Homemade Chipotle

I fucking love Chipotle. (I don't know how Lillet feels about it; they don't have Chipotle in Hawaii. They do have a place called Killer Tacos which is totally awesome though!) I decided that it would be a good idea to try to reproduce it at home, since all the ingredients are super cheap. And it's delicious!

Components:

1. Lime cilantro rice
2. Black beans
3. Cheese, delicious cheese
4. Guacamole
5. Sour cream
6. Salsa

None of these things are difficult to make; I have basically my own recipe for everything. Including the sour cream. (Hell yes, I made my own sour cream, and I highly recommend that you try it as well.)

The Details:
1. The lime-cilantro rice recipe is floating around on the internets, but all you need to know is this: Cook up some basmati rice as you usually would. Add in a small amount of fat (olive oil or butter) and salt as it cooks. When the rice is done, stir in some chopped cilantro and the juice of one lime.

2. You could use black beans from a can, but in the interest of being super-cheap, I made my own. In Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison claims that you don't have to soak black beans, but I did it out of habit. After a good soak (roughly overnight), cover the beans with fresh water and bring to a boil. Cook until they're soft, which seems to take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. Don't salt the beans until about the 45 minute time point, because they'll be tough. But be sure to use a fair amount of salt, otherwise they'll be totally bland. I guess you could jazz them up with some other spices and stuff, but I kept them plain. I also made a big batch and froze some of the drained beans; it worked just fine.

3. I used some shredded jack cheese in this, but my current favorite cheese is a colby cheese with chipotles in it. That would be insanely delicious in here, I think.

4. Guacamole. It's not hard. Avocado, lime juice, a bit of cilantro, garlic, and some finely chopped red onion. This is integral to the Chipotle experience for me.

5. Sour cream. This is how you do it. Get a glass jar with a lid, 1 cup of heavy cream, and 1/8 cup of buttermilk. Place the cream and the buttermilk in the jar, put the lid on, and let it sit out for a day. It will be runny. Place it in the fridge for 4 hours or so and it will thicken up beautifully. Add a bit of salt if you like. It keeps for about a week, and you can scale up the amounts if you want to make a larger batch. This is insanely good.

6. Salsa. Buy it, make it, whatever. In the summer, I throw tomatoes, red onion, garlic, a splash of oil, lime juice, salt, and chilis in a food processor for instant salsa. It can be watery, so if I were less lazy I might chop the tomatoes first and drain them before adding them to the other ingredients.

tortellini soup

I made this up a few nights ago, and it was super good. It took like 20 minutes, too.

6-8 cups of broth
a piece of rind from parmesan cheese
1 package of cheese tortellini
a bunch of swiss chard, chopped
1 onion, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
10 cloves of garlic (or to taste), minced
1/4 cup olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a large pot and add the onion and celery. Cook until soft. Add in the garlic and cook for a few seconds. Add the chopped chard and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes. Pour in the broth and the cheese rind. Bring to a boil, then add the tortellini. Keep the broth at a boil according to the package directions. Salt and pepper to taste. That's it!

Liam's Banana Bread, Attempt #1.

Just in case you're curious--this isn't it. It's good--light and airy and banana-y and has great flavor. But it's not the dense, thick goodness I was hoping to replicate. This bread is going to get the shit eaten out of it tonight, as I'm hanging out to play video games tonight. And I will try again to replicate that delicious banana bread.

This is adapted from a date bread in Dorie Greenspan's "Baking from My Home to Yours." I was excited about it because of the cream cheese.

2 cups of flour (I used a mixture of white and whole-wheat pastry. About 1/2 and 1/2.)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Whisk all the dry ingredients together and set aside. Grease a loaf pan and heat the oven to 325.

2 sticks of butter, softened
3 oz of cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup of sugar
4 eggs
1 cup of mashed banana, mixed with the juice of one lemon
1/2 cup or so of chocolate chips


Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add in the sugar and continue to cream until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well for about a minute after the addition of each egg. Stir in the banana and chocolate. Then stir in the dry ingredients until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. (I think mine is a 9x5 pan, and the batter came almost all the way to the top. I was afraid it'd bubble over when it was baking, but it didn't.) Bake for 40 minutes, then cover loosely with foil and bake for another 40 minutes or so. Make sure that a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Comments aren't working for me somehow....Anyway, just wanted to say that this seems to be one of those things that tastes better after a few days. I like it more now than I did when I first tried it.

Homemade refried beans

I am picky about my refried beans. I like them plain, with no seasonings, but lots of the stuff available at my grocery store have shit like chili powder in them. Plus, they're like $1 for a small can, so I figured I could make them for way cheaper. I really like the beans at mexican restaurants, but I'm sure they're cooked in lard. To try to gain back some of the richness of the lard, I used olive oil and some tamari. Here's my attempt:

1 lb dried pinto beans
1 large onion, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt
Olive oil
tamari

Soak the beans overnight. The next day, drain them, cover them with fresh water, and bring to a boil. Cook for about an hour, or until tender. (I like to add a strip of kombu seaweed to my dried beans. It's supposed to help with the cooking.) Do not drain the beans when they are done.

Heat about 5 TB of olive oil in a skillet and add the onion. Cook until the onion is browned. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so. Add in a couple of tablespoons of tamari, then start ladling the beans into the skillet. I like to use a slotted spoon to dig them out. Add ladlefuls of the bean cooking liquid and mash them all up with a potato masher. Keep mashing, adding beans, and adding liquid until the beans are thick and creamy. If you add too much liquid, cook it down. Salt to taste and that's it.

Mine didn't wind up quite as smooth as I wanted them to be. The skins are a little tough. I might try to run them through the food processor next time.

Tahini

There is no Tahini to be found on this Island! So I had to start making it myself! Its really easy and inexpensive and is way better than the pre made stuff you find in the Groc. store!

Ingredients: 

5 cups pre roasted sesame seeds (if you can't find pre roasted just bake in the oven @ 350 for about seven  minutes.

1 1/2 cups Olive or Veg. Oil ( you may need slightly more)

Place seeds and oil in blender or food processor and blend until a smooth slightly runny mixture. You may have to stir and re blend several times to insure all the seeds mix.   

Place in a container and place in fridge. Can keep for several months! 

Falafel Recipe

Im sure all recipes are about the same for Falafel. But this is a basic one that I came up with recently.

Ingredients:

• 1 16 oz. can Chickpeas drained
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tbl dried parsley or 3 tbl fresh chopped parsley
• 1 1/2  tsp Coriander
• 1 tsp Cumin 
• 2 tbl flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pepper to taste
• Veg Oil for frying
  

   Place all ingredients except for flour and parsley in blender or food processor and blend until a thick, smooth paste "if using blender be carful not to stick your spoon in to far while blade is going" :0

   Place thick paste in a bowl and place in fridge about 15 minutes. Heat your oil for frying.

Remove paste from fridge and stir in your parsley and flour.

   Shape paste into balls about 3 tbl each. I flatten the balls down into little discs for more even cooking.   Place the discs into oil and fry on each side until golden brown. Be careful not to agitate them in the pan to much or they will start to fall apart.

   Serve on a bed of lettuce with humus or in a pita with humus, lettuce, tomato and onion for a great falafel sandwich! mmmmmm  They are tasty!

 Makes about four servings. 

Our first recipe

These bars were our first collaborative recipe. Frustrated at the lack of pineapple bars at a luau, we decided to create our own based on Kimberlee's memory of a luau with a more well-rounded dessert tray.

The li-hing powder is made of dried plums. We enjoyed it immensely in some margaritas, but it is also eaten with pineapple. It turned the pineapple topping a lovely shade of red!

Li-Hing Pineapple Bars

Heat oven to 350.

Crust:
1 cup of softened butter
½ cup of sugar
2 cups of flour

Stir the flour and sugar together in a large bowl. Cut the butter in as you would for a pie crust; press into bottom of 9x13 inch pan. Bake for 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and turn the heat up to 400.

Filling:
3 cups of crushed or pureed pineapple
1 cup of brown sugar
2 TB of cornstarch
1 TB of lemon juice
1 tsp of li hing powder

Cook the pineapple, sugar, and cornstarch until thick and bubbly. Stir in the lemon juice and li hing powder. Pour over prebaked crust. Place the bars back in the oven for 20 minutes. They are done when the filling looks firm. Cool and cut into bars.