Spanish Beans and Rice

While I was searching for some new meatless meal inspiration for observing Lent, I came across this website which you should totally check out if you live where packaged goods are harder to come by. Most of the recipes use things we have readily available to us here, and they're vegetarian if you're trying to watch your budget or health. Now I cannot claim any authentic "Spanish"ness about this rice, but where I come from tomatoey rice dishes are usually called Spanish Rice. The original recipe from My Plant-Based Family had a couple things we don't have readily available so I just subbed in what we do have plus a little extra flavor. I love how you could play with this dish. We had ours as a stuffing in whole wheat roti with cheese, salsa, and sour cream on top. Delicious and something I can feel good about!

Spanish Beans and Rice
1 onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon oil
1 cup brown rice
3 cups warm water + 1 chicken bouillon cube, dissolved
1 cup tomato puree
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon American chili powder
2 cups cooked beans (kidney, black, etc.)

I cooked mine in a Miracle Oven to make it a true one pot dish. Heat the oil in a pan (or bottom of Miracle Oven) oven medium heat. Add the onion and garlic. Saute until lightly golden. Add in the rice, allowing the oil to coat the grains. Add in all the remaining ingredients. It's a squeeze in the Miracle Oven, but it does fit. Keep the heat high until the sauce begins to bubble. Drop the heat to low, cover, and cook until rice is soft and sauce has absorbed into the rice. Whether in the Miracle Oven or in a 175C/350F preheated oven, it should take about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Note: If you need a short cut, you can drop the liquid in the recipe to 2 1/2 cups water and cook the rice (no beans) with seasonings on the stove top on low for about 45 minutes (according to the original recipe). At the end of cooking, you add in the beans and heat through.

Kitchen Staples: Kidney Beans

I have been meaning to post more of these for a while and just have not yet perfected the timing for each kind of bean. Pressure cooker times for beans will vary a bit according to the size, soak time, and age of your beans. I've noticed that the older the beans are the less evenly they tend to rehydrate so you tend you get some overcooked beans and some tough ones all in one pot. I am not entirely sure how to correct that aside from regularly changing the water during the pre-soak. That said, here's the approximate timing I've figured out for kidney beans if you want a big batch to keep in the freezer. You can use them for soups, refried beans, Spanish rice, etc. So much more convenient when you already have them cooked!

Pressure Cooker Kidney Beans
Dried kidney beans
Water

Soak the kidney beans overnight in water. Whenever the beans start to stick out of the water, that's a sign that you need more water. Switch the water and refill the container so you have a few inches over the beans. I would not soak more than about 12 hours, otherwise you'll get mushy beans that fall apart. Pour the soaked beans into a pressure cooker and fill will water until you have a few inches over the beans. Clamp on the lid and turn the heat on high. Once the pressure cooker reaches full pressure (first big "whistle"), drop the heat to your lowest setting and cook for 15 minutes. Switch off the heat and use the rapid release method before opening the cooker.

Cool the beans (a cookie sheet works well) and divide up into the quantities you use most often.

Note: If you're in the Western world, do not follow this pressure cooker timing. Second generation pressure cookers are more efficient than these so look for a pressure cooker times chart for II gen. cookers.

Pani Puri

This is a fun one! It may not be a recipe that you can implement unless you're in this part of the world or you have an Indian grocery store in your vicinity. My family loves Indian food, even the street snacks, and while my husband with his stomach of steel can actually come out unscathed after eating from a pani puri cart, I fear that I would not. That means I basically never get to eat these fun snacks. On top of that, even those sanitary restaurants serving them tend to make theirs on the side of too spicy for my children. I was introduced to the possibility of making these at a friend Esther's home and have been looking for the puris ever since, while trolling Padhus Kitchen for ideas. You can buy them ready-made in some bakeries, but here's a little packet you can make at home. You will find these usually in the section with lentils, uncooked papad packets, and little fryable things that look like pasta. The unfried puris look something like this.

Pani Puri
500g potatoes, peeled and chopped
1-2 green chilies, seeds removed and chopped finely
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin powder
Pinch of chaat masala (or some black salt)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 bunch fresh coriander/cilantro, finely chopped
Salt, to taste
Sev or bhujia (little crunchies)
3/4 cups sprouted moong dal or cooked chickpeas (optional)
1/2 packet unfried puris or 1 bag ready-made puri
Jal Jira masala

Boil potatoes until fork tender. While they are boiling, heat 1-2 inches of oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Drop the heat to medium, and add a few of the unfried puris at a time. They will puff, but you'll need to turn them to cook both sides. Once puffed and brown, remove from oil and drain on a paper towel. Mash the cooked potatoes, adding the green chilies, chili powder, cumin powder, chaat masala, onion, and cilantro. Add the salt to season, starting with just shy of 1 teaspoon. Add more until the potatoes have enough flavor to stand on their own. According to packet directions, mix the jal jira masala in drinking water. You'll want to make at least 250 ml for this many puris. The little unfried puri packet actually comes with its own water masala that you add to 1/2 liter of water.

It's a messy job, but when you are ready to eat, assemble like this:

1. Take a fried puri and poke a small hole in it with your finger. 
2. Poke some of the potato mixture into the hole. Fingers seem to work best here...see why the street version can be ugh! 
3. If desired, poke in some chickpeas or sprouts and some of the bhujia.
4. Finally, dip the stuffed puri into the spiced water mixture so it gets a little pool inside. 
5. Pop into your mouth and repeat.

There you have it! Street food under sanitary conditions. And no, I would never go through all this trouble for a snack. We ate it for lunch.

Rice Cooker Barbecue Chicken

Yep. I really did it! I have been wondering how well a rice cooker could be used for traditional slow cookers so I finally tried it with a saucy chicken recipe. Since they heat a little hotter than a slow cooker on low, I figured you need to have more liquidy dishes in order to avoid burning the rice cooker. Turns out it is possible and easy to use a rice cooker for some of those dishes! Thanks to power cuts, you would need to carefully plan to have enough time, but the results are worth it. For this one, you only need an hour, and the rest of your stove top is free.

Rice Cooker Barbecue Chicken
1 Tablespoon butter
1 small onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup water
1/2 chicken bouillon cube
1 teaspoon American chili powder (optional)
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons vinegar
2 Tablespoons mustard
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce (optional)
Black Pepper, to taste
500g skinless chicken (with or without bones)

Place the butter, onion, and garlic in the cooker, and switch it to the cook setting. Depending on the cooker, it may not work until you add more weight, but if you can melt the butter and soften the onion a bit, go for it. Add all the remaining ingredients and stir. It won't take long for it to boil. Cut the chicken to whatever size you want, and add it to the sauce. Stir to coat the chicken. Pop on the lid, and set a timer for about 40 minutes. In the last 20 minutes, you need to stir the chicken occasionally to prevent too much browning of sauce on the bottom. After 40 minutes, switch the cooker down to the warm setting for 20 minutes so the sauce can cool a little and thicken (not much longer or your chicken will get dry).

P.S. If you're sick of barbecue, don't fret, I'm trying to think of some other rice cooker meals.

Note: I put my chicken in partially frozen, and it still only took 1 hour so if you're pressed for time, it still works. 

Garlic Sesame Green Beans

Tonight we had these as an accompaniment to a Thai Chicken Curry, and they were such a huge hit with my kids I wanted to share them right away. If you like super soft green beans, you'll need to increase blanching time as these are deliciously crisp. To save time, you could blanch your green beans in advance and store them in the fridge. If you're not much into clean up, you can blanch the beans, toast sesame seeds, and fry the beans all in the same pan like I did.

Garlic Sesame Green Beans
500g/~1 lb green beans, ends trimmed
1-2 Tablespoons oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
2 teaspoons soy sauce
Salt to taste

Drop trimmed green beans into salted boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Drain the beans (using the pan lid) and drop into cold water to stop cooking. Toast the sesame seeds over medium heat in the dry pan until they are crackling, shaking the pan occasionally to prevent burning. Set the seeds aside. Heat the cooking oil in the pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, stirring constantly to prevent burning. As soon as you see a little gold, toss in the beans and sesame oil. Fry for several minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally. Add the soy sauce near the end of cooking. At this point you should have crispy brown garlic clinging to the beans. Turn off the heat and toss the sesame seeds into the beans.

Loaded Potato Soup

This is one of those "stick to your ribs" recipes that I have been meaning to post for ages. In fact, I have come to my blog to look it up before cooking on more than one occasion and realized I didn't actually have it on the blog. If you're not familiar with Gina and Pat Neely on Food Network, they are a couple famous in the barbecue world who make "down home" kind of food. This is one of theirs that I have fiddled only slightly with. Serve alongside a green salad.

Loaded Potato Soup
1/4 cup/ ~60g butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, finely diced
2 ribs celery, finely diced
1 large onion, chopped finely
1/4 cup flour
3 cups water
1 1/2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups light beer (any local beer is light)
500g or 1 lb potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup cheese, grated
Dash hot sauce
Dash Worcestershire sauce

Melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic, carrot, celery, and onion, cooking until they are soft and translucent. Sprinkle the flour over the butter to make a roux. Cook for 1-2 minutes then whisk in the water, milk, and beer. Bring to a boil and add the potatoes. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20-30 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork tender. Add in the cheese, hot sauce, and Worcestershire. Taste to adjust seasoning then blend the soup (or just part of it) in a blender or with an immersion stick until smooth. It should be thick and creamy.

Toppings:
Grated cheese
Fried and crumbled bacon
Sliced green onions
Sour cream

Sprinkle any desired toppings over the soup and enjoy!

Healthy Homemade Crackers

Good multigrain or multiseed crackers are something I miss whenever I'm trying to be more healthy here. The choices are quite limited in the whole grain, unsweetened biscuit department, and sometimes we get delicious choices that seem to disappear for good. My body's current blood sugar instability means I have been needing more high protein snacks to feel decent during the day, and let's be honest, you can only eat so much peanut butter or nuts before you feel like loosing your mind. I remembered making crackers when my children were babies, and decided to give that a go again. The beauty of these crackers is that you can make them with just about any grain, add-in, and oil you'd like so you can make them different every time and avoid any allergens your family might steer clear of. These are delicious with cheese, hummus, peanut butter, or just on their own.

Pardon some of the burned ones!

Basic Homemade Crackers
3 cups flour (white, wheat, oat, buckwheat, whatever)
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar (optional)
1/4 cup oil
1 cup water

Add-ins (aim for a 1-2 Tablespoons total):
Flax seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, rosemary, thyme, whole oats, cheese

Combine your dry ingredients into a bowl, making sure they are uniformly combined. If you want the add-ins in the crackers, add them now. Otherwise save them until the end. Mix together the water and oil just before pouring into the flour. Add a little at a time until you get a dough that you can knead without sticky fingers. Roll out the dough (on a floured surface) in small batches to about 1/8 to 1/16 of an inch. Place in a pan. If your dough is gluten-free, it may be easier to just press into the pan directly. Score the crackers into the size you want and dot the tops with a fork. If you want add-ins on top, brush with the crackers with water and sprinkle them over. Bake at 225C/450F until crisp (12-15 minutes). Cool and store in an airtight container.

Note: The crackers at the edges may brown more quickly. I remove those and let the rest of the pan cook longer to ensure all the crackers get browned and crisped. Also, to make oat flour (one of my favorite grains for these), just put quick cooking oats in your blender's grinder jar and blend until you have something resembling a flour. To keep them from sticking, use a good non-stick pan or line with parchment paper before you put the crackers on the pan.