There and back again

Super simple lunch time. Black beans--2 cups dried soaked in very hot tap water for 30 minutes. Drain and cover with cold water (probably at least 4-5 cups) and bring to a boil with 2 tablespoons epazote (can be hard to find but here, Penzey's can explain it) and 2 cloves of garlic, crushed. Let simmer for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Drain, but reserve a cup or so of the cooking liquid. Saute 1/2 onion (and I had a little bit of carrot in there too but only because it needed using up) in oil or butter then put the beans back in with their cooking liquid. Stir often and let cook for 10 minutes, then stir in 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar plus a drizzle of soy sauce and a splash of hot sauce, if you like hot sauce. Add salt to taste and stir it all really well together to combine.

Meanwhile cook 2 cups quinoa in 3+ cups water. I've noticed that quinoa lies somewhere between couscous (1:1) and rice (1:2) in the ratio of solid to liquid as far as cooking goes. Bring it to a boil with a little salt and a pat of butter, then turn to simmer until the quinoa has absorbed all the liquid. 

For lunch--a scoop of the quinoa and a scoop of the black beans, topped with chunks of queso fresco or whatever tangy cheese you have in the fridge. Add cilantro, hot sauce, leftover pulled pork, a hard-boiled egg...it can go on like this all week long...

Squash stuffed with field peas and snaps

Super simple and super yummy combination! I used (of course) kabocha squash, but you can scoop out and stuff any kind of winter squash that you like. Field peas and snaps are found in your freezer section or in cans (if you live in the south they are, anyway). I like the frozen kind. Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil and add 2 cups frozen field peas and snaps. They take about 15 minutes to cook through. Meanwhile, halve the squash and scoop out the guts. Roast the squash halves at 400, turned over in a baking dish with 1/2 cup of water until soft, which takes about 45 minutes. (Or microwave them. I know some of you have microwaves.) Those field peas and snaps should be done in 15 - 20 minutes. Drain and set aside. Sauté one small, chopped onion over medium heat along with some bacon. Oh, this bacon was so good. So. Good. It's made at the DeKalb Farmer's Market and they always run out, so stock up if you see it there. I used what was about the equivalent of 1/4 package of bacon, cut up into 1" pieces, so you don't need very much. Let it cook along with the onions until the bacon is getting crispy and the onions are soft and golden. When the bacon and onions are ready, add in the drained field peas and snaps and turn down the heat to medium-low. Add at least 3 dashes of Tabasco...more if you like! Continue to sauté all together for 1 minute or so then remove from heat. By now you have some squash halves that are cooked through and ready to be stuffed. Add in a couple scoops of the field peas mixture... And make sure to top with a scoop of the bacon pieces. Return the stuffed squash to the oven for another 5 minutes--the bacon will get a bit more crispy and the flavors will have a chance to meld together. So yummy. Enjoy every last bite.

French blue lentil soup

It's cold and wintery and the entire city is snowed in! Let's make soup!I love blue potatoes. I love their nutty flavor and ancient pedigree--they're from the Andean highlands of Peru and look like potatoes must have looked like seven thousand years ago. You just need one big one--peel it and cut open to see a beautiful tie-dye inside.Chop into little chunks roughly the same size and set aside.You need one small onion, diced.And about 1/2 cup of diced celery.And bacon! Truthfully, this soup could use more but this was all I had in the house--about 1/4 pound. Chop it up into little pieces and fry until crispy in a big pot.Remove the delicious nibbles and set aside, hiding them from yourself, if necessary.
Add the onion and celery to the bacony pot over medium heat and saute until softened, about 5-7 minutes.
Add 1 teaspoon cumin and 1/2 teaspoon chile powder to bloom in the fat.
Then 1 tablespoon tomato paste, sauteed briefly.
Rinse about 1 1/2 cups of french green lentils (aka lentilles du Puy). You can use regular lentils if you want but I like these because they hold their shape even after they're cooked. They're especially delicious with our blue potato.
Add to the pot and saute for a minute or two...
Then add in your blue potato along with 2 whole cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed.
Add 6 cups of chicken stock and a bay leaf or two, and bring to a low boil, then turn down to simmer for about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, stir 1/2 cup of greek yogurt until very smooth.
Take a peek at your soup--you might want to skim off some of the bacon fat.
When it is all done it will smell divine. Taste it and add salt as needed and drizzle in 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar. I actually also tossed in a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce for more dimension but that might not be to everyone's taste. I think it would also be good with a tablespoon of miso stirred in there.
Top with spoonfuls of the greek yogurt and a handful of crisp bacon.

Sweet and sour eggplant with sausage

This is one of those things that I make so often that it's kind of automatic--I had to really stop and think about what quantities actually go into it. It's really not eggplant season anymore so you might end up filing this one away for next summer when there's tons of eggplant that needs using up. And since eggplant season overlaps so nicely with pepper season, feel free to add a chopped red bell pepper and a few hot peppers to the sauté as well. Start with a nice medium sized eggplant and a medium onion. Chop them! Let them know who's boss. And sausage! This is, as it usually is in my house, Georgia Boy smoked hot sausage. You can leave it out if you're vegetarian and you'll have a perfectly delicious vegetable sauté on your hands. But I love Georgia Boy sausage. Love. It. I use two links--it's about 1 cup, sliced. This is also my preferred sausage for low country boil and the like. I think the phrase "preferred sausage" is funny.Start the sausage in a big pan...you probably won't be needing any olive oil or anything because it is surely fatty enough as it is.
Add your onion and sauté over medium heat with the sausage for 3 minutes or so, until it is beginning to soften. If you're not using sausage, you will need a tablespoon or so of olive oil heating up in the pan to keep everything slick. And in go your eggplant chunks! The savvy among you will note that I do not salt and drain my eggplant ahead of time. This is because I am lazy and I have omitted that step from my life and never looked back. Don't tell my mom.
Let the eggplant and onion cook up for about 4 minutes over medium heat, stirring often. You want the onion to be golden-colored and tender but not crisping out. The eggplant should shrink in size and be getting pretty soft. Now add in 1 1/2 cups tomato something. I used tomato puree this time because that's what I had on hand. Tomato sauce would be just fine too. I most often use whole, peeled tomatoes and sort of break them up with a spoon in the pan as I stir. But this time it was tomato puree. The amount isn't too important--you can add as much as 2 cups or so and just let it cook down if you want.
Turn down the heat to medium-low and stir occasionally. Let it bubble away happily for about 8 - 10 minutes, then add in 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon capers and a splash of worcestershire sauce. You can add about 1/4 cup or more of red wine as well, if you have it handy. It probably won't need any salt but you should taste to be sure. At this point it smells so good that if you don't guard vigilantly, somebody probably will sneak in there and grab a bite. I also usually add 1 can of drained, well-rinsed red kidney beans at this point. Let them cook in the sauce for about 5 minutes, then turn off the heat. I add in several healthy shakes of tabasco at the very end, but that's just because we like it hot. It adds more tang too, so you might need to adjust the balance of sweet with a bit more sugar.
This is great over orzo, cous cous or any small pasta. Fast and easy! Make it tonight.
By the way--I accidentally deleted all my comments while I was housekeeping and trying to get rid of spam. I feel like a chump because there were some really nice ones in there! Not intentional--just clumsiness :(

Red lentil and sweet potato stew

This is bright orange! And if you make it along with my recipe for hot pink beet sauce it will look like you're having one of Aishwarya Rai's backing dancers for dinner...and if that's not fun I don't know what is.Dice up one small onion (or half of a large one). Peel one small sweet potato and cut into small bite-sized pieces.While you are cutting things up, dice 2 pieces of thick-cut canadian bacon. Now. This is: a.) optional entirely because this is delicious without any meat in it at all; b.) even better if you use 1/4 pound of chopped real bacon instead of canadian; c.) also would be awesome with sausage. Or d.) all of the above! Wait. Scratch d.), I think it's impossible. The moral of the story is I used canadian bacon because I had a bit left over that needed using up, but this will be improved if you replace it with an equal amount of a different pork product, so keep that in mind.Also mince up 1 clove of garlic and measure out 1 cup red lentils.Heat up 1 tablespoon of the fat of your choice (I used bacon fat but butter/olive oil are perfectly fine) and saute the onions over medium heat until they are softened but not at all browned (about 4-5 minutes.)Add in your chunks of canadian bacon. Note: if you are using real bacon or sausage, don't use any extra fat in the first step, but just saute the meat together with the onions--it will render plenty of fat to work with so we don't need to add more. Canadian bacon is just kind of dry and lame so it needs an extra boost.Continue to saute for another few minutes, then add in your sweet potato chunks and minced garlic. Let them cook for 3 minutes, then clear a space in the center, add a drizzle of olive oil (again, only needed if you aren't using bacon or sausage!) and add 1 teapsoon each cumin and chile powder to bloom in the hot oil. This step really brings out the flavor in the spices, rather than just dumping them in. You can also add in a pinch of red pepper flakes at this point.Now in go your lentils! Getting pretty orange in there...Tomato paste! I like the kind that comes in tubes because it stores well in the fridge for when you only need a little bit at a time. Like now. We only need 1 tablespoon for this recipe.Make a space again in the center of the pot and saute the tablespoon of tomato paste quickly, just to get rid of the tinny taste that it has (or is that just me?).It is a lovely reddish orange color, isn't it?Now add 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock (or water or veggie stock are fine as well) and 1/2 cup white wine.This should be all the liquid the lentils need to get soft. Turn heat to low and cover the pot partway to cook for about 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. I then ended up shutting off the heat and covering the pot entirely for the lentils to steam and absorb the hot liquid. They'll finish cooking if you just leave it for another 10 minutes with the lid on and heat off.The lentils should be soft and everything kind of in a stew of deliciousness. Taste to see if it needs any salt, then add a few splashes of Tabasco to perk it up. Serve with wedges of lemon to squeeze over the top.This is great by itself but the hot pink bollywood beet sauce really takes it to another level. It makes a nice, tangy complement to the sweet and spicy stew. And it looks fabulous!