Tag: leaf

Brazilian Feijoada – Happy (and hopefully very lucky) New Year!!

We’ve posted about this before, but there’s a great,
southern tradition of eating beans and greens on New Year’s Day to ensure good
fortune in the coming year.

Apparently, by eating “poor” the first day of the
year, you align certain cosmic forces in your favor, which results in
prosperity and good luck the rest of the year. Sounds crazy, right? I know, you’re way too sophisticated to
believe in such lame supernatural shenanigans. Hey wait a minute…don’t you
watch all those ghost hunter shows on cable TV? Busted! Hey, did you hear that
noise?

Anyway, whether you believe in this kind of culinary clairvoyance
or not, this Brazilian feijoada is one of the world’s great stews. The
traditional good luck bean is the black-eyed pea, but here we’re celebrating
the delicious, and very nutritious, black bean.

I tried to be clear in the video that this is just my
version, and not some attempt at true feijoada authenticity, whatever that is.
As long as you have black beans, and LOTS of smoked, salted, dried, and/or
cured meats, you are well on your way to some kind of feijoada-like
awesomeness.

In case you’re wondering, all I did for the greens was boil
some kale in salted water until tender, and then sauté briefly in olive oil and
garlic. It pairs perfectly with the white rice and rich stew, and while I can’t
guarantee a year’s worth of wealth and good luck, I can promise you a delicious
bowl of food. Happy New Year to all of you, and as always, enjoy!

Ingredients for 6 portions:
1 pounds dry black beans, soaked overnight
2 quarts water, plus more as needed (add more whenever stew
looks too dry)
1 bay leaf
2 smoked pork chops
12 oz linguica
8 oz Italian sausage
4 oz smoked bacon
3 oz dried beef
1 onion
6 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
salt and pepper to taste
For the crumbs:
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp grated orange zest
2 tbsp chopped Italian parsley

Basic steps:
– Soak beans overnight, add to pot with bay leaf, beef
jerky, and any bones
– Simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until beans are cooked,
but very firm
– Add onion mixture and meats, and simmer for another hour,
or until beans are very soft
– Add a splash of water at any point during the cooking if
stew looks too dry
– Test and add salt near the end, depending on saltiness of
meat

Curried fish in yoghurt

This is a really terrific fish curry that I found in Guardian Weekend by Vivek Singh, via Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Watch out for the chilli in this – the way I use chillies is to buy packs of non-descript chillies from Waitrose and then let them sit in a jar until I need to use them. Of course, while they’re sitting around they famously get very hot. I used one large one in this curry, no seeds, and it was fucking spicy. I mean, I don’t really mind because I’m rock hard like that (I was especially tough and cool when I GOT SOME IN MY EYE!!!).

But the thing is, because you’re not going to cook the chilli much here, you need to have a care for how hot your chilli might be whatever stage in its life it is and you might, perhaps, only put half in.

Anyway I really recommend this, it was delicious and doesn’t take long. Like all curry recipes, the ingredients list doesn’t seem to half go on for bloody ever, but it’s worth buying everything in if you don’t have it, especially the cinnamon sticks, which really make this extra yummy, in my opinion.

Even though I’ve always thought that cinnamon in curry is a bit gross, like fruit in leafy salads. But it’s nearly Christmas for god’s sake!!! You ought to have cinnamon sticks poking out of every drawer.

Curried fish in yoghurt
enough for 4

300g plain whole-milk yoghurt (I used Greek yoghurt, which was fine)
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder
salt and pepper
500g white fish – haddock or similar, cut into chunks
oil for frying
1 bay leaf
2 cardomom pods, squashed with the flat of a knife blade
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
1 large onion, or three tiny ones, chopped or finely sliced
chilli, de-seeded and chopped or sliced
Fresh coriander and black onion seeds to scatter over the top if you fancy although on reflection, what with my rodent issues, onion seeds look a lot like mouse poo. This did not occur to me last night as I was eating this, which is a good thing. Sorry I’ve really ruined the whole thing for you now.

1 Mix together the yoghurt, ginger, garlic, turmeric, chilli powder and large pinch of salt. Turn the fish out into the marinade and leave for 30 mins.

2 Heat the oil in a pan then add the bay leaf, cardomom, cinnamon and cloves. Cook these for 2-3 minutes until you can smell the cinnamon and cloves. Add the onion and chilli and turn the heat right down. Cook these, turning often, for 10 minutes (use a timer).

3 Add the fish and its marinade and cook for 10 minutes. Turn it once carefully during cooking as you don’t want to smash up the fish. Cooked yoghurt always ends up looking a bit grainy and gross, so don’t worry about that.

4 Add more salt if you think it needs it (it probably does) and then scatter over coriander and onion seeds if you want to.

In fact, with all these cinnamon and cloves it’s really quite a Christmassy dish.

Black Bean Soup with Bacon and Giveaway Winner!

by Pam on December 9, 2012

I was in the mood for soup today so I went in search of what was in my refrigerator. I decided to keep it simple and make a black bean soup. I usually toss in some chorizo but I didn’t have any so I decided to use bacon instead. I also added sweet potato, red pepper, onion, carrot, and celery to make it extra hearty and flavorful. After the soup simmered for a couple of hours, I blended most of it up with my immersion blender then ladled it into serving bowls. I topped each bowl with cilantro, green onion, avocado, cotija cheese, sour cream, and diced tomato. It was extremely flavorful and utterly delicious. My kids ate every last drop of their soup and my husband & I both loved it and look forward to the leftovers tomorrow for lunch.

Place a large Dutch oven on the stove and heat up over medium heat. Add the bacon slices and cook, until it golden brown; remove and place on a paper towel; crumble into bits. Wipe out all but 1-2 teaspoons of bacon grease. Add the sweet potato, red pepper, onion, carrot, and celery to the Dutch oven and cook until softened, about 5-7 minutes. Add the minced garlic, cumin, chile powder, oregano, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste; cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add the drained & rinsed black beans, chicken broth, bacon bits, lime juice, bay leaf, and molasses. Cover and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Remove the bay leaf from the pot of soup then blend with an immersion blender for a minute or so. Taste and re-season if needed. Ladle soup into bowls then top each bowl of soup with fresh cilantro, green onion, avocado, cotija cheese, sour cream, and diced tomato. Serve & enjoy.

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Black Bean Soup with Bacon

Yield: 8

Prep Time: 15 min.

Cook Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours & 15 min.

Ingredients:

5 slices of bacon, cooked & crumbled
1 small sweet potato, peeled & diced small
1/2 red bell pepper, diced small
1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced small
1 carrot, peeled and diced small
1 stalk of celery, diced small
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp chile powder
1/2 tsp oregano
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
3 15oz cans of black beans, rinsed & drained
4 cups of chicken broth
Juice of 1 lime
1 bay leaf
1 tsp molasses

Garnish:

Fresh cilantro, chopped
Green onions, chopped
Avocado, diced
Cotija cheese, crumbled
Sour Cream
Grape tomatoes, diced

Directions:

Place a large Dutch oven on the stove and heat up over medium heat. Add the bacon slices and cook, until it golden brown; remove and place on a paper towel; crumble into bits. Wipe out all but 1-2 teaspoons of bacon grease. Add the sweet potato, red pepper, onion, carrot, and celery to the Dutch oven and cook until softened, about 5-7 minutes. Add the minced garlic, cumin, chile powder, oregano, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste; cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add the drained & rinsed black beans, chicken broth, bacon bits, lime juice, bay leaf, and molasses. Cover and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Remove the bay leaf from the pot of soup then blend with an immersion blender for a minute or so. Taste and re-season if needed. Ladle soup into bowls then top each bowl of soup with fresh cilantro, green onion, avocado, cotija cheese, sour cream, and diced tomato. Serve & enjoy.

Recipe and photos by For the Love of Cooking.net

Giveaway Winner:

The winner of the MyRecipes America’s Favorite Food cookbook is comment number 124:

Angelina — December 8, 2012 @ 6:00 am^[3]: My birthday is on the 9th!!! This would be an awesome b-day gift.

Happy birthday Angelina – you won! Please e-mail me your mailing address at gordon-ramsay-recipe.com@gmail.com so I can send the cookbook to you as soon as possible.

References

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^{^} 6:00 am (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)