Leave a comment February 23, 2012 Lauren

Well, I hope y’all laissez-ed les bon temps roulez this week!! With the second largest Mardi Gras parade in the country going on right here in St. Louis, we couldn’t let the weekend pass by without cooking something festive. I guess the cooler option would have been to actually go to the Mardi Gras parade, but we have grown too old and boring for that. Saturday mornings are for workouts, not binge drinking with strangers in the cold! Funny how quickly the partying tables turn from FUN to EXHAUSTING as you get older… oh, and if you’re reading this and can still stay up past 11 p.m., and Mardi Gras sounds fun to you, I am equally jealous of and annoyed by your fun-loving attitude.

a preview, so that mouths may water

We probably would have been too lame to cook up a Mardi Gras meal ourselves, but we lucked out when our endlessly hospitable friends the Donnellys- Brice and Jenny, hosts-with-the-mosts- invited us over for a Cajun/Creole-themed Mardi Gras dinner. Brice is chef extraordinaire and cocktail expert and Jenny reigns as baker supreme, so we knew the dinner would be delicious, well planned, and FUN. The Donnellys create the cherished and dying atmosphere of warm conversation in their home. When we come over for dinner, there is no TV blaring to greet us, but laughter in the kitchen and an old record spinning next an antique glass bookcase in the living room. My kind of welcome.

Brice writes an incredibly informative (and hilariously titled) blog: Amuse Douche, a cocktail, cooking, eating, and etc. page. He’s incredibly informed on all subjects- here’s a photo depicting some of the reasons he and his wife are folks to trust on wine and cocktails (forgive my iphone camera for being an iphone camera):

Brice and Jenny were making crab cakes on creamed corn and king cake, so I offered to bring the red beans as a side. I hope you enjoy making and eating this dish as much as we did!

NEW ORLEANS-STYLE RED BEANS AND RICE

adapted from Emeril Lagasse (BAM!)

Ingredients:

2-3 tbsp canola oil
1 cup diced onion
2 stalks celery, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 tsp salt, possibly more to taste
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp thyme
2 bay leaves
12 oz smoked sausage, cut into discs and then half-discs
2 smoked ham hocks (about a pound)
1 pound dried red beans, rinsed, sorted, and soaked overnight
3 tbsp chopped garlic
10 cups water, may need more
cooked white rice

Directions:

Important: sort through your red beans for any bits to discard, rinse, and soak overnight!! If you don’t have time to do so, soak for at least four hours and increase cooking time by an hour and a half.

soak me, Seymour

Dice your onion, celery, and bell pepper. Trivia question for you: what is that trio called in Creole cooking? The holy trinity! Dice your holy trinity, genuflect, heat vegetable oil over medium heat and add veggies. Cook for 5 minutes, until soft and opaque.

they will smell delicious, from chopping to cooking

After the trinity has cooked for those 5, add bay leaves, ham hocks, sausage, and spices (but not the garlic). A note on ham hocks: they look creepy and sound hard to find, but you can get them at any grocery store with a meat department. Look for smoked instead of fresh- the object here is to add deep flavor, and fresh hocks wouldn’t do that. Cook this mixture 5 minutes more. It will look like this:

At this point, add water, beans, and garlic. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to a medium-low simmer. The original recipe said to cook at this step on medium, but that was too hot. Cooking slightly longer, at a lower temperature will do the dish big favors here. Cook at this step for 2 hours, or 2 hours 45 minutes if you did a four-hour bean soak. Watch this pot and stir it if needed! With that long of a cooking time, you’ll be tempted to set it and forget it, but these beans will burn.

After your slow-cooking time has passed and your house smells like NOLA, mash half of the beans against the side of your pot with a slotted spoon. Cook for an additional hour to hour and a half; you may need to add more water here. Emeril’s version advised that the beans should be “soupy, but not watery,” which is a good benchmark. Cook your white rice during the last 30 minutes of your beans’ cooking time. I used a Dominican-style recipe that never disappoints. I am a white rice FIEND, and this method will always yield tender and delicious results.

When time is up, remove the ham hocks and bay leaves. The ham hocks will look like something from a horror movie:

skeksis from The Dark Crystal?

But your smooth and velvety red beans and rice will look like this!!

At Brice and Jenny’s, Dave and I watched as they whipped up huge, fresh crab cakes, improvised a tasty creamed corn, and baked not one, but TWO versions of king cake. Two more friends joined us, wine was poured, and a great evening was had by all. It wasn’t as debaucherous as it would have been five years ago (shoot, three years ago), but was loose and happy nonetheless. Here’s Brice douchily amusing the crowd as he prepped the main course, and the main course floating by:

cookin and talkin

such lucky folks are we

Again, check his blog for recipes and tips. He posted an entry about the same dinner, so read here for another perspective. Red beans a rice are a classic and simple dish every cook should have up the sleeve- let me know how you like my spin, or what spins you make! Bon apetit!

Chicken and Rice (gf)

Sweet Potato & Red Lentil Bisque (My New Favorite Soup) (v, gf)

2 Comments January 31, 2012 Lauren

INSTANT CLASSIC. INSTANT FAVORITE. This soup was not only delicious, but bursting with nutritous ingredients and very easy to make. I haven’t fallen for a recipe this quickly in a while, and this soup definitely earned a spot on the staple list for the Cruse household. Added bonus: my husband loved it as much as I did! He’s not so big on vegetarian dishes, but he devoured his bowl and remarked several times that he really liked it (I deal in compliments, you know). We had it as a warming side to roast turkey breast sandwiches (bonus recipe below!).
The smooth and creamy texture and subtle sweet and spicy flavors will really knock your socks off. If you’ve been wanting to make a healthier root vegetable soup and you like delicate Thai-style flavors, do yourself a favor and try this one.

And if you make it, let me know what you think!!

SWEET POTATO AND RED LENTIL BISQUE

(adapted from Oprah.com)

Ingredients:

1 lb sweet potatoes (about 2 medium), peeled and roughly chopped
1 small yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 cup red lentils (available in the Bob’s Red Mill display at your grocery store- the bag I bought cost $6 and had about 4 cups dry lentils)
4 cups chicken broth (I used 4 c water and 3 tsp Maggi chicken boullion)
1 tsp Sriracha (to your taste, can always add more like this girl)
1 tsp Thai red curry paste (Thai Kitchen brand is avaialble in the Asian section of most major grocery stores)
1 tsp brown sugar
1 can light coconut milk
cracked black pepper
cilantro (optional garnish)

cilantro, red lentils, coconut milk

Directions:

Add broth, sweet potatoes, onion, lentils, Sriracha, curry paste, and brown sugar to a stock pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Once the mixture is boiling, reduce heat and cover; simmer for 25 minutes.

bubbling away

Uncover the soup and let sit for 10 minutes to cool- you want soup to be cool enough to run through your food processor. Too hot, and the heat could damage the processor and/or the steam could force lid off/cause general problems. Just let it cool.

batch 1, pre-blending

Stir in coconut milk and process in batches until smooth. This is seriously the easiest soup… I just can’t get over it! Combine batches in a large bowl, and give soup a good stir before serving. Generously crack black pepper over top, and serve with cilantro and additional Sriracha.

So good! Let me know how it goes when you make it, and anything you change in your home version.

Bonus recipe!!!! Roasted turkey breast for sandwiches:

Make sure the turkey breast you buy is thawed. You’ll need 3 carrots, 3 stalks of celery, butter, and an onion.

Preheat oven to 350, and grab a roasting pan. Salt and pepper rinsed and dried turkey breast all over, even in the cavity. Melt 1/4-1/2 stick butter (you could use canola oil instead), and brush all over breast. Cut up the veggies, and stuff the cavity with a mix of them, placing remaining veggies around turkey in the roasting pan. You can put a little water or broth in the bottom of the pan if you like (I don’t).

Tent some foil over the breast, and place in the oven; roast for 2 hours, until the timer in the turkey pops up, or until a meat thermometer stuck into the turkey reads 170 degrees. Let sit 20 minutes, then carve into slices to put on sandwiches! Et voila!

bless-ed leftovers

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burrito Filling (v, gf)

4 Comments January 23, 2012 Lauren

I came across this wonderful recipe on one lovely life, a really sweet little blog. It had been a long day and I had a mish-mash of seemingly unrelated ingredients in my pantry; the opportunity to use some sweet potatoes that had been hanging out in the potato bin since Christmas (! ugh, SO lazy) seemed like a good one. Plus, this is a mix and roast recipe that creates leftovers. Doubly good!

I tend to go for highly seasoned foods, and have been trying to cut out meat where I can- I feel so much lighter and more energetic when I turn down the meat content and up the veggies. This recipe fit the fast and meatless bill perfectly! Here it is:

SWEET POTATO AND BLACK BEAN BURRITO FILLING

(adapted from One Lovely Life)

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato, diced. I left the skin on to retain more nutrients. You may peel if your heart so desires.
1 medium onion, diced
2-3 Tbsp taco seasoning (I used Ortega reduced sodium). Amount will depend on taste and how large your veggies are. You may use homemade seasoning if you’re an overachiever.
3 tbsp canola oil. *you may use another oil, but I like to use a neutral oil with highly flavorful seasonings and high roasting temps.
1 (14.5oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
Tortillas or tortilla chips
Any toppings you’d like to add. I opted for Trader Joe’s Salsa Verde and Chobani plain, nonfat Greek yogurt in place of sour cream.

Directions: Preheat the oven to 375. Dice your sweet potato and onion; try to keep the dice of each fairly similar in size. This makes for a prettier dish and even roasting.

In a large bowl, toss all ingredients. Stir to coat well with oil and seasoning. Spread mixture out on a large baking sheet.
Roast for 30 minutes, stirring 15 minutes in, adding more olive oil if necessary. I used the 3 tbsp of oil as to avoid this.
Toss black beans and roasted vegetables and serve with chips or in tortillas. Trader Joe’s baked blue corn tortilla chips were DELISH with this filling, and added visual interest; the salsa verde, creamy white yogurt and blue chips made quite a pretty bowl of chow. The subtle sweetness of the roasted onions and sweet potato, paired with the smoky seasoning and black beans gives an unexpected punch of flavor. Top with what you wish, and enjoy! Here are my leftovers at work the next day: