I know I’m a bit behind with sharing a dish that traditionally brings in a new year, but I’m a late bloomer when it comes to this version of rice and beans. I think I’ve always known what it is, but I had never actually eaten it until I went to Charleston, South Carolina last month.
And what a place to have it considering it’s a well celebrated local dish in that area of the U.S. So as soon as I returned I picked up a bag of black-eyed peas. We have definitely hit spring now, but just a few days ago we were having perfect rice and beans weather so I decided to give it a try.
There are many, many recipes out there for Hoppin’ John so this one is an adaptation of several. I was incredibly pleased with the result. It’s lasted me several meals and last night I even turned it into a nacho dinner of sorts.
I do have to admit that my husband didn’t care for it, but I’m pretty sure I nailed down the reasons. One – although no sugar is added it does have a bit of a sweet flavor which isn’t his cup of tea. Two – I like my beans to have a firm texture and he does not. So if you are in my camp as far as your preferences I have no doubt that you will love this hearty dish!
Hoppin’ John
Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
2 cups black-eyed peas, soaked overnight, drained and rinsed 2 thick-cut slices pastured Heritage-breed bacon 2 stalks celery, chopped 1 small onion, diced 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp chili powder ½ tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp salt ½ tsp black pepper 1 bay leaf 1 ½ cups dry brown rice, cooked according to package directions Chives for garnish
Prep
In a heavy sauce pot, heat the bacon over medium heat until the fat renders and becomes bubbly. Add the celery and onion, increase the heat to medium-high and cook for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute.
Stir in the oregano, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Add the drained black-eyed peas. Add enough water, to just barely cover the peas. Add the bay leaf.
Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer partially covered for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the peas reach your desired tenderness, remove the pot from heat and remove the bay leaf.
Serve over brown rice, or stir in the brown rice into the pot before serving. Garnish with chopped chives.
No tahini? No problem. This delicious hummus without tahini uses almond butter for a rich and creamy snack, spread or dip!
Hummus made with peanut butter instead of tahini seems to be all the rage. I was thrilled to see this substitution on food blogs because I have a hard time keeping tahini in the house. I love it, but I find I only end up using it for hummus and a huge can goes to waste.
Over the weekend, I set out to give this crazy new hummus a try. My true mission was to get some type of vegetable into our Super Bowl spread and carrots serve as a great dipper for hummus.
I found Turbo Hummus from Alton Brown and decided it would be the one I would try. I cooked my chickpeas from dried earlier in the week, so I added water to make the hummus creamier. If you use canned chickpeas, the liquid would likely take the place of the added water. It all depends on how thick you like it.
I also made another change.
At the last minute I decided to use almond butter instead of peanut butter. Now, I’m not claiming this to be some brilliant creation. I’m sure others have made it the same way, but wow, was it good! I still need to try it with peanut butter, but it may be hard to break away from the almond butter version.
2 ½ cups cooked chickpeas 3 cloves garlic 2 tbsp almond butter Juice and zest of one lemon 1/3 cup olive oil ¼ cup water 2 tsp dried parsley ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp black pepper
Place the chickpeas, garlic, almond butter, lemon juice and zest in a food processor. Attach the lid and process until blended to a thick paste. Add the olive oil as you process on low and blend well. Next add water, more or less, depending on how thick you like your hummus.
Finally stir in the parsley, salt and pepper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.
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When you first read this title you might have thought of chilies as in peppers. That wouldn’t be completely off the mark. This dish does contain green chilies, but it is also a twist on the classic that can be found everywhere from Texas to Cincinnati and in between.
I have had this recipe for several years and I make it at least once every winter. It is such a nice break from red chili with its beans and ground beef. Over time, I’ve adjusted it to my tastes. I add canned green chilies along with salsa verde and I use less pork.
I cook my own chickpeas before making it, but the hominy is canned. I was fortunate enough to make hominy from dried when we were in Brazil in the dish Canjica, but I haven’t made it since we’ve been back in the US. Although, I have seen the dried version in our international markets here.
It is a very monochromatic dish, but by topping it with some red salsa, hot sauce or pickled jalapenos you can make it a little more appealing to the eye. Fortunately in this case, appealing to the eye has nothing to do with appealing to the tummy.
It is delicious served alone, but if you want a little extra something try it with rice or homemade corn tortillas!
Green Chili with Pork and Chickpeas Adapted from Pork & Chickpea Chili, Woman’s Day March 2006
½ to ¾ lb pastured, ground pork 1 small onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas 1 cup cooked hominy 1 – 7 oz. can green chilies 1 cup salsa verde 1 tsp ground cumin ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp ground black pepper
In a medium pot, cook the ground pork with the onion and garlic. Cook until no longer pink and slightly browned. Add the chickpeas, hominy, green chilies, salsa and ¾ cup of water. Stir in the cumin, salt and pepper.
Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Simmer partially covered for 10 to 15 minutes. Serves 3 to 4.
This post has been submitted to Souper Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen.
One of my new year’s resolutions was to cook more ethnic foods. Well, not only to cook them, but to learn more about them and the authentic ways to prepare Indian and Thai ingredients.
Let’s just say I’ve gotten off to a very slow start.
I’m still motivated to reach my goal though and last week I finally broke into a bag of moong dhal I’ve had in the pantry for a long while now. Moong dhal is a variety of mung bean, kind of like a yellow split pea.
I was flipping through the ThinkFood Cookbook I talked about last year and felt inspired when I found the Spinach Dhal recipe from Tastes Like Home.
After being soaked overnight moong dhal cooks up to be thick with a porridge-like consistency. This particular recipe has a spicy kick that is full of flavor with the whole spices that are added. I ate it with rice, but it could have easily been thinned slightly to create a delicious soup.
My husband was the real test though. He has a major aversion to peas. He dislikes them so much that it seems he can’t even be at the same dinner table with them. I’ll never forget the time we ordered a sandwich in Brazil and we bit into it to find it was filled with peas! Needless to say he went home that night and looked up the word for peas right away.
It’s ervilha in case you are wondering. This word guided our menu selection when dining out for the next 2.5 years.
So with the dhal’s similarity to split peas (more so than lentils, in my opinion) I thought he’d avoid it like the plague. Turns out he enjoyed it as much as I did.
This is the type of simple foods I want to focus on throughout our new year. They are so simple, yet the spices make them so complex in flavor.
This recipe will be emailed soon as part of the ThinkFood Cookbook listserv. If you are signed up, you will receive a recipe a week via email from the book. The ThinkFood Cookbook is also available for purchase.
Overlooking the fact that a Fake Food Free recipe is in the book, I have to say that it is a fabulous cookbook with all kinds of delicious recipes. I have made two recipes thus far and they have received rave reviews!
When I set out to cook Indian cuisine, sighs can often be heard throughout the kitchen. While I don’t consider most dishes difficult, I can never get them turn out like the foods I have in Indian restaurants (we haven’t been to India ourselves yet.)
Since I can’t seem to make the perfect authentic dish, I typically end up making something that incorporates a handful of different recipes. Our dinner on Tuesday night was a good example of this.
I intended to make aloo cholay which is one of my favorites. I ended up with different spices which likely created a different dish all together, but this time I have to say it wasn’t too bad at all. In fact, it has made quite a nice lunch the past couple days, perfect for the fall-like weather that has finally arrived!
On the side this time, I tried out some Cinque e’ Cinque, also called Farinata. Lucini Italia contacted me several weeks ago with an offer to give this gluten-free, vegan product a try. I almost composed a short response and deleted the email immediately because I was asked if I want to try their new mix. Knowing how I feel about mixes, I figured it would not be for me.
I decided to check out their site though and learned that the mix was actually just flour from chickpeas, custom proprietary milled flour. Some of the varieties also had added spices. As the mixer, I had to add water, olive oil and sea salt.
So I said send it on, and along came a generous box consisting of hand-picked, estate grown Italian olive oil, basil infused olive oil, pasta sauces in three flavors with minimal natural ingredients in BPA-free pouches, no sugar added pizza sauce, 10 year aged balsamic vinegar and bread dipping sauce.
So far everything has been outstanding. I was incredibly impressed by their use of quality ingredients and lack of fillers.
Yes, I realize that the Cinque e’ Cinque is Italian, but with it being chickpea flour I thought it would go wonderfully with an Indian dish. I was right. I received 3 flavors – traditional, rosemary and chili. I chose traditional and it was the perfect replacement for the usual couscous or rice. It has a look similar to baked polenta, but much smoother without all the graininess. With the simple olive oil and sea salt the flavor is delicious.
So, as you can see, not only do I seem to mix dishes of the same cuisine, but now I’ve taken it so far as to mix two cultures as well. Fortunately the Indian and Italian influences complemented each other nicely.
Potato Chickpea and Lentil Curry
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed 1 cup lentils 2 medium tomatoes, chopped 2 cups cooked chickpeas 3 tsp garam masala 1 tsp turmeric 2 tsp sea salt Plain yogurt (optional) Cilantro (optional)
Place the potatoes and lentils in a soup pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, reduce to a simmer and cook, partially covered with a lid, for about 5 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and chickpeas and cook 5 more minutes. Stir in the garam masala, turmeric and about 1 cup of additional water. Cook about 10 to 12 minutes more until the tomatoes have cooked down and disappeared, and the lentils and potatoes are tender.
Stir in the salt and top each serving with plain yogurt and chopped cilantro. Makes 4 to 6 servings.
Sometimes I think I try so hard to get creative with recipes that I forget just how simple a good meal can be. For example, this past week I picked up an order from Pike Valley Farm. A small order since it is the time of year where the selection is low until the spring season. They did have some pastured pork chops available, though, so I decided to get a pack for something different.
I was trying to decide what to do with them. I was a bit stuck because they were the type of chops that looked to be best slow cooked, not a lean center cut chop for grilling. I showed them to my husband and he said, “Why don’t you just throw them in a crockpot with some beans. Then serve it with rice, kind of like a feijoada.”
I couldn’t help but wonder to myself – now I’m the cook in the family, why didn’t I think of that?
It turned out to be a great suggestion. Throughout a day of simmering, the fat melted away allowing me to easily remove any bones, leaving tender pieces of meat. Not to mention the soft and smoky black beans.
A heavier, filling meal I’m glad I got it in for the season. The weather is turning warmer here and the trees out front are beginning to bloom. However, I think the leftovers will be perfect for the rain that is predicted for the next few days.
Pastured Pork and Black Beans
16 oz bag of black beans, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained 1 small onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 cups water 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp coriander 1 ½ tsp smoked paprika ¾ to 1 lb. pastured pork chops Salt and pepper to taste
Combine the pre-soaked beans, onion, garlic and spices in a Crock-pot and add the water. Place the pork chops on top of the beans and cover the pot with the lid. I cooked it on high for 4 hours and then on low for 2 more hours. This had it finished by about 4:00 pm so I kept it on warm until dinner. If you are gone all day, cooking it on low for 8 hours would likely work out fine. Add salt and pepper to taste near the end of cooking. I added about 1 ½ tsp salt and ¾ tsp of black pepper. Serve with rice and/or some greens and hot sauce, of course.
Last November, a few weeks after I returned from the Foodbuzz event , I was contacted regarding some of the free products we received which eventually led to an invitation to review a cookbook. As soon as I read the description sent to me about the Dollars to Donuts cookbook by Dawn Welch I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
The background that leads to this book is as interesting as the recipes it offers. Dawn owns the Rock Cafe on Route 66 in Stroud, Oklahoma. She wrote this cookbook as a way to share her recipes, from her own kitchen and the diner, and her tips for stretching your dollar and making homemade foods in the most time-efficient way possible. Simple, real food – my kind of cooking.
The book offers a few surprises. While there are plenty of recipes for typical diner foods such as meatloaf and chicken-fried steak, you’ll also be getting a few flavors of the world with udon soup, peanut sauces and huevos rancheros. Dawn has an international food background from her previous work on cruise ships and she brings that to the kitchen and to this cookbook.
In addition to the recipes, the book contains all kinds of tips about shopping smart, canning and preserving, and making foods ahead of time. There are also icons for each recipe to identify those that are super quick, kid-friendly and freeze well. This is one of those books that is not only a cookbook, but a valuable kitchen resource manual.
I also like how it emphasizes that home cooking, even diner food, can be comforting AND nutritious. These meals are full of real, natural ingredients and use lots of spices for flavor.
I decided to try out the Pantry Veggie Burgers as my introduction to Dollars to Donuts. As I got into the process, it ended up being a bit lengthier than I expected, but I feel that this was just part of a learning curve. Some of the ingredients needed to be cooled before combining so I helped them along using my fridge and freezer. Overall though, these burgers weren’t so time consuming that I would not make them again. In fact, they will likely become a regular.
They are delicious! I’ve made veggie, bean burgers before, but none quite like this. I’ve decided it’s the walnuts that make the difference. Each bite gives you a nutty flavor and crunch that goes so well with the vegetable flavors and the texture of the beans.
I did cook my own pinto beans and I didn’t include that in the cooking time. I made a couple substitutions as well. I used white button mushrooms instead of cremini because they were the only available in the market on shopping day. I also used olive oil instead of canola.
The original recipe also calls for toasted buns and your typical burger works for serving. I decided to go bun-less and sautéed some kale (yes, I’m hooked) in the same pan that I used to cook the veggies for the burger. The dark greens were a great match! I also like the suggestion in the cookbook to make this into meatballs or crumble it in lasagna. I will definitely be trying that.
Pantry Veggie Burgers From Dollars to Donuts and reprinted with permission from YC Media
1 can (14 oz.) pinto beans, or 1 ½ cups cooked pinto beans ½ cup bulgur wheat 1 tsp salt 1 tbsp + 2 tsp canola oil 8 oz. cremini mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced ½ yellow onion, finely chopped 1 lg garlic clove, minced ½ cup walnut pieces ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper 1/8 tsp smoked paprika (optional, but I did use it) 5 tbsp mayonnaise 2 tsp canola oil 6 hamburger buns, toasted Lettuce leaves 1 lg or 2 sm ripe tomatoes, cored and thinly sliced 6 tbps barbeque sauce or ketchup
Dry the beans. Spread the drained pinto beans on a paper towel-lined plate and set aside.
Cook the bulgur. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat. Stir in the bulgur and ¼ tsp of the salt, cover, and turn off the heat. Set aside until the bulgur is tender, about 20 minutes. (If some water remains in the bottom of the saucepan, drain the bulgur in a fine-mesh sieve, then set aside to cool to room temperature.)
Cook the veggies. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, onion, and ¼ teaspoon of the salt, and cook, stirring often, until the vegetables begin to brown, about 9 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Transfer the mixture to a plate and let it cool to room temperature.
Make the burger mixture. Pulse the walnuts in a food processor until chopped, about five 1-second pulses. Add the beans, bulgur, the mushroom-onion mixture, the remaining ½ teaspoon of salt, the pepper, and the paprika (if using) to the food processor. Pulse about 15 times, or until the mixture holds together when squeezed, but isn’t pureed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add 2 tablespoons of the mayonnaise and pulse a couple of times to combine. * I think I went a little far with my pulsing, but the burgers still held together great.
Shape the burgers. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper (parchment makes it easier to remove the burgers from the baking sheet). Shape the mixture into 6 equal patties and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 12 hours (the burgers can also be frozen for up to 6 months).
Brown the burgers and serve. Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place 3 burgers in the pan and cook until browned on both sides, 5 to 6 minutes total, using a thin, wide, metal spatula to carefully flip the burgers. Transfer to a large plate and tent with foil. Repeat with the remaining oil to cook the last 3 burgers. Place a burger on each bun bottom and top with lettuce and tomato slices. Spread some mayonnaise and barbecue sauce or ketchup on the bun top, cover the burger, and serve.
If you want to get to know Dawn and the Rock Cafe a little bit better, check out this video from one of my fave shows – Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.
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cookbook by Dawn Welch I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
