Quick Friday Recipe and Post

It's a crazy busy Friday, so I'll have to post pictures later. I tossed together a fantastic recipe for my latest obsession, beans, both black and white. Here it is:

1 small can white beans, drained.
1 small can black beans, drained.
1/2 small can chipotle peppers, not drained (toss the sauce in there as well)
2 raw cloves garlic
A few healthy glugs of olive oil
A few leaves (maybe two, no stems) of kale

Food process. Done. Enjoy your weekend!

India

This will not be my first blog post about India. I went a few years back, thanks to some generous friends. It was mind-boggling. I went to Calcutta and Puri - both completely different and both completely unforgettable. I have some pix to share - oh boy, do I have pix. But enough. I also have a great recipe for marinade for chicken that I use over and over again. The Boyf claims it's the best chicken marinade ever.

Indian Chicken Marinade (adapted from Madhur Jaffrey)

1 tbs. paprika

1 tbs. fine black pepper (I omit this for the boyf, who is NOT a hothead)

1 tbs. store-bought garam masala

Dash cayenne

1 1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. oregano

2 tsp. cumin

3 tbs. veg. oil

2 tbs. plain yogurt (I use Fage Greek 0%)

2 tbs. fresh lemon juice

1 tbs. honey

3 cloves crushed garlic

That's it. Other things I have added, but which are not necessary are (you can add these by 1/8 tsp. increments if you desire): white pepper, smoked paprika, dried basil, liquid smoke, kolonji seeds, dried onions, garlic salt, crushed red pepper flakes and turmeric.

This works very nicely on 4 large chicken breasts. And, again, you can get small quantities of spices in your local health food store if you don't have any spices. Marinade for a day or for an hour, it does not really matter. I use my BBQ grill for this chicken, but I'm sure it would work in a saucepan as well.

My first post, and of course it's a recipe. Well, two.

Habanero

The habanero pepper. Notice the lack of tilde. For years, I mispronounced it. I love Ha-ban-YERO, I would sing, until my dear friend Ralph, the Master Salsa Maker corrected me. Was it Ralph who introduced me to it? Or my friend Nakita from Trinidad? I can’t remember. No matter. We’ve not been apart since I came upon it nearly 20 years ago. Check out the Habanero/Scotch Bonnet club I started on Facebook. We’re a little fanatical.

You’re getting two recipes with this blog post. The first one, well, can I brag? I won a Whole Foods cooking contest with this recipe. This was years ago in Chicago. As far as I know, they’ve never used it. But I did get an amazing food processor which I use to this very day. I remember my roommate at the time telling me “you’ll never win.” But I did.

Spicy Salsa

1 can (28 oz.) whole peeled tomatoes (hey who has time to use fresh? Not me).
1 bunch cilantro, washed, bottoms of stems removed (but don’t bother plucking off each leaf – see above)
1 lime
6 large cloves garlic
1 habanero pepper (take out the seeds if you want it milder – but you really don’t)
1 bunch green onions (only trim off tips, I use both green and white part)
Salt to taste (I like a lot)

Put everything but the lime and the salt into a food processor and blend for a nice long time. You really don’t want any chunks. Throw this into a pot. Add the juice of one lime and salt to taste (I probably use about ½ tbs.). Cook for ½ hour. Cool. Serve.

This next recipe is one I’ve spent the summer developing. Sorry for the use of hard-to-find ingredients. It’s a pet-peeve of mine, but these cookies are so good, it’s worth it. You can find most everything at Surfas if you live in LA, or the Spice House if you live in Chicago, or Kalustyan’s if you live in NYC. If you don’t live in those cities, the Spice House has an awesome website for online ordering. Tenuta’s in Kenosha, Wisconsin has both the elusive habanero powder AND the instant espresso powder (which is stubbornly hard to find) and they would pack it up nicely for you and ship it your way. OR, you could go to the nearest Mexican grocery store and probably get close to everything you need. Another alternative to small amounts of spices is to check out your local health food store. You can usually buy a small amount in bulk spices there.


So, back to the cookies. Did I mention they were cookies? I love chocolate and spice. Mole, for me, is manna. I started thinking; why not try cookies with mole ingredients? After a lot of taste-testing (and power walking to get rid of said taste testing), I hit upon what I think is the perfect recipe. The two chocolates play off each other nicely, the nuts add a perfect crunch and balance to the spice, and sure, the spice ingredients are small, but you are looking for grace notes here, not giant thumping fortissimo chords. If you’re a chocolate purist, you can go get fancy chocolate. Me, I’m a little lazy. But I really hope you like (no LOVE) these cookies.

“Mole” Cookies

1 large bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 small bag of milk chocolate chips
2 ¼ cups flour
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
2 sticks butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ancho chili powder
1/8 tsp. cayenne
1/8 tsp. habanero powder
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. instant espresso powder
1 small bag of chopped almonds OR walnuts

Follow the directions for making the cookies on the large bag. When it comes time to sift together flour and soda and salt, also throw in the chili powders and espresso. Add both bags of chocolate and the nuts and blend and bake according to the directions on the bag.