enfrijoladas (tortillas in bean sauce)

I have been sad today.  Usually, Wednesdays are the days my Beloved fixes dinner because I have a late figure skating lesson.  After work and skating, I usually get off the ice very tired and cooking is the last thing I wish to do.

Today, my Beloved forgot it was Wednesday so there was no reheating plan in place.  Comfort food for me a lot of the time is bean soup.  When I am ill or when I am very sad, bean soup is what I wish.  It is a little warm for soup so I decided to try this bean dish that was in the Rancho Gardo newsletter.

I also really want to spend many minutes kneading bread but that is not going to fit in this week.  We have a wedding to go to out of town so I probably will not even be at the computer let alone get a chance to make sourdough bread and knead it until smooth.  Next week.

This dish was actually very simple to make and I used all the end bits of cheese in the refrigerator.  I topped it off with a bit of salsa and everyone liked it.  Even the Tall Short Person who is the real litmus test.  She did not go straight for the peanut butter during dinner.  That is a first in a few days.

enfrijoladas (tortillas in bean sauce)

Adapted from Rancho Gardo

12 corn tortillas

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup olive oil, split

1/2 large onion minced

5 to 10 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon oregano indio

1/2 cup vegetable broth

3 cups black beans with their bean broth

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ancho chile pepper

1/4 teaspoon chipolte chile pepper

1/2 teaspoon smoky sweet paprika

1/2 to 1 cup grated cheese, I used a mix of parmesan and cheddar because they were the leftover bits.  The original recipe calls for queso fresco

In a large skillet, put two tablespoons olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and let brown.  Once the onions are browned, put the garlic, beans, broth, onions, and oregano in a blender.  Blend until smooth.  You may need to do this in batches.

In the skillet, add two more tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.  Add the bean mixture back to it.  Mix in the seasonings and heat.

In another skillet, put 1/4 cup of olive oil.  Heat until hot.  Put in a tortilla.  Heat for a few seconds on one side.  Turn and heat the other.  You want a tortilla that is very flexible.  Once the tortilla is heated, drag it through the bean sauce.  You will want both sides well beaned (smile).  Place on a plate and fold in halt.  Continue until all the tortillas are done the same way.

We split this between three and put four tortillas on each plate.  Sprinkle with the cheese.  Serve with the salsa of your chosing.

It was a very simple meal.  Comforting.  Not soup.  

I will have to get bread made next week and much more tea drank.

porchetta style roast venison

I read about this recipe for porchetta style roast pork somewhere.  I cannot find the reference other then it was two recipes combined from Bon Appetit.  We had finished all the wild hog in the freezer so I decided to try it with two venison necks because that is all I had.  For a Friday dinner, where I needed something that was not too much work, this was lovely.

Porchetta style roast venison

3 to 4 venison neck (two)

olive oil

4 or 5 cloves of garlic

basil

thyme

oregano

salt

pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Rub the venison down with olive oil.  Sprinkle basil, thyme, and oregano over.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Put in a pan and cover.  Roast for 20 minutes.  Turn the temperature down to 300 degrees. Roast another 30 to 60 minutes.   

If you are using pork or heavier quantities, let the roasting at 300 degrees go on longer.  Up to 3 1/2 hours for a 5 pound pork roast.

I served it with polenta and it was quite yummy.  I think the leftovers were even better but I have to admit that it was tasty enough that leftovers were hard to come by.  Leftovers are a good reason to roast a larger piece of meat.

daal curry

When we were out in Oregon a couple years ago, we had the best Indian food.  I have been trying to replicate it since.  I come close but it is not quite right.  That is until tonight.  A friend of ours tried a naan recipe which I wanted to try.  It is from Julie over at Dinner with Julie.  This is the lentil curry I have been trying to replicate.  And it is simple!  I did tweak a little bit but that is normal!

I served it with some roasted potatoes and homemade naan and my belly could not be happier.  This is one of those dishes that just needs to be part of each week.

daal curry

1 1/2 cups orange or red lentils

3 cups homemade vegetable broth

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, diced

2 large tomatoes, diced

1 teaspoon sugar

1 to 3 teaspoon ground curry or to taste

1/2 teaspoon new mexican chile powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garam marsala

1/2 cup coconut milk

Because I am lazy, in the morning, wash your lentils until they wash clean.  Put them in a pot or slow cooker insert, and cover with vegetable broth.  Three hours before you wish to eat, turn the slow cooker onto high.  If cooking in a pot, bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer, covered.  You will wish to cook them close to an hour or until they are very soft.

In a skillet over medium heat, put the olive oil and onion.  Cook the onion until golden brown.  Add the garlic and tomato.  Cook these down until there are bits of color.  Add the spices and salt.  Mix well.  Add the tomato mixture and the coconut milk to the lentils.  Stir well and heat through. 

Serve with rice or potatoes and naan.

This is really quick.  Once the lentils are cooked, it took about 15 minutes to put together.  Using a slow cooker makes cooking the lentils really easy.  The trick is to wash the lentils really well.

Happy belly time!

playing with duck

We picked up a  3 1/2 pound duck at the butcher shop.  We like duck. My Beloved wants to raise them.  I thought it was time.  I did some searching on the internet but ended up with the old standard:  Joy of Cooking.  I have never had them go wrong with a turkey or a chicken, and they did not go wrong this time.

My Beloved cleaned up all the bits (and saved for soup) and the oven preheated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

The duck went into a roasting pan with some salt and pepper.  There are lots of ways to play with the duck skin to get it crispy I found.  I decided just to go simple this time.

The duck got popped into the oven.  The temperature got turned down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.   The duck roasted for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

It got mangled before I could get a picture of its loveliness.  It was quite good.  I made a bit of gravy and we had some mashed potatoes.  Life was good.

Yes, my Beloved can raise ducks.

quail and rice soup

I was reading recipes today and came across a rabbit recipe that sounded interesting.  I was thinking what the artisan butcher that lives much too close to the house for our food budget might have, knowing there would not be rabbit (there was no rabbit in the freezer either!).  Usually, they have duck.  

I got into something this weekend that upset my stomach.  As much as I act and wish I had a cast iron stomach, I really do not.  I have been eating a lot of soup.  I was going to take the rabbit recipe that I had seen, use duck instead, and make it into a soup.  But when I got to the butcher, there was no duck!

There was quail.  My Beloved does not eat chicken that he does not raise himself or has a personal relationship with the person who raised the chicken.  That means that chicken was not an option.  That is why I decided to go with the quail.  I am just enough out of it that I should have written my thoughts down because I was thinking about using mushrooms like the original rabbit recipe.  It was probably a good thing I did not because the Tall Short Person had enough problems with the quail torsos, who know how she would have felt about mushrooms too! 

This soup turned out well.  It is actually the most heavy soup I have eaten in two days but I really liked it.  There were hot orange rolls for afters too.  It all felt pretty decadent!

Quail and rice soup

4 quail

1/4 pound pancetta, chopped into small squares

2 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic minced

1 to 2 teaspoons to salt or to taste

1 two finger pinch dried thyme

1 two finger pinch dried oregano

2 two finger pinch dried basil

1 glass white wine, like a reisling or a dry moscato dolce (what I had)

1 glass (the same as the wine) brown basamiti rice

2 cups vegetable broth

6 to 8 cups water

In a large stockpot, over medium high heat, brown the pancetta.  Add the onion and let get golden.

Add the quail.  Brown on both sides.  Add the garlic for a few minutes.  Some color is nice.  Add the salt, thyme, oregano, and basil.  Add the wine and bring to boil.  Mix in the brown rice.  Cook a few minutes to absorb the wine.  Add the vegetable broth and enough water to fill the pot.  

Cover and let cook one hour.

Taste for seasonings and serve.

I really enjoyed this. 

Maybe someday I will actually get to try that original rabbit recipe though.  Not even a soup.