Adapted from Alton Brown’s fabulous recipe, this hearty donburi-type dish recently became an instant favorite in our regular dinner rotation. Not willing to pickle our own pork (for the time being), we found that using thickly-sliced slab bacon makes the whole texture of the dish turn to silk. You could leave the bacon out for a vegetarian/kosher version of the dish, but a good portion of the flavor and texture will be missing.

It seems funny to post about this hearty, belly-warming stew in the 90-100 F heat of July, but I assure you, once you get a taste of this from your own kitchen, you’ll want to enjoy some in the comfort of your own home with the A/C turned on!

Recipe: Red Beans and Rice

Makes 6-8 servings.

For red beans:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 medium green bell peppers, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 4-6 ounces of thick-sliced or slab bacon (preferably rind-on), sliced across the grain to create thin strips/lardons
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 quarts (8 cups) water
• 1 pound small red kidney beans, pink beans, or preferably a mix of the two, rinsed and picked of debris

For rice:

• 3 cups water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 cups long-grain rice
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon kosher salt

The Beans

1. Place the vegetable oil in a 7-quart Dutch oven and set over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, salt and pepper to the pot. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions and celery are semi-translucent and the bell peppers are tender, 6 to 8 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the bacon, bay leaves, thyme, hot sauce, cayenne pepper, water and beans to the pot and increase the heat to high.
3. Cook, stirring frequently until the mixture comes to a boil, approximately 6 to 8 minutes. Decrease the heat to maintain a simmer, cover and cook for 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. It is now a good time to start the rice! (see steps below)
4. Uncover, increase the heat slightly to maintain a steady simmer and continue to cook for another 30 to 40 minutes or until the beans are tender and the sauce is thickened to your liking. If you prefer an even creamier texture, mash some of the beans with a potato masher.

The Rice

Prepare rice during the last 30 minutes of cooking the beans. Place the water into a(n electric) kettle and bring to a boil. While the water is coming to a boil place the butter into a 3-quart saucepan, set over medium heat. Once the butter begins to bubble, add the rice and stir to combine. Add the salt and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Carefully pour the water over the rice and stir to combine. Decrease the heat to the lowest setting, cover, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

An alternative to this process would be to cook the rice in an electric rice cooker (we have an old, massive 10-cup Zojirushi model from way back when that continues to serve us valiantly, even with its lid taped down instead of a working latch), which is how we usually do it. For proportions, use the ratio of rice to water that your machine calls on, and then just add in the butter and salt. I usually start up the machine in the last 30-40 minutes of cooking so the beans and rice finish around the same time.

Serve the beans over the rice, over bread, over anything or just eaten by themselves. Trust me, you’ll never see red beans the same way again!

Related posts:

1. Tomato Rice Soup
2. “Unfried” Black Beans

Once you start making foods from scratch, it gets a little addictive. It’s amazing how many every day foods aren’t really that hard to make yourself. But even I have limits (or at least I thought I did). I was talking to my mother the other day and mentioned how I had a great sandwich. The bread was homemade (we’ve stopped buying bread because ours is finally satisfying enough). The pickles were homemade too, and some of my best yet. “Soon,” I joked, “I’ll be making my own cheese.” I was really really kidding though.

And then Deb over at smitten kitchen had to go and post this ricotta cheese recipe. There are only 4 ingredients, all of which I generally have around. It looks too simple not to try. Once I do that, I know it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to mozzarella. I’m not sure when I’ll get around to doing this, but when I do, I’ll be sure to let you all know how it went.

(Homemade peanut butter is also on the to do list, and since it doesn’t require a the heat of a stove, it might happen first.)

I’ve clearly been on a bit of baking kick lately. I think it’s been because by the end of the week I’m out of fresh goods but I always have basic baking ingredients in my pantry.

A lot of people bake bread to be frugal. And I’d like to say that I made these pita because they were cheaper than store bought ones, but I’m not entirely sure that’s the case. They are better than store bought ones though. And really not that hard. If you like excuses to whip out the ol’ rolling pin, and want a bread that’s really hard to mess up and not too much trouble, give these a try. I have fun every time I make them. You’ll also end up with enough that you can probably freeze half for when you aren’t feeling as motivated to bake.

The Kosher Foodies shared a pita recipe recently that I haven’t tried yet. They posted a great tip: they reserve some of the dough in the fridge so that they can bake up fresh pita any time they want. I like the idea, but in practice I don’t usually want to flour up my counter and roll out new dough just to make a few breads. I’d rather bake them all up at once and freeze some for later. But I really like the idea, and maybe you will too.

The original recipe is from my family’s favorite tome, Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews, and is one of the few from the book that I haven’t felt the need to change too much but I just had to make some changes and notes. It’s a beautiful book of Syrian food, one of the only ones that I’ve ever seen really, but often the recipes and instructions seem like they could have used more editing or testing.

Recipe: Whole Wheat Pita

Makes 16 pitas, between 6 and 8 inches in diameter

Active time: less than 20 minutes, Rising and cooking time: up to 2 hours

• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 packet)
• 3 cups warm water
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 to 1 1/2 extra cup(s) of all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt

1. Combine water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Allow to site for 10 minutes to proof the yeast.
2. Pour in the flour and the salt. Mix by hand. When the dough starts to form a ball, knead until the dough no longer feels sticky. Add some of the extra flour as necessary.
3. When finished kneading, return to bowl and seal with plastic wrap. Allow to rise in a warm place for an hour (or until dough has doubled in size).
4. Turn out onto a well floured surface. The dough will be very moist and stringy. Divide into quarters. Divide each quarter into quarters and roll each piece into a ball.
5. Preheat oven to 525 degrees.
6. Roll each ball into a flat disk between 6 and 8 inches in diameter and place onto a baking pan. Once each pan is full, cover with a towel and allow to rise for another 30 minutes.
7. Flip each pita over before baking. This will allow proper puffing.
8. Bake each tray for 4-7 minutes, or until completely puffed. Be careful not to let them burn.
9. Remove from the oven and allow loaves to cool on wire racks.

Enjoy with just about anything. One day, I filled some with shakshuka that I made in the Morocco-inspired sauce I wrote about a few weeks ago (to impress a dear friend who was visiting). Another day, I simply filled one with slices of avocado. And another time, I ate one with nothing inside because they are just so tasty.

One year ago: Tomato and Sausage Risotto
Two years ago: Velvet Lemon Mushroom Sauce

I’m sure you’ll think I’m crazy, but I just couldn’t resist. After seeing Deb from Smitten Kitchen’s Whole Wheat Goldfish crackers I couldn’t not try them.  I also happened to have everything I needed on hand, including a block of ultra orange cheddar that had exactly 6 oz left. I had never made crackers before and they weren’t the easiest thing I ever cooked, for sure. But, filled with cheese and butter, they might be one of the tastiest. It’s really hard not to eat them all.

The crackers are the consistency of a cheese straw, but so much cuter. Someone in the house has a thing for owls and we happen to have a tiny 1 1/4 inch long owl cookie cutter. It was perfect.

If you like cheesy crackers and you think you can handle all the cut outs, try them. I followed the recipe in her post exactly, though next time I might use a bit less butter because the cheese itself is pretty oily and the crackers do leave a bit of grease on the fingers. I think I also made most of my crackers thinner than 1/8 of an inch.

I’m hoping to try a similar cracker soon with peanut butter instead. If anyone has any ideas, please share. I’ll report back with the results. Or I might get lazy and just make sandwiches with the cheese ones and call it a night. We’ll see.

One year ago: (Birthday) Chicken Pot Pie
Two years ago: Almond Butter Cookies and Almond Milk

I’ve always loved beets: their color, a magenta that still seems unnatural every time I see it; their texture, tender and meaty; their flavor, bright, earthy and fruity. As a beet fan, it doesn’t take much to convince me that something with roasted beets in it is going to be delicious.

But because I enjoy them au naturel, I don’t usually do much to dress them up. I’ll generally roast them (or buy them already prepared), slice them and throw them on a salad or just eat them as a side with some salt and pepper.  So I somehow never thought to chop them, mix them up with ricotta cheese of all things, and stuff them into pasta. Why complicate something that’s so good when it’s simple? Because it’s ungodly good, that’s why.

That’s what I found out last weekend, when my friend Emma from Follows The Sun visited. She brought along this recipe for Casunsiei (Beet and Ricotta ravioli), which reminded her of a formative summer she spent interning at the restaurant that is famous for them.

We made the ravioli and they were pretty heavenly (with brussels sprouts on the side). I have a ton of respect for a restaurant that churns them out in huge numbers every day because I had enough after making enough for just the three of us. I think the next time I want them, I may need to drag myself down to Brooklyn and have theirs since I am assured they are masterpieces.

Once we finished filling the pasta, I realized we had only used about a third of the beet and ricotta mix. I put the rest into the fridge to deal with another day. There was no way I was going to do all that work over to fill more ravioli, so we all decided that the filling would make just as good a sauce. And man, was that a good idea.

This dish isn’t as fun to eat as the slippery soft pillows of filling you get when you make ravioli, but it’s delicious, absolutely beautiful, and much much much less complicated.

Recipe: Beet and Ricotta sauce

Makes enough for up to a pound and a half of dried pasta.

• 2 large beets (when chopped they should amount to about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup whole milk ricotta
• 1 stick of melted butter
• 2 teaspoons poppy seeds, more or less as desired (if you have them)
• salt and pepper
• grated Parmigiano Reggiano to top each serving (optional)

1. Roast the beets: cut off greens and root, wash under cold water. If the beets are large, slice in half lengthwise. Cover a baking sheet with tin foil and lightly coat with olive oil. Place the beet halves cut-side down on the sheet. Drizzle with a bit more olive oil. Place in a 375 degree oven. Cook until tender for about 40 minutes, or for about 10 minutes longer than when you start to smell them.
2. Mix together the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.
3. When the beets are roasted and cooled, peel them. This is easy to do by hand once they have cooled, especially if they have been cut. Then dice them as small as you would like (smaller than quarter inch chunks). If you would like more of a paste, you can pulse them in a food processor as well.
4. Add beets to the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. It will look a bit like a mixed berry pie filling.
5. Cook your pasta, drain and add back to the emptied pot that they cooked in. Pour in the beet mixture while both the pot and the pasta are still hot and stir until combined. The heat should be enough to cook the egg in the mixture. If you are concerned that the sauce is runny or that the egg might not be cooked, you can turn the heat on under the pot and stir the pasta for a few minutes before serving.

Serve with a green salad and a nice acidic dressing like balsamic vinegar. And if you want to be really fancy, a glass of red wine.

One year ago: Freezable bean burritos with a zing!

Two years ago: Avocados and Guacamole

The Kosher Foodies just wrote about Spanach Jibben which we used to call Spinach brownies or cupcakes when I was a child. This spinach, egg, and cheese dish was a great way to make sure us kids had something green without too much fussing or complaining. Tacking “jibben” after a vegetable pretty much means you are getting a Syrian style frittata. That is, eggs and cheese, but no tart shell like a quiche might have. And really, mixing baking any vegetable into eggs and cheese will convince just about any veggie-averse eater to take a bite.

I did just that with myself recently in order to acquire a taste for zucchini. I’ve never really liked it, but it’s such a thrifty squash that I felt like I was missing out by not liking it. I tried it in ratatouille and I was able to handle it for the first few bites but not after that.

One way I know that I’ve always loved zucchini is in a Syrian dish where the skin is peeled off (in my family anyway), the seeds are scooped out, and the leftover shells are filled with spiced meat and rice and cooked in a sour tamarind sauce. I made that and loved it, just as I had as a child. The next time I make it, I’ll share the recipe here. Not being one to waste edible bits if I can help it, I wanted to figure out something to do with the middles I had scooped out.

Cue Kusa Jibben, which is the squash equivalent of Spanach Jibben. Of course, being me and being lazy, I wanted to make this dish without making the stuffed squash dish first. And well… I still don’t love zucchini. So here is my colorful version of Kusa Jibben; in this case, a zucchini and carrot Syrian frittata.

Recipe: My version of Kusa Jibben, Syrian style frittata with zucchini and carrots

Makes 4-6 servings

• 4 cups zucchini, chopped
• 1 cup carrots, shaved or finely chopped
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 3/4 lb mozzarella cheese, grated (I like there to be more veggies than cheese, adjust  upwards if you like)
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp butter, chopped into small cubes

1. Saute the onions, zucchini and carrot for 5-10 minutes, until all vegetables are tender.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs and stir in grated cheese. Add cooked vegetables, salt and pepper. Mix well.
3. Pour mixture into a greased pie plate or baking dish. Place butter cubes evenly across the top.
4. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. It is done when the edges are lightly brown and crisp.

Enjoy on its own, or in a pita.

One year ago: “Unfried” Black Beans

Because it’s been so beautiful out, we’ve changed some of our usual eating and cooking habits for the summer. We’ve been eating out a bit more and have been sharing more meals with friends. To counteract the cost of eating out more often, we’ve slowed down our grocery shopping routine (Incidentally that is not very hard to do considering you don’t need to cook as often if you eat out more).

Despite the fact that we haven’t really shopped in the last month, we’ve still been eating about as well as we usually do (one disclaimer: I’ve had a ton of fresh greens and herbs from our local community garden that I wrote about last time). That’s why you haven’t seen much of me here, I’m cooking some old favorites over and over again. It’s times like these where I’m really proud of my home cooking experience and the ability to keep a well stocked pantry and freezer.

Not writing blog posts (sorry about that, really), has also given me time to read some other great posts. These two say it all better than I ever could, and also came at the perfect time:

• A Guide to Using Dry Beans for Cooking by Trent Hamm over at The Simple Dollar – Trent has been posting some great frugal cooking guides this summer. I loved this post because I too have recently found the joys of keeping dried beans. I just throw each whole bag into a jar when I bring them home from the store, and they can last almost forever. I can throw a handful or two into any soups I’m making (skipping the soaking step isn’t ideal but can be done), or soak some all day for an easy dish that night. So many varieties of beans are healthy, delicious, cheap and easy to keep around. Dried beans are also easier to lug home from the grocery store than cans – which is important when you live in a 4th floor walk-up.
• At GetRichSlowly – Reader Story: How I Save Tons of Money by Grocery Shopping Once Every Three Months. This post’s title is slightly misleading as the author does get vegetables from a CSA biweekly, but the idea behind it rings true: shop less often and you’ll save money. Another point she makes that I believe in is that cooking out of your pantry forces you to be a little more creative with how you put meals together, and helps you develop a sense of what works together.

These two posts reminded me a bit of the sort of topics I want to cover here at Get Cooking: being creative and unafraid in the kitchen, cutting costs without sacrificing health or flavor. Stay tuned for some new recipes straight out of the pantry!

One year ago: Collard Greens with Chick Peas

As promised, following up from last weekend, here are the results of the Mother’s Day soul food feast. I think the pictures practically speak for themselves. The food was a triumph! The only problem now is that since I know how very easy it is to make perfect fried chicken at home, I’ll want it all the time. I made a few adjustments to the recipes that were new to me (I can never resist). Keep reading for notes on how I made the perfectly fried chicken, sweet potato wedges and corn pudding.

My concerns about the crust on the fried chicken not being crispy enough if left to steam in the oil were unfounded. I followed Paula Deen’s grandmother’s recipe, as mentioned last week, except that I fried the chicken in vegetable oil instead of shortening. I set up less than an inch of oil in an enameled cast-iron French oven because I wanted to make sure I had a good lid to cover the chicken after it crisped. The cast iron also helped regulate the heat and keep the oil as hot as it needed to be to get a good fry over the course of many batches.

After the chicken had one flip, I covered the pan and lowered the heat just a little bit. For the dark meat, I left it covered for about 8 minutes, flipped the pieces and re-covered for another 5 minutes or so until I was sure the meat was done. The white meat cooked a bit quicker. Each piece was drained on paper towel and eaten right away. My mother, the chicken expert, said she had never had homemade fried chicken that didn’t come out either burnt, greasy, or too dry. This chicken was none of those things. The meat was moist and fell away from the bone (when there was a bone to fall away from). The crust was perfectly crunchy and golden, and not greasy at all.

While the success should certainly be attributed to the great recipe I followed, I also think it had something to do with the chicken I used. I bought two chickens on Saturday and butchered them myself that night. This was not only cheaper than buying pre-cut pieces of chicken; I got to trim all the parts to my own taste and not waste a thing. My best move, I think, was to take all of the white meat off the bone so that it could have as much surface area for crispiness as possible. All of the parts that didn’t make it into Sunday’s dinner went into my freezer stash for building chicken stock. And since the pieces were bought right before I needed them, I never had to freeze them, which surely increased their tenderness.

I just gave them a little dry rub with some seasoned salt and pepper the night before and they were ready to be battered and fried according to the recipe right before dinner the next day. Since my favorite part of fried chicken is the crispies on the outside crust, the only thing I would change when making this chicken again is to add salt and pepper to the flour dredge.

I didn’t have a recipe for the sweet potato wedges, and I was a bit worried about how to get them to come out crispy instead of mushy. After doing a bit of internet research, I gleaned tips from various blogs and threads and came up with a process that worked great for me. I cut the sweet potatoes into wedges, skins on. I soaked the wedges in cool water for 30-40 minutes. Then I let the wedges drain in a colander, preheated the oven to 400 degrees,  and lined two cookie sheets with parchment paper. I lined up the wedges on the parchment paper with plenty of space between so the potatoes would roast and not steam.

The wedges went in completely naked, without any seasoning or oil. Then, 15 minutes later, I gave them a flip and let them continue to cook until done. It took a couple of batches, but I was determined not to let them be mushy, so the extra time was worth it. The final product was tasty without adding any extra seasonings, but when I make them again I may decide to toss the wedges in a bit of sea salt the moment they come out of the oven, to encourage the flavors within each wedge to surface.

For the corn pudding, I mostly followed Paula’s corn casserole recipe. I didn’t have a box of corn bread mix on hand, so I just added the dry ingredients following a corn bread recipe I had on hand. If you do this, just substitute the box of mix with 1 1/2 cups corn meal, 1/2 cup flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 tbsp sugar, and 1 tsp salt. I also left off the cheddar cheese, since my mom is not a fan. I might want to play with this recipe a bit more to get it a bit more pudding-like, but all in all, it was a delicious sweet and savory side.

The chicken was crispy, and oh so tender, savory and meaty. The sweet potato wedges had a satisfying crunch to them, along with a hint of caramelization. The corn pudding had firm little kernels that popped in my mouth, surrounded by a full-bodied spoon-bread, and was sweet, fresh and mild. The different textures and flavors of these three dishes, along with the moist bitterness of the red swiss chard and chick peas, came together in great harmony. The whole family really enjoyed everything, and all the extra chicken I made was gobbled up, which is a great sign of a meal well done.

All of this frying and experimenting with corn has got me craving something else wonderful, so expect to see me frying up some corn fritters here soon. I have a new recipe for them that I just can’t get enough of!

One year ago: Gyros Revisited: Beef

Related posts:

1. Mother’s Day Soul Food

I usually post after a meal is eaten and gone, but I’m going to try something a little different this week. I’m going to share the recipes for what I’m making before I make it, and then I’ll let you know how it went and if I made any adjustments to the recipes while cooking. And of course, I’ll include pictures, because I know that’s mostly what I read food blogs for anyway.

For Mother’s Day I want to treat my family to a hearty soul food dinner. Being in Harlem and so close to so many soul food meccas, I first thought I would pick up some giant pieces of fried chicken from Sylvia’s Restaurant, but even though ordering in would be so easy, I’d so much rather try to make it myself. I want to cook up what I imagine (being a Jewish girl from New York) would be a perfect after-church picnic. Considering my mother’s all-time favorite food is chicken, I know she’ll just love it.

I’ll be making fried chicken for the first time, which I’m excited about. I don’t have the ability to really deep fry in my kitchen, so I wasn’t really sure how I would do it. Then I saw this Paula Deen clip on Hulu which reminded me that there are other ways to get a delightfully crusty piece of fried chicken. In the video below, Paula makes her grandmother’s recipe, where she pan fries the chicken and then covers the pan and lets the pieces steam in the oil for the rest of their cooking time.

This recipe looks doable. I wonder how the crust will turn out. I also hope that the pieces don’t retain too much oil after they are removed from the pan. Generally, when frying in oil, the high temperature ensures that water and air are coming out of the food so fast that oil isn’t able to get it. Turning the temperature down but leaving the food in the oil makes me think that the chicken is just going to soak all that oil back up. It almost makes sense to steam them in a different pan and then crisp them back up. I’ll take Paula’s word for it for the first time though.

On the side, we’ll have some sweet potato wedges to help soak up the gravy from the chicken, red swiss chard with chick peas (based on my own collard greens recipe, a big salad, and corn pudding (based on, but not entirely adhering to, another Paula Deen recipe for a corn casserole).

For dessert, Jen’s light but intense mixed berry and lemon sorbet topped with whipped cream, and navel oranges.

I don’t have much experience making soul food, but I’m hoping I’ll manage to keep the soul in it, while keeping it healthy and fresh. And I couldn’t think of a better way to show my mom how much we all love her than by working hard to make some of her favorite foods from scratch.

Are you planning to cook for your mother this Mother’s Day?

One year ago: Velvet Lemon Pasta Sauce, Revisited

Deb over at Smitten Kitchen always has breathtaking food on her site. Sometimes the recipes she features seem a bit too involved for me, but she never fails to stun the eyes with her expert photography and give me a chuckle with her fast-paced prose. After giving in and trying her delightful buttery tomato sauce that graced our homemade pasta, I decided to put my faith in her once more a few nights ago.

I was stumped for dinner because the fridge was nearly empty (I was out of town earlier in the week) and nothing caught my eye. In the freezer were some hot Italian sausages that I had been waiting to try. On a hunch that Deb would certainly have something delicious posted about sausage, I decided to run a search her site and see if anything inspired me. At the top of the search results was tomato and sausage risotto which I can’t believe I never thought of before and which was exactly what I wanted.

This recipe was so easy and I happened to have all of the ingredients (sausage, onions, a can of chopped tomatoes, spinach, wine, rice). I didn’t bother to use arborio rice because I’ve found that I like risotto just the same with any short grain rice.  It hit the spot for dinner and was even better the next day for lunch, eaten cold. This will definitely become part of the rotation here, with or without the meat. Thanks Deb!

One year ago: Velvet Lemon Mushroom Sauce