Here is the second post in a group of sous vide cooked side dishes – beans for one. Again, I ask you to trust me on this side dish as well. While you could always open a can of beans for whatever meal you are making, 1 can contains approximately 3 servings so it leaves you with leftovers to use before they spoil. Cooking just the amount of beans you need, flavored the way you want, without leftovers or waste is a good thing. Yes, cooking beans takes time. Typically it requires overnight preparation with a soak before cooking. What if I told you that soaking is not necessary when cooking beans sous vide? That is correct – cooking beans sous vide allows you to control the amount…
Tonight’s recipe is a close approximation to the party favorite chili I make for events. While I have claimed I would never share this recipe when requested for it in the past, I just cannot be that selfish. This variant is a small batch version of the original; primarily only missing bell peppers and onions from the recipe. The secret ingredient is the enchilada sauce – which jump starts the chili flavors without having to roast and re-hydrate dried peppers, etc. So the secret ingredient makes this dish a quick cooking chili as well. The beauty of using enchilada sauce is that you can control the initial heat level by the type of red enchilada sauce used. I selected a milder sauce tonight to allow…
How about another side dish? This one is a versatile and easy dish, albeit a bit time consuming to make. But won’t you agree that some dishes just need that bit of extra effort or time because they deliver on taste? Frijoles is one of those dishes. When you really think about it, frijoles is a simple concept in cooking. Clean and soak some beans overnight and add them to a pot with a liquid, simmering until tender. Now here is where the fun comes in… think of all the ingredients you can use to flavor your legumes. My favorite flavoring is bacon, pork jowl, or ham hock. The smokiness imbues the dish with a wonderful base flavor. Adding onion, garlic, and peppers rounds out…
Tonight I am making a simple, but tasty Hungarian bean and sausage soup – bableves kolbásszal. Since finding this gyulai kolbalsz at a local international market, I searched for recipes to try with it. This recipe is a mash-up of several I found on Hungarian blogs and web sites. I think the sausage is the star, but do not count out the supporting players, These supporting ingredients bring a wonderful depth of flavor – turnips, parsnips, carrots, onion, parsley, garlic and of course… bacon! Add sour cream and vinegar and this soup has pizazz! Give this hearty and flavorful soup a chance and you’ll be celebrating Hungarian cuisine like me! Save Print Bableves Kolbásszal Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: …
I know, I can hear it now… “What is this ‘More habits’ dish?” Basically, it is red beans and rice. A Caribbean style red beans and rice – in the style from the Dominican Republic (or so I read). This dish was an experiment in trying to scale the dish down to cooking for one, while still keeping the flavor and texture that makes this dish the staple it is. Overall, my effort tasted fine (maybe it needed a bit more salt for the amount I made) and the texture was close (the rice was slightly overcooked). Since it was an experiment and we all know I eat my experiments, I added 8 oz of linguiça – a sausage popular in Portuguese…
Here is a throwback recipe I created as a challenge after a ‘Best of the Worst’ Bourbon tasting party I coordinated last year. With several slightly unpalatable bourbons left over, I accepted the challenge of creating recipes to use the leftovers in new recipes as an incentive for attendees to take the leftovers home with them! Here is the first recipe I created – a simple and flavorful bourbon baked beans. Save Print Bourbon Baked Beans Ingredients ½ cup brown sugar ½ cup bourbon ½ onion, diced 1 clove of garlic, minced 1 tbsp canola or vegetable oil ¼ tsp cloves 6 slices bacon, cut in strips 1 15 oz can of pinto, great northern, or kidney beans (or equivalent amount of dry beans, soaked…
With a full day of excellent college football games on today, I opted to snack for dinner instead of cook a full meal. To that end, I made a refried bean dip with chorizo, jalapenos, lime and cheese. This recipe is a great one for a party or a potluck. Also, this recipe can be tweaked in numerous ways – using different types of refried beans and jalapenos, adding nacho jalapeno rings (heck, making nachos with this mix would be awesome!) or even adding a spicy taco or hot sauce to pop the flavor! Give it a try… it is simple, but extremely tasty! Chorizo and Refried Bean Dip Ingredients: 6 oz chorizo 16 oz can refried beans 4 oz can fire roasted jalapenos zest from 1…
Have you ever thought about cooking something based on a concept? Well, that is where this recipe comes from. One day I was watching an old Western movie (I think it was Red River with John Wayne) and during a scene at the chuckwagon, I thought about what the cook would have available to make a dinner for the cowboys. Thinking they would not be able to use many fresh ingredients, I began to formulate a recipe from what may be available on a chuckwagon – dry beans, dried chilis, dried or preserved meats, dried herbs, etc. Now… I will admit I did not research this topic at all. There may actually be a website or book that contains a list of what a chuckwagon carried and…