Black Bean "Burger" with Beet and Sweet Potato Roasted Fries

I finally found the time to spend a few hours in the kitchen, taking my time, making some good good food.  Last evening as a Spring rainstorm, that's been happening off and on all week, stormed on, I cooked up a storm in my happy kitchen.

Shout-out to my husband for helping me clean up the colossal mess that came with dinner.

I modified a black bean/quinoa burger I've made a few times before and here's the recipe I ended up using:

ingredients:

1/2 Cup uncooked quinoa

roughly chopped vegetables:
     2 carrots
     1/2 red onion
     1/4 of a small purple cabbage

2 cloves garlic

spice blend:
     1.5 tsp. paprika
     1.5 tsp cumin
     1 tsp Italian seasoning blend
     1/2 tsp. cayenne

1 can black beans, drained

2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. sriracha

1/2-1 cup breadcrumbs

olive oil
salt and pepper

cook quinoa with water or vegetable broth.
meanwhile, wash and roughly chop the vegetables.
heat olive oil in a pan and cook vegetables until they begin to soften.
add cooked vegetables, spice mixture and beans to a food processor and begin to mash them together.  (the length of time you process the mixture depends on how chunky you'd like your burger.)

next, mix the tomato paste, soy and sriracha. then add to the bean and vegetable mixture in the food processor until combined.
transfer mixture to a large bowl.

the quiona should be finished by now.  add quinoa and mix everything together with your hands.  slowly add breadcrumbs until the mixture starts to hold together if you ball it up, and loses most of its moisture.  it will be slightly sticky.  make into round patty shapes and set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

while the burgers were chilling and settling in the fridge I made beet and sweet potato roasted fries.

ingredients:
one beet & one sweet potato, both peeled and sliced into thin rounds

salt, pepper, olive oil

optional:  spices such as rosemary, cumin, cayenne...

I saw a recipe for beet chips with rosemary, salt and cayenne here, which I tried.

mix up a small amount of olive oil, a pinch of rosemary, cayenne and salt.
let the beets sit in this mixture for about 10 minutes.

I kept the sweet potatoes plain except for a small amount of salt, pepper and olive oil.

roast at 375 for about 20-25 minutes, turning the veggies over halfway.

Before I cooked the burgers in a pan on the stove, I chopped up some more purple cabbage, red onion and a half of an avocado to top the burgers with.  I also chopped up one adobo pepper (great fridge item to have on hand)... the kind that come in little cans that can be found in the Hispanic section of the grocery store and mixed it with mayonnaise.

Then, I heated some olive oil in the pan and cooked each burger for about 3-5 minutes per side.  The ingredients are all pretty much cooked, the mixture just needs to heat through.

Get that burger on a bun with some toppings and dinner is served!

An Extraordinary Cooking Adventure

When I was living in NYC with Jordan, she got a job at a restaurant called Market Cafe.  It's a little neighborhood gem in the  Hell's Kitchen area that had amazing, gourmet yet down to earth food.  This is the place where I really started to get into simple, but delicious and thoughtfully prepared food.  On my limited City budget, this place was affordable, it was one of those places where you could spend a lot if you ordered certain things but could also walk out there completely satisfied for under 15 Bucks, and having an "in" allowed me to get some free food from time to time too.

When Jordan moved to France, it became a meeting place for mutual friends to stay connected without her.  Every Wednesday night, for several months we'd dine at Market Cafe and catch up.  I looked forward to this camaraderie over dinner every week.  I also looked forward to the food.  If you ever travel to NYC, make sure you have dinner at Market Cafe, you will not be disappointed. 

My most favorite dish at Market Cafe still remains the scallops.  My mouth still waters just thinking about them.  Next time I visit NYC I will surely stop by for the scallops.  It is the kind of treat that my mom still reminisces about, because I took her there a couple of times when she visited.  They were  swimming in brown butter  served on on a bed of potato puree, and greens.

Jordan and I recreated the scallops dish and several others on Monday in her tiny cottage kitchen.  It was a massive culinary undertaking, I mean, we taught ourselves to sear scallops, baked two cakes, and made two varieties of bread!!

les cuisinières audacieuses

les cuisinières audacieuses

I missed the cultural experience of going to le poisonnerie, because it was closed that morning for a holiday... so we bought our fresh scallops at the supermarket, who had a special person dedicated to the seafood section.  The scallops were around 1 Euro a piece.  We bought 10, one for our trial run of searing, and 3 per person at the table (her partner, J, was a very fortunate beneficiary of our cooking adventure).

raw scallops

We looked up how to sear sea scallops on the internet and voila, it wasn't that difficult, though, they were delicate little things that could have been overcooked very easily... so not difficult, just required attention.

here I am trimming off the "feet" of the scallops, which is actually its muscle

our trial run scallop!

During this cooking adventure, we made tons of brown butter.  It really added a depth of flavor and richness to the dishes.  We used it for the scallops and one of the cakes.  :)

FRENCH BUTTER!

voila: the nutty, brown butter

I will let the photos describe the rest of our adventure, but first, here is the menu: and some links to the recipes.  Bon appetit!!

Jordan & Allison's Triumphant Recreation of Market Cafe

first course: sea scallops on q bed of mashed potatoes with brown butter and mache
second: green salad with oatmeal pumpkin bread and pumpkin hummus
third: baked flatbread "pizza" with potato puree, rosemary and green olives (i didn't get pictures of this as the excitement in the kitchen was at a maximum while it was being prepared, the photography fell by the wayside.)
desert:  brown butter banana cake (adapted from this recipe) AND amazing chocolate cake

mixing up a cake with this cool springy whisk we picked up at the le marché the other day (best impulse purchase ever)

batter for the brown butter banana cake

Can you tell how excited I am?!

This meal was a great way to reminisce about our days of life in the big city, while we bonded over our mutual love, as adult women, of cooking for friends and family.  Life doesn't get much better than this.  As I said as we finished our small pieces of cake...  Nous avons une belle vie!

We have a beautiful life!

A gal and her kitchen knife.

I love chopping things.  Today I prepped some peppers for tomorrow's crock pot dinner.  Just a few minutes of prep work will save some time tomorrow morning...  Chopping veggies helps me think about other things, or nothing at all. 

2 peppers and my hand me down knife

My knife is my most essential kitchen  tool.  Sometimes I travel with it if I know I'm going to be doing some cooking at a friend or relative's house.

Cooking the Cover, volume 2.

When the March issue of Bon Appetit arrived with a mouthwatering cover photo of homemade pizza, I was elated. "Make Pizza Like A Pro" the cover touted next to the delicious photo.  I gladly accepted the challenge. As you know, homemade pizza is a favorite dinner at my house.  We'd been doing just fine with our current dough recipe, but I was excited to read about new ideas and methods. Last night, we gave it a try.  I was also warmed by the idea of a community of homemade pizza lovers out there, if Bon Appetit was covering it.   

There was a no knead dough that only required a little planning ahead and a rise time of 20 or so hours. Ryan assembled it as I finished cleaning up Thursday night's dinner and then it sat and fermented and grew on the kitchen counter all night and all day Friday.

My husband loves working with dough. I think he did a pretty fine job! He was also happy to find a tutorial in the back of the magazine about how to shape the dough like a pro.

There was enough dough for an extra to be saved in the freezer for next time!

The magazine suggested drizzling the dough with olive oil before adding toppings such as simple crushed tomatoes and fresh mozzarella and not so simple ones too, such lamb meatballs.  We opted for the olive oil and crushed tomato suggestion, fresh and shredded mozzarella and red peppers.  We haven't had fresh mozzarella on our pizza for some time, using instead the cheaper, pre-shredded stuff that comes in a bag.  I don't know what were thinking.  Fresh mozzarella is far superior! Worth the extra two dollars or so.  Finished with a little salt and pepper after it came out of the oven, which was at a super hot 550!,  this was a killer pizza.  Just crunchy enough crust, with a little char in some places and delicious simple toppings.

The finished pizza.

Take the time and make this pizza.  Chop some veggies for a quick salad, mix up a couple of cocktails and make a night of it.  It was a welcome Friday night dinner after a long and crazy week of school and work. 

Dinner: Making it All Happen

Confession:  A lot of what I know about cooking came from watching chefs cook on TV.  There was a time when I didn't actually have cable, but for some reason I was able to get the Food Network and a couple other channels, so during that time I watched many, many hours of Food Network.  During that time, I really started to develop my love for cooking.  I loved watching people in the kitchen especially Alton, Giada, and Ina. I have watched hundreds of hours of competitive cooking shows like Iron Chef, Chopped, and the verbal abuse pageant that is Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen.  I know... it's SO bad, it's good.

These shows don't just teach recipes and sell celebrity chef products, they taught me how to put together a meal, time-wise.  Watching it happen over and over coupled with experience, I can now say that I have a pretty good handle on how to time things out when cooking.  Recipes don't always tell you that.  Especially when you are cobbling together a meal from various magazines and websites.  How many times did you finish one dish while there was still something with 20 minutes left to bake in the oven.  Oops. 

Here's how I put together tonight's dinner:

salmon with roasted brussels sprouts and an added bonus: mashed potatoes! (when cravings attack!)

This morning, I transferred a package of frozen salmon from the freezer to the fridge to thaw. 
Tonight, after work, I started by pre-heating the oven to 425 and putting a pot of water on the stove for the potatoes. 
Then came prep work:  washing and chopping the sprouts, as Ryan washed, peeled, and chopped the potatoes. I made a little sauce for the salmon.  (whisk together: 1 T lemon juice + 2 T olive oil + salt and pepper). Found the pans I needed to cook everything on and found a jar of capers (for the salmon) in the fridge.

By this time, the oven was beeping to let me know that it was at the desired temperature.  I know that the sprouts take a while longer (20 minutes give or take) than the salmon (10-15 minutes) so after I sprinkled them with olive oil, salt, and pepper I popped them in the oven.  Then, when the water was boiling I put the potatoes in. 

Now that the items that take the longest to prepare were on their way, I turned my attention to the salmon.  I was surprised to find that they were still partially frozen.  Oops! Even the best laid plans can go wrong.  So I knew I needed to get the salmon in the oven ASAP.  I Quickly brushed them with the olive oil and lemon sauce, sprinkled on a few capers, and last but not least,  inserted the automatic thermometer/alarm set to 145 for fish.  Done.  Then I quickly check and stir the brussels sprouts and check the potatoes.  While everything is in the oven, I exited the kitchen and Ryan got the potatoes ready to be mashed at the very last minute. 

I roast brussels sprouts very often*, so by now I have some kind of intuition as to when they'll be finished.  The leaves that have fallen away from the sprouts are black and crispy, the tiny, mini-cabbages are slightly browned and wrinkled. 

*exhibit A

*exhibit B

*exhibit C

 In spite of my plans, the sprouts were done at what I feared would be way before the salmon was done.  Not wanting them to burn, I took the brussels sprouts out of the oven and commenced eating them off the pan with my fingers.  Appetizers!


Even though it looked like the fish had a long way to go...

126 is the actual temp, 145 is the target temp. This amazing device which has a cord that goes inside the oven attached to a thermometor that goes into the food, beeps when food reaches the target temp.

 luckily, it was only about five more minutes before the the thermometer/alarm started beeping.  Ryan pulled the fish out of the oven and quickly mashed the potatoes.  Whew!  So things worked out pretty close to my plan.  Dinner was on the table. 

Though Gordon Ramsay would probably smash the fish, yelling  into my face, "It's RAW!", I thought it was pretty tasty...  and all done pretty close to the same time, so no eating in shifts. 

Practice makes this work.  The more you cook, they more you'll develop your kitchen intuition.

Gardening!!

My husband is really into gardening and I am really into cooking, so we are both really looking forward to our second year growing some of our own food. We have plans to can some of the produce and eat it as long as we can (tomato sauce, salsa!!)   Last spring, Ryan transferred our side yard into a beautiful garden. We had a successful run with green onions, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini. For some reason we could not keep a basil plant alive. We experimented with many different vegetables and fruits such as potatoes, beets, carrots, corn, and watermelon.  It was so much fun and I learned a lot about what fruit and vegetables actually go through before they reach the plate. For instance, I had no idea potatoes produced such a large plant above ground! Squash blossoms are so pretty!  What an amazing opportunity for education... for adults and children alike.  We were able to eat fresh out of the garden a lot last summer!   It was so satisfying to go pick something, wash it, prepare it, then eat it!

Our garden, mid-July!

green onions, tiny beets and arugula

one bowl of the many many tomatoes we harvested last year.  fresh tomatoes are one of the best foods in the world. fresh tomato, basil, mozzarella, and olive oil on good toasted bread may be my "desert island food".

This year, we've been planning a lot more vegetables and some new experiments.

We bought our seeds over the weekend.  We got as many organics as possible and many of them were from the  Seed Savers Exchange!  We didn't get everything on our list yesterday, but made a large dent in it. We still need tomato plants, though we are going to experiment with growing from seed too, a jalapeno plant, and brussel sprouts. I'm so excited!!

The garden is ready for Spring!

Our seed haul includes... garlic, shallots and onion starters. flowers to encourage pollination. peas: shell and snap.  green beans. fennel. carrots. zucchini. mixed lettuce. butternut squash! broccoli.  rhubarb.  herbs (including catnip for Jack!)


If you want some inspiration for growing your own food I recommend reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

Simple Surprises and Inspiration

This was a nice surprise for me when I got home from a long day.  

Dinner (Bombay Sloppy Joes and homemade oven fries!) and 2 food magazines.  

Food Network Magazine and Martha Stewart's Everyday Food April issues.

What's better was that Mark Bittman was smiling from the pages of Everyday Food.  This is a great quote...

"Knowing the fundamentals of cooking is infinitely more important than following recipes or using 'chef-y' techniques.  Not everyone wants to dedicate themselves to cooking all day, but we should all be comfortable putting together a simple meal.  That's how I cook, and that's how I like to eat-- I think the basics are where it's at.  What's better than roasting a chicken or side of salmon for dinner?" 

I wholeheartedly agree with this.  The food I make on a regular basis isn't super-fancy and I don't use difficult techniques (remember those delicious pork chops I wrote about last week?).  I know how to do a few things well, I understand what I like and what tastes good.  Learning to cook has been one, if not the most, empowering thing I have yet accomplished.  It lets me be creative.  When I cook I am intentional about what kind of food I put into my body.  I take pride in my cooking.

The fact that I enjoy being in the kitchen helps too.

The article goes on with a little Q&A:
Q "How does cooking better help you eat well?"

A "When you cook for yourself, you have more control over what goes into your body; few things are more important.  Home cooks are far more conscious of the quality of the food they eat than people who get take-out most of the time" 

On eating well, home cooks can even go a step further and really pay attention to the quality of the food and ingredients.  For instance by replacing quick mixes and making food from scratch you are aware of exactly what is in your food (and you'll probably be able to pronounce the names of the ingredients).  It's not difficult.. it just takes time, effort, and believing in yourself. 

If you want to learn more about Mark Bittman, here is a link to his website. I will not be shy to recommend, yet again, his wonderful reference style cooking book:  How to Cook Everything.