Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Black Bean Soup -- back to top
Meredith made black bean soup. I have no idea what she did, but it was good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1860, 2012-03-12_214652
Koftas and White Bean Eggplant -- back to top
I did this a long time ago, but we made Koftas (without bread or tzatziki) and the Norther Bean Bruschetta as we have in the past. We used regular eggplant this time instead of graffiti. I like the skin and the look of the graffiti more, but the regular had a nicer taste. However, the skin was extremely tough making it harder to eat.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1869, 2012-03-19_123911
Black Bean Empanadas -- back to top
I made black bean empanadas just as I have done before. I started with the normal dough. (though I accidentally used too much salt) I sautéd an onion, added a green bell pepper, a jalapeno pepper and some frozen corn. I figured out a trick with the beans. After adding them, I dropped a bit of water in the pan and covered it. It steamed them and make it really easy to mash with a potato masher. I added some crushed red pepper, habanero tobacco sauce, and a bunch on other seasonings. Finally, I added some white vinegar for an extra tang to it.
They came out really good. I liked the addition of the vinegar in the mix. And the salty dough was even better. I do not know if it was the extra peppers and stuff but I had leftover filling which was a nice appetizer while they cooked.
Of course, they didn't look as nice since I am nowhere near as good at folding and crimping them, but they were fine.
I also had some steamed edamame.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2059, 2012-06-25_203955
Great Northern Bean Falafel -- back to top
I made baked falafel, however, it would be more correct to call this baked bean patties. I was distracted as I was making it and opened a can of great northern beans instead of chick peas. Oh well, it still came out pretty good. I actually prepared the whole thing the night before since I knew I was going to be getting back on the later side. So, all I had to do was form them into balls, and bake.
They came out pretty good. They were easier to make and mash with the beans but also a bit wetter. I wouldn't aim to use the northern beans again, but it wasn't a big deal.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2127, 2012-07-18_151748
Chick-Pea and Corn Salad -- back to top
I threw together a corn and chick pea salad. I made it with the following:
I combined everything and adjusted the seasonings and added cilantro to taste. I ended up with a very big bowl of salad which made for a large meal plus about half of it leftover for other meals (give or take a little but I'll guess about half).
While the flavor was pretty good, I still think it was missing something. It may be that the cilantro was pretty old and lost some of its flavors. Or I am missing something else entirely. I will read up on other recipes in the mean time to try to figure it out.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8612, 2014-08-04_140706
Eggs + Tortillas (with Borracho Beans), Kale Salad, and Leftovers -- back to top
Not the greatest picture but...:
This was kind of a thrown together meal, except that it involved some pretty time intensive things that Meredith had made over the prior weekend.
The beans/eggs thing was a very quick version of Huevos Motulenos except that we used Borracho Beans that Meredith made earlier in the week. The borracho beans were from Homesick Texan variation on Jalapeno beans. Meredith thought they were pretty good but the beans needed salt. Conventional wisdom is to not salt them before cooking since it will turn the skin hard, but she has been reading up on alternative methods. More on that when she does them.
The kale salad (not yet pictured but will be soon) was from The Kitchn [local]. She basically followed the recipe except:
I thought it was pretty good. Meredith was getting tired of it since she had it for so many meals, but it was still tasty. And a good lunch since it has the quinoa.
Kale & Quinoa Salad with Dates, Almonds & Citrus Dressing (from The Kitchn)
Local Copy (U: "guest" P: name of my dog, all lower case)
Cannellini Beans With Garlic And Sage and Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Caramelized Onions -- back to top
Meredith did nearly all of the work for this meal. She made the beans from this Bon Appetit recipe (local). The only real change was that she brined them and used rosemary instead of sage. The conventional wisdom used to be that you shouldn't salt/brine them but as this Kitchn (and referenced Cook's Illustrated book The Science of Good Cooking) note, brining can be a good way to go.
The rosemary gave them an interesting and strong flavor but it was pleasant and I liked it a lot. We did have to cook them longer but that is likely the altitude (water boils at 203°F).
As the title says, we also had them with roasted sweet potatoes and caramelized onions. Not too much to that. We pierced the potatoes with a fork and roasted them at 375°F for 45-60 minutes. We did the onions (mostly french-cut red) on a very low heat. We served it with a little bit of butter melted in.
I thought it was really good. Especially when I basically stuffed the potatoes with the beans. It was also an easy meal, but very slow. Something we could prep in the future next time. And I think Meredith was happy with brining the beans.
Cannellini Beans With Garlic And Sage (from Bon Appetit)
Local Copy -- (U: "guest" P: name of my dog, all lower case)
Cuban Style Black Beans -- back to top
Meredith made black beans based on a recipe from Science of Good Cooking. I am not linking the recipe since we basically reproduce it below in our own words.
As you can see from the recipe below, we struggled to cook them fully. It actually took much longer than it was supposed to. That is likely due to the altitude. In the future, we will consider slow cooker or pressure cooker methods.
But, these were also some of the most flavorful beans Meredith has made. She'll also look into using baking soda in beans more often.
Brine the beans (about 1.5 Tbsp in 2 qt cold water) overnight (or really, ~24 hours)
Combine all ingredients group 1 in a dutch oven and bring to simmer over medium-high. Then cover and reduce to low. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour.
Eventually added 1/4 tsp baking soda since they weren't softening (found on the web. Not sure where)
Cook for another 45-60 minutes.
Drain and reserve ~2 cups cooking liquid.
In the pan, add the second ingredient group. Sauté, add some of the reserved liquid, add the beans, then the rest of the liquid. Simmer for another 15 minutes or so
Sweet Potatoes with Home-Made Cannellini Beans -- back to top
This was somewhat of a repeat of what we had on 2015-09-21 except done without the onions and stuff. We had other plans that night so we just wanted fast.
Meredith did the beans like last time with this recipe except she slow cooked it. She did it on low but had to leave it for about 9.5 hours. That was too long. They were overcooked and a bit soggy. But I thought they still tasted fine.
Cuban Black Beans, Pickled Avocado, and Fajitas -- back to top
We made a a ton of cuban black beans using the same idea as that time, but we used the pressure cooker. We based it on the pressure cooker using the guide from Fast Cooking (Local). We also aimed to adjust the times by 20% as suggested by Hip pressure cooking (also on that local page).
The pressure cooking times are usually from when it starts to sizzle. And we let it naturally release. We split it into batches and the first batch was a bit overcooked (the natural release took like 15 or more minutes).
On the second batch, the seal must not have been as good since we heard the steam coming out for almost the entire time. And we timed it for less time. This worked a bit well, though neither were too bad.
The flavor of the beans after just the first stage was already really good. Then it got even better with the additional steps at the end. They came out really good!
We also made Avocado Pickles from The Kitchn (Local). Meredith followed the recipe really closely. One of the avocados was more firm than the other but both worked fine. The jalapeños were also very hot but it all worked well.
We also just made onions and peppers with some butter and salt. Not much to that either.
This was actually a pretty involved meal. We did the prep the night before, but it wasn't too bad. Maybe the kind of thing we could prep on the weekend.
Also, since we made 2 pounds, we have a ton of beans for other meals.
For all local recipes, U: guest, P: name of my dog, lower case
Frijoles a la Charra (and sausage) -- back to top
The main thing of this meal was the beans. Meredith made Frijoles a la Charra using the Homesick Texan Recipe. The only changes were that we did the bean in the pressure cooker, skipped the bacon for one of the batches both batches (to make them vegetarian), and used fresh tomatoes.
For the pressure cooker, we followed the same guide. We did 2 minutes at high pressure with natural release. This sounds super fast, but the time doesn't start until it starts to escape steam (long time on the heat) and then with a natural release, you go until the pressure if fully back to atmospheric. So it takes a while. But it did work well.
The beans were awesome. Nicely cooked and flavorful
Frijoles a la Charra and leftovers -- back to top
The main part of this meal was Frijoles a la charra. Meredith followed the recipe except we pressure cooked the beans. Actually, we had to do it twice since we didn't get them cooked enough the first time.
Also, we had leftovers from different meals: