Red Bean Burgers and Truffle Fries

Hey y’all!

I know it’s been pretty much radio silence over here for the past couple of years. If you’ve stuck with this blog since back in the day, you totally have my gratitude and thanks. (“Gratitude” and “thanks” are pretty much the same thing too, so consider me 2x appreciative!) I’m currently enrolled in an MFA program in creative writing, and I’d like to come back to this blog to write some more… chilled out kind of stuff, you know? Even a literary genius needs a break from her mind now and again. (Hehe.) Anyway, enough about me — what have I been eating?

This week marks my first week of summer break, and thus I’ve been super lazy about cooking. I just needed some time off, you know? Now that I’m all rested up, I’m ready to get back in the saddle. So this week, I made a huge batch of red bean burgers!

They’re basically Mark Bittman’s basic bean burger recipe (scroll down) with just the tiiiiniest bit of New Orleanian inspiration applied to it. Thus, instead of chili powder, Tony Chachere’s spice mix; instead of spinach, collard greens!

When I first moved down to NOLA, I thought it was kind of weird that everyone I knew had one of those green shakers on their kitchen tables. I think it was mostly because of the mascot — he’s kind of creepy. But look at him: he’s clearly extending his hand to you in a gesture of friendship and unity. He wants to share the glory of his spice mix with everyone and everything. And it’s a really great spice mix; it blows Lawry’s out of the fucking water. I don’t know why so many New Orleanians use heroin when they could have Tony’s Creole crack for way cheaper.

The burgers turned out pretty good. My double batch turned out 14 burgers (I like ‘em big) so I baked them all in one fell swoop and froze half of them. Ever since I saw the light of the 112 burger, I’ve gotten really into serving burgers on English muffins. So this particular red bean burger likes to hang out on a whole wheat English muffin with fresh avocado slices, mixed greens, a smidge of mayo, and some black pepper. On the side is a serving of seafood shack fries repurposed as truffle fries. So I guess this yuppie-style burger turned out a lot more local than I anticipated.

Oven Fries & the February Blues

Rosemary, fresh-ground black pepper, and kosher salt are all I needed just now. Dang. For those of you in more idyllic climes, we poor chumps in Minnesota have been experiencing some crazy low temperatures this week, and, frankly, it’s been getting me down.

Last night I was feeling real whiny, but this morning I decided to do something about it! I cleaned my room (even took some pictures for posterity), walked to Eastside co-op to buy some pantry essentials, and spent way too much time browsing apartment therapy for decorating ideas for my next place. Oh yeah, and made fries.

I don’t know why people and publications are always claiming that oven fries are a difficult thing to do. Or maybe my standards are way too low? All I did was slice up some potatoes, coat them in olive oil and seasonings, and popped them into the oven for a while. Flipped them over after 20 minutes and then forgot about them. When I finally remembered, they were done!

One month until spring… right? I can’t wait for picnics, bike gangs, farmer’s markets, late night carousing, swimsuits, asparagus…

Farm-Fresh Vegetable Tamales

He carries tamales,
And a few maize ears…
And out in the pond,
There is no salamander,
Nor frog nor fish
He would not devour

– Mateo Rosas de Oquendo

This poem, by a 17th Century Spaniard in Mexico, denigrates tamales as the food of the lower class mestizos. I quoted it in a paper that I wrote about the colonial Mexican culinary scene to stir up my professor, who was half-Mexican. The paper was basically like, “Mexican food rocks! Spaniards were assholes!” It seems like all of my papers end up like that.

The fact that tamales are still around despite Spanish efforts to eliminate them from the Mexican diet speaks to how appealing they are. Making them definitely has to be a community event — otherwise, that mountain of corn husks ain’t getting filled any time soon. I found a recipe for the dough at Veggie Num Nums, and improvised the filling. We didn’t really have meat or cheese, so this time the filling is vegan.

Another thing we did differently was the corn husks. Traditionally, you use dried out corn husks, but we had plenty of fresh ones to use. I asked Rick Bayless on Twitter (yes, yes) if that was kosher and he said it’d be fine. They made smaller tamales but the green husks made a pleasant contrast to the yellow tamale dough.

Sitka, one of the kids at the farm where I worked, helped us out. The poor kid might have had swine flu, but he promised that he washed his hands before assembling the tamales. Hahahaha! I’m not sick yet, so I think I should be fine. (Famous last words…)

Tamale Dough (Lifted from Veggie Num Nums)

• 2 cups masa harina
• 1-2 C stock
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 C olive oil, frozen (I didn’t freeze mine and it was fine.)
• salt
• chili powder

I kind of threw everything into a food processor until it got doughy, and that seemed to work fine. Remove to a bowl. That’s all!

Vegetable Filling

• assorted sweet peppers
• onions
• chili powder
• olive oil
• corn

Saute until the peppers and onions become tender. Throw everything into the food processor and chop up. Cut the kernels off of the sweet corn and put aside.

To assemble, spread a tablespoon or more of the dough onto a corn husk. You can use several different methods, which are outlined here. I used the first one because I thought it was the cutest and most simple. Once you fill the husks with dough and filling, steam them for about 20-40 minutes, depending on their size. The dough should firm up quite nicely.

France 44 – The Cheesemonger Sandwich

It’s a blustery day in Minneapolis, but I’m glad to be here and not at the farm, where all of my former coworkers are frantically harvesting every single fruit (i.e. peppers, tomatoes) in the field in preparation for tonight’s frost. To ease my transition into civilian life, I’ve been biking a lot to try to familiarize myself with the city. It’s definitely a pain in the ass with 27 mph winds farting in your face the whole time, LET ME TELL YA.

I worked up an appetite so I cranked it over to France 44, a huge cheese and wine shop in Edina. Owned by a fellow NYC transplant, it stocks lots of artisanal products from Brooklyn and also got really good reviews from Citypages and Chowhound. Like any good cheese shop, it has a really appealing repertoire of sandwiches that feature both novel and classic cheese + stuff combinations.

The girl working at the counter was really knowledgable and friendly — she’s even going to apprentice at a cheesemaking farm in Vermont! I stupidly forgot to introduce myself, but maybe next time. Is it weird to want cheese-loving friends? I just want to meet someone with whom I can munch on cheese plates! Is that so much to ask?!

The sandwich pictured above (set against a tumultuous Lake Harriet) is their house special, “The Cheesemonger.” It features sopressata salami, provolone cheese and a pepper & onion relish in a six-inch piece of baguette. And with the student discount (hehe) it was only 5 bucks with change! The verdict? Fuck yes. They’ve got it down.

Old Egyptian Boss Lunch!

On the menu for last Thursday: babaghanouj, twofer cucumber quinoa salad, fresh pitas and Old Egyptians! I totally made the last one up, by the way, and their name comes from my old boss at the Phoenix. And like him, they were tough and nutty, with a little bit of honey. (Oh, I slay myself.) We also served “baba” at the restaurant as an appetizer, and I regret never getting the recipe from him. But he would have probably said, “If I told you, I would have to kill you.” So I used the Zionist recipe from the Second Ave. Deli!

Planning a menu and executing it from start to finish every week has been really good practice, though I wish I could do it more. On game day, I have to deal with a lot of mishaps, so improvising is realy important. This time, I had a whole other course set up — black-eyed pea fritters — but they just failed to fritter up so I fed the batter to the cows. At least they enjoyed it.

Dear Reader, enclosed are the recipes for Old Egyptians (improvised) and babaghanouj (from The Second Ave. Deli Cookbook).

Old Egyptians

• ground beef
• minced garlic
• chopped parsley
• ground almonds
• salt and pepper
• honey
• eggs
• white bread (optional; I didn’t use it because Chris has a gluten allergy all of a sudden)

Combine everything in proportions that make sense to your taste. Ball it up and throw them into a 400-degree oven until they become brown on the outside and cooked on the inside. Ta-da!

Baba Ganoush

• 4 eggplants
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 C tahini sauce (basically: tahini, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, salt, water, paprika. You can just add these into the baba without making an extra thing.)
• 1/4 C fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/3 C chopped parsley
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• parsley for garnish

1. Wash eggplants and prick them with a fork in about 20 places.

2. Broil eggplants for 50 minutes, turning about every 12 minutes.

3. Slit eggplants on one side and place them slit-side down onto a colander to drain. When they cool, scoop out the flesh into a bowl and combine with the tahini sauce and other ingredients. Puree in a blender or mash with a potato masher, and cool for several hours before serving.

Menu Snipe!

A quick update because things are so hectic — the past three menus I’ve come up with for lunch! Planning meals is really a lot of fun, especially because I have a whole farm’s worth of produce at my fingertips. I like having somewhat cohesive themes? Well, they’re all constructs so I’ll give them funny pictures. Maybe you’ll understand? If so, you’re cool in my book! These meals are generally mid-summer seasonal; I try to use as much fresh produce as possible, so there are lots of carroty dishes, peppers and tomatoes.

1.

• a toasted baguette
• boeuf bourguignon
• boiled potatoes and parsley
• beet and fennel salad
• honey and lemon cake

2.

• stuffed bell peppers
• flour tortillas
• roasted tomato salsa
• black beans and carrots

3.

• huitlacoche and jalapeño soup
• maple-glazed carrots
• beet rösti with a rosemary-pine nut-goat cheese spread
• wild rice pilaf
• roasted chicken with cherry tomatoes and sage

Finals Spaghetti

Miller Lite * (Bacon + leftover cabbage salad + angel hair + seasoning salt) = actually kinda good???

This is what I’m eating right now, while I’m furiously writing my final Sociology paper (on Pokemon and racial formation theory!). I am the worst blogger.