi-Rite on my day off to purchase my employee discounted bountiful basket of asparagus, fava beans and TOFU! Two firsts for the little kitchen: tofu and fava beans.
I adore hate adore fava beans! As you peel away the layers from the large bumpy shell revealing a cushiony pod interior that looks like cotton batting, to the wiggly yellow umbilical cord that caps the leathery sac that covers the buttery soft bean...you almost expect something alien to emerge. Gorgeous, but seriously- a pain in the ass to shell. On the other hand, it's a given that the pot sticker process is gonna be a long one so what's it gonna hurt to add another 20 minutes to the process when , who am I kidding, I've got nothing better to do on a day off.

On to tofu...if anyone can get me to embrace tofu, it's gonna be smitten kitchen. In this recipe it's sort of disguised to look like crumbled cheese, now if I could only get it to soak up some flavor. That was my only teeensy problem with this recipe. I loved the look and texture of the finished dumpling but I wasn't getting any definitive flavor from it. I realized that I was way too hesitant with the scallions and chives.
I broke my number one rule:        first time recipe-follow exactly.
I didn't have quite enough scallions and I thought 1/2 cup of chives seemed excessive. I should have known better. Trust in the smitten-she's never let me down yet.

Ramp Pizza

Ramp Pizza, originally uploaded by riptideredsf.

Just a few short weeks ago, I'd never heard of ramps. Many changes have occured since then and this recipe for Ramp Pizza, appearing from Smitten Kitchen last week was nothing short of freaky.

The big news is: I got a new job. I ventured out of my comfort zone, leaving a job I was content with but ultimately unchallenged or inspired by. After a few fits and starts, I have landed here. A gourmet market so special and inspiring, I'm practically chomping at the bit to re-vamp the little kitchen and my life. The company mission statement? Building community through food.

Though my new career so perfectly gels with the original intention of my little blog: embracing the veg, it will open up a whole new world of food for me. 

I'm currently obsessed with the produce...mostly attempting to memorize an overwhelming number of numbers that identify each type of fruit and vegetable. I knew that would be a challenge, but what surprises and intrigues me are the odd creatures I've never seen before.

 

As I'm OCD'ing  Googling my way through Ramp 101:

a wild leek, sort of a cross between a scallion and green garlic... pungent and onion-y. They're not cultivated, grown in gardens or on farms. They are foraged from forests, found mainly in the east from the Carolinas to Canada. Their season only lasts the first few weeks of Spring...

...up pops the recipe from Smitten Kitchen, just as I'm pondering what one does with a ramp. Pizza! Brilliant...a little piece of my comfort zone.
 

 

sneaky little cupcake creatures

Custom cupcakes, originally uploaded by riptideredsf.

My day job.
These were not created in my little kitchen, but they were so freakin' cute I had to share. These were created by our fabulous baker Alex at Kara's Cupcakes. They were a special order I took for a gaming company.

Vegetable pot stickers

Vegetable pot stickers, originally uploaded by riptideredsf.

This was a first for the little kitchen: Pot stickahzzz!  I spent the entire afternoon making pot stickers.  Why? when my favorite Asian market, New May Wah sells a ginormous bag of 'em for something ridiculous, like 8.99, and Trader Joes are pretty darned good too. I loves to have them in freezer for those nights when I'm just too worn out to make anything and too broke to go out. Pull the bag out of the freezer and toss a handful into hot skillet with some peanut oil and 10 minutes later( providing you've got some left-over rice in the fridge) , dinner is served.

Is it worth the labor involved you may ask? Yes and no. If they taste brilliant then hell yah! This first attempt is not quite there yet but has potential and I'm seeing the dumpling assembly as theraputic, along the lines of garbanzo bean peeling.
I've had this recipe from 101 Cookbooks for Golden Potstickers, a vegetable pot sticker starring yellow lentils, on my to do list for months (prompted by a pantry purge of all the jars of lentils I had decorating my shelf). I used red lentils  and a bunch of excess cabbage I'd shredded up for a slaw that was juuusst about to find its way into the compost bin-thus another refrigerator rescue was born!
Make the lentil pot stickers and the dipping sauce just the way Heidi explains it and they'll be wonderful. But, if you're me and your fridge is always on spoil alert, this lentil base is a great host for a sauteed veggie mash-up. The lentils are cooked and then pulsed in the food processor. The texture is up to you.  If you have a lot of veg to add just make sure it's diced small and perhaps you'll need an extra package of wrappers lest your bowl of filling gets a little whack once you add the vegetables. These freeze perfectly so make as many as you can handle.

The cabbage (or any veg or green that needs to find a greater purpose) goes into a hot skillet with 1-2 tablespoons of peanut oil (I'd gauge it thusly: 1 tablespoon for every 2 cups of veg) , red pepper flakes, chinese 5 spice ( 1 teaspoon for every 2 cups of veg)  and salt (to taste~taste often). Toss the pan to get the cabbage coated and when it's almost soft, (and this is totally optional) dash in some Sriracha, taste it and dash some more if you want...and then  fold the sauteed vegetables into the lentil mix.
Smitten Kitchen just posted a Spring Vegetable Pot Sticker recipe that is definitely going on my to do list.  In addition to the great recipe, she's got some great process pics for folding technique.
Un-wrap the won-ton/pot sticker wrappers and place them into an airtight container or get a damp tea towel to cover the package while you work. I use two spoons to form the filling and have a small bowl of water the moisten the edges of the wrappers. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or wax paper to place your formed pot stickers on. Sit down at your kitchen table or your coffee table and pop in a French Chef DVD and commence to wrapping. Keep a damp towel over the formed pot-stickers as you work and make sure they aren't touching. When the baking sheet is full put it in the freezer (without the towel) for about an hour. Transfer them into a freezer bag and draw out as much air as you can. Keep the bag in the freezer and when your ready to cook some off, have a half cup of cold water standing by.
Heat up a non-stick skillet (make sure it has a lid to fit) on medium heat with a tablespoon of peanut oil and when the oil starts to shimmer, place the pot stickers flat side down and cook until the bottom just starts to brown. with the lid in one hand pour in the water and place the lid on the pan firmly and cook until the water has reduced by half (about 7 minutes). Remove the lid and continue cooking until the water has evaporated and the bottoms are browned (about more 3 minutes).

 

Ottolenghi's Turkey Zucchini burgers

Ottolenghi's Turkey Zucchini burgers, originally uploaded by riptideredsf.

OCD'ing on OTZ burgers~Oh. So. Good.

I've been sitting on this recipe for awhile now. It's from Ottolengi's Jerusalem and I knew it would be great in spite of my reservations with ground turkey. So, when I realized I had to kick up the healthy cooking a notch (again), I figured now was as good of a time as any to give ground turkey another chance (again).

I've never been a fan of ground turkey, except for the time I made an Ellie Krieger recipe for Big Fat Greek Turkey Burgers. I'd always found the gamey smell, insipid flavor and mushy texture a huge turn-off. What I know now is that there are endless ways to flavor it up and give it great texture. It's a blank canvas.

These amazingly flavorful meatballs or slider sized burgers are packed full of zucchini, fresh herbs, scallions and spices. The sour cream and yogurt sauce is enhanced with sumac, a middle eastern spice that comes from dried sumac berries. Sumac is a deep red powder with a tart lemony flavor. It creates a pink creamy sauce that is so gorgeous and fresh tasting. I made these twice last week. The first batch disappeared before I could get a picture off. The second batch was about to go the same way so I dashed this pic off in the murky light of the night time kitchen. I have to keep reminding myself that it's ok that I'm not smitten kitchen or 101 cookbooks with my low rent cell phone cam and generic blogger template, hence the link to the recipe above. I aspire to its inspiration.