Quick and Spicy Vegetarian Rice and Beans

1 cup rice
2 cups cooked beans
2 cup water or broth
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp blackening seasoning
salt, if desired

Saute the onion in some olive oil until translucent, add the garlic and stir for ~30 seconds. Add the rice and stir to coat in the oil. Add the liquid, seasoning and beans, cover and cook until the liquid is absorbed. That's it.

Note: You can start with dried beans. Take a cup of rinsed/sorted dry beans, put them in a pot and add water until they're covered by a couple inches. Add ~tsp of the blackening spice and let simmer until tender, ~2 hours. You can them use some of the liquid you cooked the beans in for the rice, I did half that and half broth.

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Here's a quickie, guess what makes for a killer rice and beans seasoning? The blackening seasoning from the shrimp last week! I know, shocking. I wanted something easy, so I looked over my pantry. I had pasta, rice and beans. I've been eating a lot of pasta so I went for rice and beans. I started with dry beans, but you can just use a can and it would maim the cooking time. Although you wouldn't be able to use any of the cooking liquid from the beans, which does add a nice flavor and texture. I guess it all depends on the time frame you have. With canned beans you could have this on the table in less than a half hour, I'm guessing. And who doesn't love that? Not that I ever eat at my table these days, unless you count the dinette set table my computer is on. Heh. The one thing about the seasoning is that I found it didn't have quite enough salt for this kind of thing. It was plenty for the shrimp, but rice and beans want a little more. Although it's not really required, you could easily do a low salt thing and it still tastes wicked good.

If you wanted to un-veg it you could add some bacon or sausage. Or put it in a tortilla with some taco or carnita stuff. That would also be wicked good.

Chipotle Jalapeno Beans

2 cups dry pinto beans
2 slices thick cut bacon, chopped
1 cup diced bell pepper
1 cup diced onion
1 clove diced garlic
1 tsp chipotle powder
1-2 jalapenos, sliced
salt and pepper

Rinse the beans, pick out any debris. In a good sized pot start the bacon for a minute or two then add the onion and pepper. Once they are tender add the garlic. Saute for ~30 seconds, then add the beans and enough water to cover them ~ 2". Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover and let cook for about an hour. Add the jalapenos, black pepper and chipotle. Cover again and let cook til tender, checking the water level periodically. Don't let it get too low, but don't add too much, it should be thick. Salt to taste.

adapted from Spicy Beans by Pioneer Woman

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Wow, I'm actually posting something I said I would and only several weeks late. Heh. So, like the recipe up top says, this is adapted from the legendary PW. Her recipe looked lovely (although I'm not sure why she added all the veggies raw in the middle of cooking, but I'm sure she has her reasons), but since I have to be me I changed it up. With bacon.Because I love bacon. I also wanted to cook at least the onions, garlic and peppers (my jalapenos were canned, so I figured whatever for them) because... well, because I wanted to. And since I'm the only one I'm cooking for I can do that, dammit. None of you can stop me! You don't even know my real name! Ha! Ahem. Excuse me.

So I don't have many prep shots, this was made before I got a table and this is what I had to work with. That's the most stable place for the cutting board (and the entirety of my counter space) and it still rocked back and forth. Hm, does the danger make this extreme cooking? Maybe I should be doing it in a moving vehicle of some sort...

Anyway, I did get a few shots, like this one. Note, everything is better when it comes from a Lord of the Rings glass. Studies have shown it although I'm far too busy to look them up right now. And here we are, ready to sit and simmer for hours, making my apartment smell awesome and my neighbors jealous. And this is the jalapenos. Since I'm cooking for just me I added lots and left in the seeds and ribs. It was almost too spicy actually, but it tasted like... freedom of choice. Heh. So, here it is all done. Not too pretty, really. Looks ways better when you spoon it over some corn bread, even if the corn bread is crap from a grocery store. Might as well be yellow cake with cornmeal in it, stupid jerk bread. But! The beans are still awesome and they freeze really well. So I suggest you make some, you can make mine or PW's or create your own. They're beans, do what you want to do. Just make sure there's some pork fat in there, beans aren't the same without it.

Homemade Spicy BBQ Deep Dish Pizza

Sorry I haven't been posting much, since I don't have any prep space right now most of the stuff I've been cooking really isn't very exciting. But I did make deep dish pizza recently with my 8" cake pan. Looks good, huh? It's the simplest one I make I think, it's pretty much my go-to pizza when I'm just cooking for me. It has bbq sauce, hot sauce and onion. Got a good crust on the bottom, too. I used store bought dough, but if I had had someplace to knead I would have made my own recipe. Man, I want one now. 8:30 in the morning isn't too early for spicy pizza, right? Heh.

Sort of Shakshuka

Have you heard of shakshuka? I hadn't until I read this post over at Smitten Kitchen, after which I went and read a bit about it over at Wikipedia. Seriously though, what did we do before that endless font of dubious information? It's priceless, if somewhat unreliable.

Anyway, shakshuka is like the Italian eggs in purgatory, eggs poached in tomato sauce (Michele at My Italian Grandmother has a recipe for that that looks wicked good), but spicy and with a more Mid-East/Northern Africa kind of thing to it.

I didn't have all the stuff that Deb had, like fresh anaheims or jalapenos, but I did have some of those jarred roasted green chilies that I've been enjoying so much lately. So I decided to Mexicanize it. I didn't take a single measurement I'm afraid, but if anyone wants I can try to figure it out. It's really a to taste thing anyway. Yeah, that's what we'll go with this time.

Anyway, I started by sauteing up some chopped onion. I had thought I had fresh garlic, but I didn't and wasn't about to run out to get some. This caused me some angst, but then I got over it and just used garlic powder. It was fine, but fresh would clearly be better. You would add it after the onions were lightly browned and saute it for around thirty seconds. Then I added the green chilies and the spices. That's garlic powder, chili powder, dried cilantro, cayenne, cumin and black pepper. It was wicked spicy. Anyway then I just tossed in one of those little cans of tomato sauce, since this was a single serving, and let it simmer over very low heat for about fifteen minutes or so.

While that was going I realized I needed something to eat this with. And since I've just gotta be me, I crisped up some leftover steak fries in the oven and plated them up. Then I cracked an egg in in sauce and forgot to take a picture. Sorry about that. Anyway, since I was being true to myself already I put some cheese on there to melt after the egg was mostly done. And that's it kids, other than plating. Mexicanized shakshuka. It was wicked good. I was a little leery of eggs and red sauce, but the creamy richness of the eggs balanced out the spicy and fairly acidic sauce really well. And the steak fries were perfect as the bottom layer, they soaked up juices but stayed crispy around the edges. I will definitely be making this again.

Oh and I had some of the cheesy sauce leftover the next day. So I heated it up and dipped some store-bought taquitos in it for lunch. Also wicked good.

Jerk Mahi Mahi

mahi mahi fillets

dry rub:
3 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp allspice
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cayenne
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp black pepper

Mix together all the ingredients for the dry rub. Pat the fillets dry, rub the fish generously with the rub (you will have some leftover, unless you're making many pounds of fish) and let it marinate, refrigerated, for at least a half hour. Grill or sear it until flaky and opaque.

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So I'm sure most, if not all, of you know Dave over at My Year on the Grill. He's a madman on the grill and he just moved to the Virgin Islands. So the ladies at Our Krazy Kitchen, where he also contributes, decided to throw him a surprise, virtual beachwarming party.They invited a bunch of bloggers to post tropical recipes and they're going to do a big roundup over at their site. Fun, huh?

Now, I don't usually cook tropical kinds of stuff, but I happened to have some mahi mahi on hand. So I thought since Dave enjoys a certain amount of spicy I would make him some jerk. This is a nice, simple dry rub that's great for grilling or pan searing. I don't remember where it came from I'm afraid, so if it turns out it's your recipe let me know and I'll give props. Heh.

It could also serve as a base for a paste. Some onion would be good certainly, swap out fresh stuff for the dry herbs, add a little oil maybe, some lemon or lime juice, and it would really brighten it up. But as is it's great too. It's pretty spicy, but not nuts. You can still taste everything (which is key, I don't understand things that are so spicy you can't taste them) but it gives you a pleasant burn.

So there's my addition to the party, can't wait to see what everyone else makes. Good luck in the Islands, Dave! For some reason I'm not too worried about you. Heh.

Spicy Veggie Stuffed Crust White Pizza

Stuffed crust pizza: have you had it? I hadn't until yesterday. Turns out it's wicked good. I decided to do it on a whim while I was figuring out what to make for lunch and it came out quite well. Next time I'm going to put a little more stuff in there, maybe some herbs or bacon, something like that. For some reason I had it in my head that it would be difficult to do, but really it was pretty easy. I even have instructions for once.

Just roll out your dough (here is the recipe I use) and put some cheese or whatever all around the rim. Then fold the dough over and press it firmly. Repeat until the whole edge is crimped around the filling. Now you just treat it like pizza. I made a white one with some olive oil, crushed black pepper, red pepper flakes and fresh basil. And some mozzarella, broccoli, red onion and garlic. And it worked out very well. I had two big fears making this. One was that the cheese would just come out of the crust, making all the work pointless. The other was that the crust would fill up with molten grease, searing my flesh and making me wonder why oh why I had ever made such a thing (I've heard that was a major complaint against a certain chain pizza place who does this). Neither of these things happened. I think that's because I didn't over-stuff it or use something that makes a huge amount of grease like, say, pepperoni. Of course, now I want to do it with pepperoni. And I will. But I have a plan and I think it will work. I'll get back to you guys about that.

So do you do this? If so, what do you stuff it with? If not, what would you stuff it with?

Spicy Corn and Beef Ramen, Plus a Giveaway

First, the ramen. You may have noticed a theme here, when I have a cold I eat spicy ramen. It's just how I get down. This one is pretty similar to the last one I made, although more pantry friendly since it doesn't use homemade stock. Well, it could and it would be awesome, but I didn't have any beef stock, so I just used broth. Real broth too, not the packet of "beef" seasoning that comes with the noodles. I just toss those, unless I'm feeling really lazy. Heh.

I didn't take any measurements so I'm not even going to try to list the ingredients. But I know it had a decent chunk of crystallized ginger and red pepper flakes. Lots of red pepper flakes. There's also some garlic in there, frozen corn, black pepper... I think that might be it other than the steak.

That was actually a chunk of leftovers from one of the rare dinners out me and my girlfriend had recently. It was teriyaki so it seemed appropriate. I just sliced it thin and semi-artfully arranged a few of the slices on top. Then I took pictures, dumped the rest in, mixed it up and ate it. Heh. One little tip, if you're doing something like this with cold, leftover meats, slice them thin and dump them into the ramen after you've taken it off the heat but it's still too hot to eat. This heats up the meat without cooking it much more and cools down the broth a bit, too. Good times.

Now, I had mentioned a giveaway. The good folks over at Deans Dips have offered to send one of my readers a couple of vouchers for free dip and another reader a couple vouchers and a dip tray. Maybe even in time for the Super Bowl, how do you like that? They sent me some, but I haven't had a chance to redeem them yet since my crappy local grocery store doesn't seem to carry it. They sound good though and I'll be writing a review when I manage to get some. So, want to try it? Hmm? Maybe get a dip tray? Well, just tell me what your favorite dip is and you're entered. Never had dip or just don't care for it but you just want a dip tray? Leave a comment and you're entered anyway, I'm easy going. I'm only going to run it until Sunday to increase the chances of everything arriving by the Super Bowl.