Yowza

It has been far too long since I have posted anything on here and for that, I do apologize. My weeks have been filled with house repairs, getting ready for school and quite a few cakes and catering gigs, just to name a few things. What with all the extra time I have now (wink, wink), I am hoping to get back on here and post food thoughts/musings more frequently. I have just a few spare moments this afternoon, so here is what I am currently excited about in my little culinary sphere. I ordered a copy of America's Test Kitchen's Healthy Family Cookbook which should be here (hopefully) in a couple of weeks. For those of you that are not familiar with ATK, they are a group of culinary research professionals that publish a magazine, Cook's Illustrated, and have a couple of PBS TV shows - America's Test Kitchen and Cooks Country. They are amazing! They find a recipe, test the crap out of it and make adjustments as necessary so that EVERYTHING works like it is supposed to. No muss, no fuss - just follow their recipes and have amazing results every time. They actually delve into the science of food (which is how they make the recipes work), but they also take the time to review food products, gadgets, etc for taste, quality, and a host of other factors which saves time, money and frustration for those of us who practically live in the kitchen. The recipes in this particular cookbook are family favorites that have been tested and overhauled by ATK so you end up with fabulous food that is healthy. I can't wait! I am sorely in need of new dinner ideas for my family and I think this is just the ticket! Again, I should be posting more in the coming weeks, and I plan to share my recipe discoveries as they come along. Happy September tomorrow and look for new postings very soon!

More Fun with Fusion!

This post is somewhat belated - mostly because I have been slacking like you wouldn't believe on any number of items. I finally decided that today is the day that I get myself back on track - get up early, get some writing done and feel like I had been productive the rest of the day. That didn't quite work out since our alarm did not go off this morning, but here I am in the afternoon, blogging away, so I can at least scratch one thing off of my to-do list.

So, my newest food experiment actually took place last week (I said this was a belated post). In my last post, I talked about the possibility of using some leftover black beans to make some kind of Cuban inspired dish and, lo and behold, I actually did it! I called my creation, "Cuban Risotto", and it made a most satisfying vegetarian meal.

I started the dish by combining about a cup of short grain brown rice with a can of diced tomatoes, all of their juice and approximately one cup of water. As anyone who has ever cooked brown rice, especially the short-grained variety, knows, it takes A LOT of liquid when cooking on the stove top. (Tip: keep an eye on the rice during its almost hour-long cooking time. If it appears too dry and the kernels are not quite cooked, just add a little more liquid to the pot. Trust me, having rice that is a little on the moist side is infinitely preferable to having partially cooked rice kernels in your dish. Ouch!) While the rice was cooking, I heated (and honestly, continued cooking because they weren't quite done the first time) the black beans leftover from another meal. As those two pots bubbled on the stove, I chopped up a variety of peppers (red, green and a couple of particularly spicy anaheims from our garden), four cloves of garlic and a bunch of cilantro. I also sliced two ripe (read: almost blackened) plantains and set those aside. Once the beans were ready and the rice was almost there, I drained the liquid off of the beans and added them to the (still) cooking rice. I set that pan on a very low burner on the back of the stove and gave my full attention to the psuedo-recaito (a Latin American vegetable base of peppers, onions, garlic and cilantro) that awaited me. I started by sauteeing the peppers in a little bit of canola oil. Once those were nicely wilted and starting to brown, I added the garlic to keep it from burning. I sauteed that combo until the garlic became fragrant and then I dumped the whole caboodle into the waiting rice/beans pot. I added the chopped cilantro, mixed thoroughly and set the pot aside, off the heat and covered, to wait until the rest of the meal was complete.

In the same pan I used for the peppers and garlic, I heated about a quarter inch of canola oil and added the sliced plantains, taking care not to overcrowd the pan. Once each side of the plantain was nicely browned, I removed them from the oil, drained them on paper towels and lightly salted them with kosher salt. Once all the plantain slices were fried and accounted for, dinner was served!

The combination of the rice, beans and vegetables was hearty and delicious with just the right amount of kick from the peppers. Since both the rice and the beans were cooked properly (this time), they were soft and easy to chew, but retained just enough of their structure so that we were not gumming mush. The cilantro provided just enough brightness to lift the "risotto" out of its earthy foundations and the plantains on the side offered a salty-sweet, crunchy-creamy combination of flavor and texture that contrasted nicely with the smoothness of the rice dish. Overall, this one was a winner at our house - generally speaking, of course. The rice and beans were enjoyed by all, but my oldest daughter declared that she did not care for the plantains, though she would eat bananas by the boat load if I would let her. (To be fair, plantains are NOT bananas, and I still thought they would both enjoy them. Not so much, but that is okay.) So, Cuban Risotto may make a showing on our table again at some point. We shall see, but, until then, let the crazy fusion experiments continue!