Charro Beans

Whenever we go out for Tex-Mex, Richard will studiously go through his bowl of charro beans and beam at every discovery of bacon or sausage. I will sometimes join in on the adventure, and (naturally) it becomes a competition of who can find the biggest piece. When I make charro beans at home, I purposely cut the sausage and bacon in large chunks. It makes the beans more substantial and the leftovers will make a great snack. Just heat up a tortilla to have with a bowl of beans and I'm good to go.  

Ingredients:

-          Pinto beans (approx. 1 lb.)

-          Thick cut bacon cut into ¾-1 inch chunks (4-8 strips)

-          Sausage (about ½ a link, cut in small chunks)

-          Large onion (diced)

-          Jalapeno (chopped) optional

-          2 Chipotles in adobo (finely chopped) optional

-          Minced garlic (3-4 cloves)

-          2 cups fresh chopped tomatoes or 1 can of diced tomatoes 

-          Cumin (about 1 tbsp.)

-          Chopped cilantro

-          Salt, pepper

Instructions

1. Rinse/sort beans; then soak beans overnight in water

2. On medium/high heat in a Dutch oven, add bacon and sausage and cook until slightly crispy

3. Add onion, jalapeno, chipotles, garlic and cook until soft

4. Add tomatoes

5. Drain beans, add to the pot and cover with 2 inches of water

6. Season with cumin, salt, pepper to taste

7. Bring pot to a boil, then reduce to about medium/high heat and cover with a lid

8. Cook beans until soft for about 1.5 hours (less time if they are soaked longer). Water should be reduced to a thick broth. If beans are not ready and water has reduced too much, just add more water and continue cooking.

9. Add chopped cilantro prior to serving 

Occupado

Deep in the heart of Texas

Tidbits of my weekend. Reasons why I love Texas.

All work no play

In case you ever wondered where I spend my weekdays, here it is (trust me, it's not always this neat):

This is a recent addition on the ledge between my cubemate and I. Lisa needed a friend, so Spiderman came along. Needless to say, Spidey owns Lisa (there is a button behind Spiderman that ejects the web 3 feet). Lisa's chest only lights up, which is fail-io during battle, but she is useful when I need to send SOS signals to my cubemate. S-O-S.

Somethymz I thinkz I yam Michael Jordan

Oh no you diiin’t! Oh yes I did!

Could yoos plz leave me alone? I needz complete silence.

In my spare time

Bacon Kimchi Fried Rice

Rich sent me this recipe which was adapted from the Momofuku cookbook. My first reaction was "OMG WHUUUUUT, must try immediately (ooo pretty pictures)."

So today after work, I went to the Chinese grocery store to get the kimchi and bacon. I really should have drove my lazy ass two minutes further down the street to the Korean grocery store, but 1. I like the Chinese store's fruit and vege selection, 2. Chinese grocery store is cheaper than the Korean one, 3. the Korean shopping center is a pain in the arse to get in and out of which triggers my brain signals to say (in robo-tone naturally) *danger*danger*avoid bad Asian drivers*danger*danger*.

I go to the where the kimchi is in the store and they only have one brand of kimchi. The jar doesn't have all that red speckled spicy goodness and looks sorta limp and non-spicy, but I don't have a choice. It is served in 2 sizes, the giant 2 liter size (which I'm sure every Korean person has in their fridge), and the regular 6 inch tall jar. Two of the little ones for me, thank you very much. Check. Next up, bacon. Apparently Asian stores don't sell American smoked prepared bacon. I had to get sliced "Pork Bellies", a.k.a. no smokiness or cured salty deliciousness. Fail. Ok so I figure pork belly is pork belly, it will have to do.

I cook my fried rice slightly different than the recipe. I like to include green onion in the rice and to garnish. Also, I always add a few sprinkles of white pepper. It makes it taste better. Otherwise, everything is pretty much the same. Sometimes (actually most of the time) I don't cook the ingredients separately because I'm too lazy. All in all, the fried rice tasted good, but if I had real American bacon and better kimchi, it would have been gorgasmic (my made up word for gourmet-orgasmic). Richard summed it up very nicely, "Yeah, it's totally the kimchi. It's not very... kimchi." So mister bacon kimchi fried rice, the next time we meet, I shall conquer you!

Menu planning Monday

Geez. Is it Monday already? Last week's menu plan was a total FAIL. I was so busy and exhausted with work (death to Q3) that I had no energy to cook any meals. We ended up eating out Wednesday-Friday. This week I will be better.

Monday:  spaghetti (whole grain pasta) and homemade italian meatballs (turkey and beef, made these yesterday)
Tuesday:  bacon kimchi fried rice
Wednesday:  meeting with a friend for dinner
Thursday:  grilled lemon chicken and veges
Friday:  probably go out to eat

Hatch Green Chile Stew

I first heard of Hatch chiles from my husband's cousin and my husband's coworker a few years back. Hatch chiles come from Hatch, New Mexico (duh). There's a huge cult following around these Hatch chiles, so much so that every year around August, Central Market has Hatch Chile Festival for half a month where they sell fresh and already roasted Hatch chiles. They incorporate these Hatch chiles into every possible item in the premade foods section- rotisserie chicken, mac and cheese, quesadillas, rolls, pies, the list goes on and on. It's pretty much the same as a normal green chile, but for some reason Hatch chiles have a crazy addictive quality. They come in mild and hot; though I thought mild had no flavor, hot was just perfect. This year we bought about 20 lb. of already roasted chiles and froze them so that we would have them during the winter months for stews and soups. I've heard that the chiles get hotter as you freeze them. Yeeah, they were right. I know next time to use less.

For this stew, I used this recipe and made modifications to it. I never really follow recipes to a tee. I'm such a rebel. I use them more as a guideline of what ingredients and which order, so it's really hard for me to write my recipes down. I cook by feel and taste, which doesn't really have exact measurements. Each time I cook the same dish, volume of ingredients may vary. Inconvenient for writing recipes, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. So here's my take on this.

Hatch Green Chile Stew

Ingredients

1 tbsp. oil
1.25 lb. of pork rib meat, cubed (it's what I had in the freezer)
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 large onion (chopped)
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
5 large Hatch chiles, deskined, deseeded and chopped (we stocked up on the Hot ones and kept them in the freezer for stews. They actually get hotter as you freeze them, so they were very spicy already, didn't need the serrano chile peppers. Note, use less if frozen.)
4 red potatoes, cubed
4 plum tomatoes, chopped in quarters (I used canned because that's what I had)
1 box of vegetable broth (32 oz.), and 1 cup of water (I added this only because the broth was way too spicy, I would skip this normally)
salt

Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the cubed pork, garlic, onion, cumin and oregano. Cook and stir until pork is browned.

Add vegetable broth, potatoes, hatch chiles, and tomatoes to the stew. Cover with a lid and simmer on medium heat for at least 1.5 hours (longer the better).

Wa-lah! Bon appetit!