sweet potato-black bean burritos

I needed some light food after indulging big time over July 4th. Here's a good summer burrito -- light with a slightly sweet-savory blend of flavors that go well with hot weather, but would be great in winter, too. There are recipes all over the internet for this dish so mine is nothing terribly unique, just my version after reading several others. I deemed it a hit! And look how pretty the ingredients are -- almost too good to eat!

Sweet Potato-Black Bean Burritos

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. cooked black beans, or one can, drained
• 1 large or two small sweet potatoes, cooked, peeled, cut into 1/2" cubes, and lightly mashed
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2-4 cloves garlic, peeled and diced or put through garlic press
• 1-2 t. cumin
• 1/2 c. corn (optional)
• juice from 1/2 lime, about 2 T.
• 1/3 c. chopped cilantro
• goat or other cheese, crumbled or grated (optional)
• 10+ tortillas
  

Preparation

Cook onion and garlic in a teaspoon or two of oil, just until onion is soft. Put all ingredients except cheese into bowl and mix lightly but well.


Spoon 3-4 T. of filling down center of each burrito, add a little cheese, roll up, and place into pan. Cover pan with foil and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Serve with chopped tomato, lettuce, and sour cream or plain yogurt.


Variations & Comments

The corn is optional, as is the cheese -- the burritos would be perfectly good without either one but I had some things I needed to use up so they got included for this experiment. The cheese added a nice creaminess but the mix of good flavors stand well on their own without needing cheese. A chopped up jalapeno would be a nice addition, too (or other pepper of your choice). The cilantro is also optional but gives it a really nice fresh flavor that Ienjoy . I thought the dish might be dry without a sauce but they were moist and tender from the sweet potatoes and beans. Also, instead of baking, the filling and tortillas could be heated up separately and served like tacos. It made a full package of burritos with leftovers.

Cook, eat, dance, love!

bok choy-noodle chop salad

You've all seen 'em -- heck, you've probably eaten 'em -- salads with crunchy ramen noodles, that is. At least according to what I was reading they're popular and well known. Well, I'm one of the uninitiated, or was until recently. I've been looking for summer dinner salad recipes and found several, all similar, that called for ramen noodles. I was curious and after looking at recipes I came up with my own version. It's hardly authentic Asian, but it does have more Asian flavors than the recipes I was coming across. I decided it was a keeper -- light, crisp, refreshing, but substantial enough to leave us satisfied -- and a nice variety of flavors. I called it a chop salad because I made a point of cutting the ingredients fairly small and about the same size, as you would in a traditional chop salad.

Here you go -- enjoy!


Bok Choy-Noodle Chop Salad

salad ingredients:

• bok choy
• romaine lettuce
• green onions
• peas (English or snap; I used English because it's what I had but pea pods would be good in this)
• carrots
• cilantro (optional, but oh boy, does it add a nice flavor!)
  

Chop all ingredients so they're about the same size -- mine were roughly 1/2-1" by about 1/4". Toss well, cover, and chill.


dressing ingredients:

• 2-4 T. soy sauce (tamari)
  
• 1/4 c. rice vinegar
• 1/4. c. apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1-2 t. toasted sesame oil
• 1-2 t. fresh ginger, finely chopped

Bring all ingredients to a simmer, stir well to dissolve sugar, then remove from heat and cool. Chill until time to serve salad.

tofu:

• 12-16 oz. frozen tofu
• 3-4 T. soy sauce (tamari)
  
• 1/4 c. water
• 2 t. dark sesame oil

Stir together soy sauce, water, oil. I use frozen tofu because it absorbs marinades better... so, cut into desired size pieces (again, I made it consistent with the sizes of veggies), pour soy sauce mix over, marinate awhile, toss with cornstarch, fry in two batches. In the photo, the tofu has already absorbed most of the marinade -- so you can see why I like to freeze it first!
















noodle-nut topping:

• 2 packages ramen noodles. I discarded the flavoring packets because MSG does strange things to me but you can use them in the dressing or save them for another use if you like
• about 1/2 cup peanuts. Wouldn't work for those with peanut allergies, of course, but I love peanuts in some Asian food. Almonds would be good, too, or sunflower seeds, or nuts of your choice, or none.
• 1/4 c. (1/2 stick) butter

Melt butter in pan. Crush noodles (I used a hammer while they were still in the sealed package -- if you have a better way, let me know!). Add noodles to pan and stir lightly over medium heat until they begin to brown slightly; add peanuts and finish browning noodles. Remove from heat and cool to room temp.



Dinner time!

Bring out the chilled salad and dressing, toss in the tofu. At this point you can either add the noodle topping to the salad and toss along with the dressing, or you can serve the salad and topping and dressing separately and let everyone fix their own. I did the latter because it looked like there would be lots of leftovers and didn't want the noodles to lose their crunch. This would be great to take to a picnic, etc.




Variations:

Variations are as endless as your imagination. Use packaged slaw (cabbage or broccoli) or make your own. Add other veggies. Skip the tofu. Add chicken, beef, or pork. Use chow mien noodles instead of toasting ramen noodles. The dressing doesn't have to be heated -- just whisk the ingredients together. You get the picture.

And don't lose sight of the big picture -- cook, eat, dance, love!

Mazurki!

No, it's not a folk dance, although it sounds like one -- it's a chewy, moist fruit bar from an old Russian recipe. There's another Mazurki, a Polish pastry, but this recipe is different. As nearly as I can tell, the original recipe probably had candied fruit instead of jam, but otherwise it seems to have changed little.

Let's waltz into the kitchen and begin!

Mazurki

Ingredients:

1 c. each: dried currants, raisins, chopped blanched almonds, chopped walnuts and dried apricots -- or any combination of dried fruit and nuts, as long as the proportions stay the same

1 c. thick jam (such as strawberry or other small fruit)*

2 eggs, unbeaten

1 t. vanilla

2 c. flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour)

Chop apricots. Chop nuts to desired texture -- I chop them fairly fine.





Mix all ingredients, except flour, until well blended. Add flour and stir in.









Spread in an oiled 11" x 15" shallow pan to depth of 1/2 inch. Bake at 300 degrees about 35 minutes.
Remove from oven; cut into diamond shapes (or squares or rectangles or go wild!) and return pan to oven for 5 minutes to dry cut edges. Remove to a wire cake rack to cool, and enjoy!

So... do the foxtrot, waltz, polka, boogie down, jitterbug, watusi, disco on into your kitchen, and give this recipe a spin! And while you're in there, remember, cook, eat, dance, dance, dance... and most important of all, love!

*for this particular batch, I used maple-apple preserves, because it was what I had the most of... you can see the chunks of apple, especially in the photo of the Mazurki still in the pan.

best laid plans...

With the best of intentions I started this blog -- and look how well I'm doing! Ha! It hasn't been lack of interest but more a lack of time... and forgetfulness... but I'm going to make the effort to post once a week. That shouldn't be so hard. Really, no big deal. I write all the time, so why I can't remember to write in my blog... dunno, but I'm going to do better.

For today, a few pictures of my current kitchen are all I have. But it's worth seeing, because you're going to be doubly impressed at all the cooking and baking and jamming and jellying and stuff that I do when you see how small my workspace is. I've had a smaller kitchen, in my very first apartment, where the kitchen was in an old closet, but this one is a close second. Anyway, without further ado...

Chez CookEatDanceLove!

Or at least part of it... I'll add more photos as I have them but this gives you a glimpse.

Le Stove: just your basic gas stove, tucked in one corner. Works fine.















Next, we have Le Counter, or to be precise, about 1/2 of Le Counter. A total of 49 linear inches of counter space, not including the sink in the middle; that amounts to about 2 feet on each side. Yep, that's all, folks! When the two of us getting cooking, it can be cozy, but it works just fine, and is a good time to put the ol' motto into play: clean as you go!

And, for the moment, last but not least, Le Kitchen Chat. Adorable, isn't she? and only 15 years young! Still a great mouser, too...

Banana Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce

All week I've been bemoaning the fact that I haven't had the time to do much cooking/baking and take photos. I wanted to get my blog up and running! I wanted to cook! I wanted to shoot photos! I wanted to eat something yummy!

So Friday afternoon I'm in the kitchen, cooking up things for dinner. Faced with a pile of ripe bananas, I remembered this great banana bread pudding recipe I originally got from Assaggio, an Italian restaurant in the Sellwood district of Portland, Oregon, and then later found on Epicurious.com. And no, it's not what you might be thinking: it's not bread pudding made with banana bread. It's bread pudding made with bananas. In my perhaps not all that humble opinion, a way better use for ripe bananas than banana bread, any day. I grabbed the recipe and was into the initial prep when I remembered my blog. Egads! My chance! So I grabbed my camera and started cooking and shooting.

I was in a hurry so I didn't do the usual kind of setting up and presentation that I might normally do. Not that I get all elaborate but given more time and more thought I would have done things a little differently. But at least I'm getting started.

Here's where you'll find the recipe.

And now, without further ado, here's Banana Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce!



So here it is: bananas are cooked and the first stage of layers is complete.




Second photo, layers are all assembled, custard is poured over. The only change I made from the recipe was to add a light sprinkle of cinnamon on top.



Third photo: Ah, the rum sauce -- pure decadence! Ingredients in the pan: butter, heavy cream, dark brown sugar...









Fourth photo: rum sauce, cooked, about to be removed from the heat for the addition of dark rum. Can you smell the rich caramel? Too yummy, and I'm not even a big caramel fan!








Photo five: the bread pudding after soaking about 20 minutes and just before going in the oven...










Photo six, just out of the oven. The smell is heavenly and so is the sight. Can you say, "Yum!"?


And photo seven, the final delight just before digging in. The rum sauce makes the whole dessert sing. Not a great presentation of the finished dessert, but trust me, it was delicious!

Cook, eat, dance, love!