The best beans I've ever had

My friend Andre turned me on to these beans, and they're the best I've ever had. That is not hyperbole, they are the best I've ever had. You still get the rich, smokey flavor without any bacon, lard, butter, or other fat added. Do yourself a favor and buy these Good Mother Stallard beans from Rancho Gordo (I'm sure their other beans are just as good, but I've only had the GMS). They're absurdly easy to prepare and full of flavor.

There are several ways to prepare them, the Rancho Gordo site has lots of recipes, but this is what we've done:

• Chop 2 carrots, 1 celery stalk, and one small onion (we used a white onion)
• Sweat them down in a pan with a little bit of olive oil until they're soft
• Put the vegetables in a slow-cooker with a package (one pound) of (cleaned) beans and 4-5 cups of water (We used 2 cups of Better than Bouillon stock, and 2 cups of water, but use any combo of stock/water you'd like)
• Cook on high in the slow cooker for 5-6 hours, stirring and adding some salt and pepper to taste after about 4 hours
• Enjoy the shit out of them

If you don't have a slow cooker, you can simmer them for a few hours instead, we just used the slow cooker for the convenience

Serve them however you'd like, but we chose to grate a little bit of grass-fed sharp cheddar on top, with fresh avocado, minced red onion, Italian parsley, and toasted baguette (Chelsi opted out of the cheddar).

This is an insanely tasty and surprisingly filling meal that costs about $2.50 per serving. Serving it over brown rice would stretching the cost even further and adding a complete, whole protein.

Also, since the beans are such a robust, versatile ingredient, you really could experiment with them and try all kinds of combos and flavorings.

Seriously, these are worth trying. Buy them online or at Cookbook Grocery in Echo Park.

ATK Volume 3: Polenta with Mushroom Sauce

This one is a winner, kids. There were a couple of things added/changed, but the bottom line is that it was delicious and we totally recommend it. Chelsi wanted to make our own polenta instead of buying the pre-made polenta in a tube, but we ended up not doing that in order to save (a bunch of) time. It'd probably be improved slightly with the homemade polenta, but it's not necessary.

Some changes that were made: we used fresh oyster mushrooms instead of dried porcini (just because the store we went to didn't have them and we didn't feel like searching), which meant we didn't need the water, and used a little bit of homemade mushroom stock that Chelsi had in the freezer. Also, Chelsi seasoned with salt and pepper throughout the cooking, instead of at the end, and added some red pepper flakes as well. We also put it all over egg noodles, which we both agreed improved the flavor and texture.

Here's the original recipe:
1/4 cup dried porcini mushrooms, rinsed and patted dry
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped fine
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
1 Lb white mushrooms, sliced
1/3 cup sweet Marsala (we used dry, and we wondered if sweet would be TOO sweet)
3/4 cup heavy cream
salt & pepper
1 (18 oz) tube polenta, cut into 8 rounds

1. Combine porcini and water in bowl and microwive covered until soft, about 1 minute. Strain porcini, reserving liquid. Chop porcini fine and set aside.

2. Heat 2 tablespons oil in saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and rosemary and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add white and porcini mushrooms and cook until browned. Stir in Marsala and reserved mushroom liquid and simmer until pan is nearly dry (this step took much longer than the original recipe claimed it would). Add cream and simmer until thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Meanwhile, heat remaining oil in large non-skillet. Cook polenta rounds until well crowned and crisp (this step also took longer than the original recipe claimed it would). Serve with mushroom sauce (over egg noodles, if you know what's good for you).

We'll be making this dish again, I'm sure, but next time we'll be doubling it!

Seared Sea Scallops with Gingered Pea Purée and Cilantro Gremolata

Over Thanksgiving Jed’s sister introduced us to food52.com, a super awesome community based recipe and food contest site. We immediately started searching the site and bookmarking tasty recipes to try. As soon as we came across this one for scallops with gingered pea puree I couldn’t wait to try it.

As he mentioned before, Jed loves scallops. It's really rare to find good scallops in a restaurant (we had awful scallops at some sushi place in the Valley, and awesome scallops at Susan Feniger’s STREET).

We used frozen scallops. I know, I know, frozen scallops are often a recipe for disaster (anyone watch Top Chef? Anyone remember what happened when Spike used frozen scallops?). Nevertheless, we’re on a perpetual budget and the entire meal turned out awesome!

We also used frozen peas in lieu of fresh peas- mostly for color, because flash frozen vegetables keep such nice color and cost a fraction of the fresh stuff (English peas in a pod are a seemingly hard to find year round and on a whim).

Try it for yourself. You’ll be thanking us…

For the Scallops and Pea Puree:

* 2 cups shelled English peas (or frozen peas)

* salt

* 1 large garlic clove

* 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

* 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

* 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

* freshly ground black pepper

* pinch cayenne (optional)

* 16 large sea scallops, about 1 1/2 pounds (we used about a pound)

* Cilantro Gremolata (see below- this was really good)

1. Prepare the Pea Purée: Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add 2 teaspoons salt and the peas. Cook until peas are tender. Remove from heat and drain peas, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Ask a question about this step.
2. Combine peas, 1/4 cup reserved water, garlic, ginger, 2 tablespoons olive oil, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper and cayenne in bowl of food processor. Purée until smooth. Add more water as necessary to achieve desired consistency; the purée should not be too thin. Transfer to a bowl and keep warm. Ask a question about this step.

3. Prepare scallops: Pat scallops dry and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the scallops, taking care not to overcrowd in the pan. Cook, turning once, until brown on both sides and just cooked through, about 4 minutes. Transfer to plate and keep warm. Repeat with remaining scallops. Ask a question about this step.

4. To assemble, spoon pea purée on serving plates. Top with scallops. Sprinkle scallops and purée with gremolata. Drizzle lightly with extra-virgin olive oil. Serve immediately.

For the Cilantro Gremolata:

* 1 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

* 1 garlic clove, minced

* 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest

* 1/2 teaspoon salt

* 1/2 teaspoon freshy ground black pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients together in a small bowl and mix well.

Serves 8 as an appetizer, 4 as a main course

Happy Black Magic Cake Day

Now, I’m no baker. Usually, I HATE baking and will never volunteer to bake anything unless is to impress a boy or to make biscuits (homemade biscuits will always have a special place in my heart- thanks, Mom [and Betty Crocker]).

Recently, for some strange reason, I had an urge to bake a chocolate cake. I’ve had a rocky history with cake baking- when I was thirteen I decided to bake a chocolate cake from scratch, and misread the ingredients. After adding what was probably 1/4 or 1/3 cups each of baking soda and baking powder, the cake was literally rising up and out of the pan, on it’s way to growing out of the oven. The cake I attempted to bake was the Perfectly Chocolate Cake from my mom's brand new Hershey’s cookbook. After that mess, however, my baking adventures were limited to whatever came out of a box.

So naturally, when I got that urge to bake a cake last weekend, I went back to the Hershey’s repertoire and decided on the Black Magic Cake. It has cocoa and buttermilk and mmmm I knew that would make for a delicious cake. And it did! But, doh… for some stupid reason I neglected to flour my greased baking pans and the cake turned out like this:

Lesson learned! Always flour your greased pans when baking. I knew this. But I obviously had a brain spasm that afternoon. I did happen to salvage the 2^nd cake, so I whipped up a tasty semi-sweet chocolate ganache (semi-sweet chocolate chips, earth balance, vanilla almond milk, cocoa powder, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and a dash of vanilla) to frost it. I brought Jed a piece of the beautiful end result to work that night… It was Valentine’s Day, after all.

Here’s the recipe for the cake:

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk or sour milk* (we used buttermilk)
• 1 cup strong black coffee OR 2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee plus 1 cup boiling water (we used strong black coffee)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans or one 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (Batter will be thin). Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes for round pans, 35 to 40 minutes for rectangular pan or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost as desired. Yields 10 to 12 servings.

• To make sour milk: Use 1 tablespoon white vinegar plus milk to equal 1 cup.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

What do you do when you just start dating a boy and he ends up having a birthday? You bake him these crazy ambitious cupcakes, bring them to his birthday dinner, and wow both him and his friends. Or at least, that’s what I did for Jed’s birthday this past September. Like I said before, this recipe was quite ambitious. I hadn’t baked cupcakes in years, and had probably never made a butter cream frosting. But, I followed the directions exactly (over a few days- first I baked the cupcakes, did the ganache filling one day, and the butter cream frosting the day we ate them) and these chocolate-Guinness cupcakes with Jameson chocolate ganache and Bailey’s Irish Cream butter cream came out really, really, really awesome.

Borrowed from SmittenKitchen.com, here’s the recipe:

Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes

For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache Filling
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey

Baileys Frosting (see Recipe Notes)
3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperatue
3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

Special equipment: 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer (I used a knife) and a piping bag (though a plastic bag with the corner snipped off will also work)

Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

Make the filling: Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.

Fill the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Those are your “tasters”. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

Make the frosting: Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.

[This is a fantastic trick I picked up while working on the cupcakes article for Martha Stewart Living; the test kitchen chefs had found that when they added the sugar slowly, quick buttercream frostings got less grainy, and tended to require less sugar to thicken them up.]

When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

Do ahead: You can bake the cupcakes a week or two in advance and store them, well wrapped, in the freezer. You can also fill them before you freeze them. They also keep filled — or filled and frosted — in the fridge for a day. (Longer, they will start to get stale.)

Honey-Roasted Onion Tart

I get so excited every month when the new issue of Bon Appetit magazine arrives, because that means new recipes and ideas! It’s from the Feb. 2011 issue of Bon Appetit that I found the Honey-Roasted Onion Tart recipe. First of all, I LOVE onions. Especially caramelized onions. They get to sweet and soft, with little crispy ends here and there.

The tart was easy to make, but took a little longer than I expected (because I often only barely read through savory recipes—baking is an entire different monster). The ingredients and measurements were spot on- except I didn’t really measure the nutmeg or salt. And oh, since I don’t eat land animals the bacon was omitted. I also paired it with some roasted asparagus tossed in a lemon vinaigrette and a simple spring mix salad dressed in lemon juice, lemon zest, and olive oil.

Jed and I were really happy how this turned out. We kept on going back to the kitchen for just one more little bite. The next day, when we reheated the last little square of the tart, we were both really sad that it was gone.

The recipe (totally stolen from bonappetit.com):

Ingredients

• 1 sheet sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed
• 3 bacon slices, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 2 large sweet yellow onions (about 1 1/2 pounds), cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 3/4 cup crème fraîche
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

Preparation

• Position rack in top third of oven and preheat to 375°F. Using lightly floured rolling pin, roll out puff pastry on lightly floured surface to 14x10-inch rectangle. Fold 1/2 inch of pastry edges in toward center on all sides, forming 13x9-inch rectangle. Transfer pastry to large rimmed baking sheet. Press firmly on pastry edges with fork to form rim. Chill crust.
• Cook bacon in small skillet over medium heat until brown and crisp. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Reserve 1 tablespoon bacon drippings from skillet. Whisk honey, wine, and reserved 1 tablespoon bacon drippings in large bowl. Add onions; toss to coat. Coat another large rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Spread onion mixture in even layer on sheet. Roast 30 minutes. Turn onions over, allowing rings to separate. Roast until onions are caramelized, turning often for even browning, 30 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven; cool onions slightly.
• Increase oven temperature to 400°F. Mix crème fraîche, sea salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and nutmeg in small bowl. Using offset spatula, spread crème fraîche over crust to folded edge. Arrange onions atop crème fraîche. Sprinkle with bacon. Bake tart until crust is light golden brown and topping is bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes. Sprinkle with thyme and serve.

Calamari and Spaghetti

I have a love for all things calamari and scallops. I've been getting better at cooking scallops, but I've only tried to cook with squid once before, and it came out edible, but overcooked and less interesting than I'd hoped. This was my second attempt, and it was delicious.

Ok, so the photo/presentation isn't the best in the world, but I've been trying to step away from the safety of having a recipe in front of me and cook more from the gut, and this was a really tasty success, so it was worth sharing. If I were on a pretentious cooking show, I'd say something about it being a "very simple dish that lets the ingredients speak for themselves."

Tip: Buy pre-cleaned squid. They're pretty easy to clean, but it's time consuming

I don't have exact measurements, because I didn't use a recipe, but here are the ingredients:

Calamari (I only used the bodies, not the tentacles, and cut them up into little tubes)

Garlic

1 Shallot

1 can of tomatoes (I used italian)

Red pepper flakes

White wine

Italian Parsley

Salt + Pepper

Parmesan

(I think I put just a touch of dried rosemary in there as well)

I cooked the garlic and shallot in olive oil, added the tomatoes, pepper flakes and white wine, and let it reduce for a little bit. I added the calamari, and right at the end, the parsley. Make sure you don't over cook the calamari, it cooks quickly (2-3 minutes) and gets rubbery if it's over cooked.

(This post is by Jed, even though it says it's from both of us)