Black Beans with Pumpkin & Coconut

Black Beans with Pumpkin and Coconut over Rice

• 1 green pepper, chopped 
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 2 large yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb. black beans, rinsed
• 1 can pumpkin puree 
• 4 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1-1/2 tablespoons Garam Masala 
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 Tablespoon kosher salt
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 3 cups water or 6 cups if you don’t have stock
• Cilantro or chives, chopped
• Plain yogurt

• Saute peppers and onion for 5 minutes.
• Add garlic and saute for another minute.
• Add sauteed vegetables and all other ingredients except cilantro and yogurt to large stock pot (or crockpot)
• Simmer on low roughly all day or alternately set the slow-cooker on high and let it go about 8 hours.
• Check water level from time to time, adding more if necessary to prevent burning.
• Cook rice according to package directions.
• Serve over cooked rice.
• Garnish with cilantro and a dollop of plain yogurt
• 
  

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Stuffed Deep Fried Avocados with Tomatillo Sauce

While flipping through my latest issue of Food Network Magazine, I noticed a Secret Ingredient Contest in the back of the magazine with Chiles starring as the main event. Chiles?? Well I can do that right, I am a Texan afterall! Wish me luck, here is the recipe I created and submitted for the contest!!

Rice/Chile Stuffing: 1 C Rice 1 garlic clove-whole, peeled ¼ C onion-finely diced 1 Tbl Spanish Rice Seasoning 2 C Chicken Stock, unsalted 3 Tbl Cilantro-roughly chopped ½ C Monterrey Jack Cheese, shredded 2 Hatch Chiles-Roasted, peeled and diced Juice of 1 small lime In medium sauce pan over medium-high heat, combine rice, garlic clove, onion and seasoning. Dry saute until rice is lightly toasted. Add chicken stock, bring to boil then cover and reduce to simmer for approximately 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat, fluff and allow to cool at room temperature. Once cooled, toss together with cheese, chiles, lime juice, and cilantro. Taste for seasoning and set aside. Salsa: 6 Tomatillos-quartered 2 medium onions-quartered 3 garlic cloves 2 whole jalapenos (red if you can find them for color) remove stem 3 Tbl Olive oil + 1 Tbl Salt & Pepper Juice of 1 Lime ½ C Cilantro 3 Hatch Chiles- roasted, peeled and rough chopped Preheat oven 400 degrees. Toss all ingredients and spread on baking sheet. Roast approximately 20 minutes or until edges are roasted. Transfer contents of baking sheet to food processor. To the processor, add the lime juice, cilantro and Hatch Chiles. Pulse until combined to rough chop. Preheat remaining olive oil in saute pan over medium-high heat. Saute Tomatillo mixture for approximately 15 minutes, stirring frequently until all flavors meld together. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm. Avocados: 4 Ripe Avocados-peeled, cut in half and seeds removed 4 egg whites in medium bowl 3 egg yolks in small bowl 1 C flour 1 Tbl Ancho chile powder Salt & Pepper ¼ C Pepitas-toasted and ground roughly, additional ¼ C toasted & left whole 48 ounces Canola Oil Preheat oil in to 350 degrees. Combine flour, chile powder, salt, pepper and ground pepitas, in small baking dish, set aside. In medium size mixing bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Break up yolks and fold into egg whites by hand, do not over mix. After removing seed from avocados, scoop out a little more of the flesh to make room for more of the rice stuffing. Fill each half of the avocado with the rice mixture. Press halves back together to reform avocado. Roll each filled avocado in flour mixture. Dip in egg white mixture to coat and fry in hot oil until golden brown. Drain. To serve, Make puddle of tomatillo sauce in center of plate. Place fried avocado on top. Spoon additional sauce over top.

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Pork Loin Stuffed with Brautwurst

I know zip, zilch, zero, nada, nichts, absolutely nothing about German food.  I will now formally apologize to all the German folks out there, some of them really good friends, I just don't get it or understand it.  Names of food like Sauerbraten, Wienerschnitzel, Rouladen, Goulash; just don't sound that appetizing to me.  My soul exposure to German food has been Ruben Sandwiches, Sauerkraut on my hot dog a few times and visits to Der Wienerschnitzel through the drive-thru as a kid.  But, one of my dearest friends is full-blooded German and one of the best cooks I know.  Yesterday he suggested a garlic peppercorn flavored pork loin stuffed with brautwurst.  I didn't want to tell him at the time that I have never even tasted brautwurst.  I'm telling you it's just the name that turns me off, but I bought it, I cooked it and I really liked it!  I got a few instructions from him and dove right it in.  It is probably different than what he told me, a few minutes had passed by the time I got home from the store and my CRS is kicking in big time lately.  So here is my French, Spanish and Irish blood-lines interpretation of German food, well sort of, if you get really technical.

Pork Loin Stuffed with German Brautwurst

1 pre-packaged Garlic and Peppercorn marinated Pork Loin (about 1 1/2 pounds), split length-wise and butterflied, pounded out until about 1/2" thick

3 links brautwurst

fresh baby spinach (I forgot this part),  it is really more to show the different layers than for flavor

4-6 Tbls parsley, roughly chopped

1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp garlic salt

Freshly ground pepper to taste

4 Tbls Dijon mustard + more to coat outside of pork loin

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spread out flattened pork loin, long side closest to you.  Lay fresh spinach in single layer on pork loin. Remove and discard casings from Brautwurst and spread on top of layer of spinach.  Sprinkle top of Brautwurst with cayenne, garlic salt, pepper and parsley.  Press into Brautwurst a little.  Spread Dijon mustard over top of parsley.  Roll pork loin, starting with side closest to you.  Place seam side down on baking sheet covered with foil. Coat outside of rolled pork loin with remaining Dijon mustard.  Bring ends of foil up to ends of pork loin to keep stuffing from coming out during roasting, do not cover with foil.  Roast pork loin for about 35 minutes.  Internal temperature 150 degrees.  Let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.  Serves 4.  (Vielen Dank, Emil)

With this, I served salad with Raspberry Walnut Dressing and cherry tomatoes, toasted walnuts, dried cherries and goat cheese along with wild rice with the stuffed pork loin.  You can see where the spinach layer would have really made a difference with the presentation.  I think next time I will make a dijon wine sauce to go with this but it turned out really moist and delicious as it was.

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Augustine's Chili Rellenos and Perfect Spanish Rice

We have been growing this idea for quite awhile!  After our drought this summer I thought the garden was a total loss.  Even the jalepenos we grew were not hot at all and worse, they literally had no flavor. Very Strange.



Then the rains came and everything changed.  We actually have grass growing again and all of the plants are happy happy happy.  My jalepenos not only have flavor but they are nice and hot!  My poblano plants started budding out and growing big and beautiful peppers.  It has rained for weeks now, somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 to 12 inches, depending on who you talk to.  Today, at our house, it's 3 inches so far!  My poor garden is confused about what time of year it is and we are reaping the benefits! 



Since my summer garden is finally producing these beautiful poblano peppers, we have been watching and waiting with anticipation to harvest and make our dear friend's Chili Rellenos.  I have always wanted to make them, but I think it's one of those things that is best learned from a friend, hands on, not from a cookbook. 

After picking them and washing them, it was time to roast them!  I love this part.  I turn on all the burners and stradel the flame with the peppers, turning them over and over until they are completely black(if you don't have a gas stove, you can do this under the broiler or on your grill outside).  As soon as one is blackened, it gets tossed into a bowl and covered with a large plate until I finish all of them.  The steam in the bowl losens the charred skins so they can easily be peeled.   The house fills with the most amazing aroma and my poor husband has to listen to me everytime he passes through the kitchen.  "Doesn't this make your mouth water", "They are so beautiful", "Can you smell these", "Oh, come look!"  Poor guy, this is my normal routine and we have been through this many many times.  We will go through this many more times in the years to come.  He knows this.  I gotta hand it to him though, he feigns excitement just for me.

It's my personal preference, but I do not hold the peppers under the water to remove the charred skins.  I am afraid they might lose some of their amazing flavor.  I scrap off the outside with my fingers and rinse the charred pieces off of my hands under the water.  The peppers are then split down one side, opened up and the seeds are then removed.  We pat them dry, just in case, so we don't get splattered when it's time to fry.

My mouth is watering again!



The poblanos are then filled with Panella or Oaxaca cheese and secure with tooth picks.  They are rolled in plain flour and set aside.  Meanwhile, August instructed me to seperate some eggs.  Whites in one bowl, yolks in the other.  One of the best things about August's Chili Rellenos, is that the batter doesn't fall off.  The technique that I learn is new to me and it works!  The whites are beaten (with a mixer unless you are a marathon mixer) to very soft peaks.  Basically, super foamy.  The yolks are beat seperately.  Then whites and yolks are gently combined.  You'll want to hold off doing this until just before you fry.

He's such a cutie!!  I am learning from the Master!!

That's me pretending I'm actually doing something.

Remember we dusted them with flour.  Combined the whites and the yolks.  August then dipped the floured poblanos into the egg mixture to coat and carefully layed them in the hot oil (we used Canola).  They are fried until they are light golden brown and just like he said, the batter stayed on!  Amazing!!

Earlier, August started his beautiful Spanish Rice.  This rice is the most delicate, fluffy, tender rice I have ever had!   He heated a large pan over a med-high heat.  The rice is added to a dry pan.  Tossed around with a spoon to keep it from burning.  Added chopped fresh garlic and onion, dry sauted that too.  Meanwhile, it a seperate sauce pan he heated water.  The hot water was then added to the rice along with the seasonings.  Do not stir the rice, cover with a tight fitting lid, reduce heat to low and simmer until the liquid is absorbed.  What a HUGE difference.  The hot water added to the rice, instead of cold water, August said, keeps the rice from getting sticky.  The lack of any kind of fat helps too.  He's right, it was perfect!

Taaa-Daaaaaaa!

August served the Chili Rellenos with fresh tomatillo sauce he brought with him from home.  Sprinkled them with fresh pomegranet seeds he brought from his mother's garden.  And it was amazing! 

Augustine's Most Tender Spanish Rice

1 Cup rice

2-3 Cups VERY HOT water

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1/4 onion, finely diced

1 Tbl. Knorr Caldo de Pollo (Chicken Boullion)

2 Tbl. Fideo Ole'

1 tsp Cumin powder

2 -3 Tbl Cilantro, roughly chopped

Heat water in a sauce pan.  In a seperate pan, toast rice in a dry pan on med-high heat.  When it starts to change color add garlic and onion. Saute for a few minutes longer.  Add hot water to rice.  Season with chicken bullion, Fideo Ole' and cumin.  Cover pan with a tight fitting lid.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until liquid is absorbed, try not to mess with it!  Once rice is cooked, remove lid, toss with cilantro and serve.

Thank you August!  That was a fabulous meal!  Great Food and Great Friends....perfect evening!

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