Red Beans, Almost the Classic Way (FM)

• 1 1/2 cup dried kidney, pinto, or other red beans, rinsed, picked over, and soaked if you like
• 1 meaty smoked ham hock or ham  bone or 4-ounce chunk of bacon or pancetta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 andouille or hot Italian sausage in casings [andouille]
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 green and 1 red bell pepper, chopped [I think my green bell pepper was too far gone to make it in this recipe so I skipped it.]
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 or 3 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• Pinch of cayenne
• 1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes (canned are fine; include their juice)
• 2 large sweet potatoes, cubed
•  Salt and black pepper
• Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish [nope]
• Hot sauce, optional

Ah, one my last uses of my home-cured, home-smoked almost bacon.  I'm humble enough to admit my failures.

I threw the bacon and beans before I completed any of the other prep.  Since I guess these beans cooked super quickly (I also wasn't around to pull it off the boil immediately), they were overdone at the end.  Oh well.

 

Mise en place at this stage.  I figured I'd have time enough to prep the sweet potatoes during the next few steps.

Browning the sausage.

Cook onions, bell pepper and garlic until the peppers have softened.

Slice sausage and add back in to pot along with everything but the sweet potatoes.  Cook until beans begin to get tender.

That or until I realize they're totally blown out by the time the sweet potato cooks through.


The dish was fine but had a lot of pitfalls similar to many of my experiences with Food Matters.  I mean I'm not always disappointed by the overly healthful recipes, but sometimes it's pretty hard for me to eat too much of them.  I did wind up throwing a bit of this out.

Mixed Grill with Chimichurri (FM)

• 1 or 2 eggplants, cut into thick slices
• 2 cups fresh parsley (mostly leave, but thin stems are okay)
• Salt and black pepper
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for grilling
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar or lemon juice [Again, I'm using sherry vinegar. I have it on hand.  Why not?]
• 1 teaspoon red chile flakes
• 2 portobellol mushrooms
• 2 summer squash, cut lengthwise into thick slices
• 4 ripe tomatoes, cored but left whole
• 12 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast or pork tenderloin, cut in half crosswise and pounded to 1/2 inch thick [latter]
• 1 bunch scallions [nope]

Yeah, I tried to make chimichurri sauce in my low-end blender.  It didn't work.

Chimichurri is made from finely chopped parsley (an alternative version uses coriander), minced garlic, olive oil, oregano, and white or red wine vinegar. Additional flavorings such as coriander, paprika, cumin, thyme, lemon, and bay leaf may be included. In its red version, tomato and red bell pepper may also be added. It can also be used as a marinade for grilled meat. Chimichurri is available bottled or dehydrated for preparation by mixing with oil and water. Somewhat similar sauces are pistou and pesto.

Salt, pepper, oil, garlic, and a crazy amount of parsley.  Drizzle in more oil as the machine is running as well as sherry vinegar.

When it comes to grilling the actual food, it's pretty basically.  Olive, salt, and pepper.

Tenderloin and tomato.

Running up and down the stairs like mad while "hosting" a cookout party in my back yard was pretty exhausting, but I ate bits and pieces when I got the chance and was frankly well on my way to being full once all the cooking was done.
There's a splash of the romesco sauce as well.  My friends thoroughly enjoyed both sauces.  Chimichurri sauce is also a big winner though twice as much a headache because it has twice as much picked parsley in it.

Roast Potatoes and Chicken with Romesco (FM)

• 6 tablespoons olive oil, or more as needed
• 1 1/2 lbs new potatoes or small potatoes, halved
• Salt and black pepper
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 4 bone-in chicken thighs
• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1 large red bell pepper, roughly chopped
• 1 large or medium ripe tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
• 1 garlic clove, or to taste
• 1 packed cup fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons sherry or white wine vinegar [I used sherry vinegar]

Toss potatoes with 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper.  Roast for 10 minutes in single layer.

Top potatoes with rosemary sprigs, then chicken and salt and pepper.  Drizzle with another 2 tablespoons olive oil.

Roast for 25 to 30 minutes.

 

Throw ingredients for romesco into blender.

Romesco (Catalan pronunciation: [ruˈmɛsku]) is a nut and red pepper-based sauce from Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain. It is typically made from any mixture of roasted or raw almonds, pine nuts, and/or hazelnuts, roasted garlic, olive or sunflower oil, bitxo peppers (similar to New Mexico chiles) and/or nyora peppers (a small, round, variety of red bell pepper). Flour or ground stale bread may be used as a thickener or to provide texture. Other common ingredients include roasted tomatoes, red wine vinegar and onions. Leaves of fennel or mint may be added, particularly if served with fish or escargot. It is very often served with seafood, but can also be served with a wide variety of other foods, including poultry and some red meats like lamb and vegetables. During the springtime, salsa romesco is served as an accompanying dip for calçots, a spring onion typical to Catalonia, during traditional springtime calçot barbecues called "calçotades". During calçotades, calçots are roasted over an open fire until their outer layer is charred. The charred layer is then removed and the tender part of the onion may be dipped into the romesco.

Deliciousness in wait.

 

OMG, I found a new favorite sauce.  Romescu is beautiful, rich, tangy, nutty, flavorful...  Awesome on the roast chicken and potatoes.

Plenty of leftover sauce for my forthcoming Mixed Grill entry.

Ma-Ma's Pasta "Milanese" (FM)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• Salt and black pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• Two 3.75-ounce cans sardines, preferably packed in olive oil
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1 cup red wine or water, or more as needed [What did I use?  Oh yeah, oxidized Malbec that I opened at least a week and a half before for the escabeche.]
• One 28- or 35-ounce can chopped or whole tomatoes; include their juice
• 1 small cauliflower, cored and roughly chopped [I preferred to cut them into florets.]
• 1/2 cup raisins or currants [The currants I had for this blog's very first entry over a year ago had expired.  Raisins are a food-stuff that should be ubiquitous I guess in a kitchen but still somehow lack, like ketchup.  In any case, I wound up using blueberries.  Yes, they are a dried berry; nope, they don't really serve the right function.]
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
• 8 ounces any pasta, preferably whole wheat [Hahaha.  I rarely cook recipes involving pasta.  I'm not going to waste my time with edible cardboard.]

Mise en place.

Cook onion, bell pepper, and celery until everything is soft and the onion becomes translucent.

Stir in garlic, sardines with their ooil, and tomato paste until mixture is fragrant and starts to stick to the bottom.

Stir in wine and scrape up bits from bottom of pan.  Add tomatoes and cauliflower and cook until cauliflower is extremely tender.

Stir in fruit and nuts.

The dish was pretty awesome.  I might do it again since it was quite good, but who knows.
I apologize for the fact that I can't be any more detailed about my reaction to the dish since I'm pretty slow at blogging now, but I totally dug the combination of garlic, sardines, tomatoes, and celery.  Maybe I'll even have the proper dried fruit for next time.

I should cook more pasta dishes.