Greek Beans and Giveaway Winner!

Greek Beans

This recipe for Greek Beans from “1000 Vegetarian Recipes from Around the World” was really tasty and easy. I love recipes that involve throwing a bunch of things in a pot and then sitting around and drinking a beer or a coffee and waiting for them to finish cooking. Next time, I think I’ll try letting these beans sit and heat up on the grill alongside whatever else we’re cooking, to see if it will give them a nice smokey flavor. I have a nice cheap metal pan to put them in, so if it would happen to get ruined I wouldn’t need to cry about it. This has also made me think about other ways I can create nice bean mixtures. Next time I’ll try a couple of different kinds of beans, and instead of vegetable broth I’ll add a nice cup of stout or porter. I also think this would benefit from a little bit of brown sugar. Of course, then they might not be Greek beans anymore. Yum!

Greek Beans
2 cups navy beans (canned and drained or cooked and drained)
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 3/4 cups vegetable bouillon
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs oregano
1 tablespoon tomato paste
juice of 1 lemon
1 small red onion, chopped
1/4 cup pitted black olives, halved
salt and pepper

1. Put the navy beans in a flameproof casserole dish or a thick bottomed pot.
2. Add the olive oil and crushed garlic. Cook over gentle heat, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 minutes.
3. Stir in the vegetable bouillon, bay leaf, oregano, tomato paste, lemon juice and red onion.
4. Cover the casserole dish and simmer for about 1 hour or till sauce has thickened.
5. Stir in the black olives, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or cold.

And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…the winner of the giveaway is (drumroll please)…my fabulous bloggin’ buddy over at The Onyx Plate! Check out her own mouthwatering blog and then visit the grocery store (because you’ll definitely want to eat after reading!). Thanks for everyone for entering and subscribing to my blog for a while! I hope you stick around and enjoy. Who knows what giveaway I’ll do next…it might be hard to top this one.

Chinese potatoes! Hooray!

So last night I attempted to cook a recipe for Sichuan Chili Stir-Fried Potatoes that I found on NPR’s website. You can find the article on Indian-Chinese cuisine, the recipe I made and a couple more recipes here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122497091
I will also post the recipe we made here on the blog. I say “we” because I had a little kitchen helper last night. Danny came over and cooked with me. And actually I was more like the kitchen helper because I basically just read the recipe and he did most of the work. He and his family are apparently quite the kitchen experts and I just end up feeling rather stupid when I am cooking with him. However I watch a lot and and learn from my observations. So special kudos to Danny for helping me!

Here’s the recipe:

Sichuan Chili Stir-Fried Potatoes
(serves 4 …or 2 very hungry 20-somethings)

4 small boiling potatoes (Yukon Gold)
1 1/2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (we used olive oil because it’s way more awesome)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1/2 a small red onion, peeled and sliced
1/4 teaspoon of red chili flakes
1 teaspoon red chili paste
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
8 Sichuan peppercorns, crushed (we couldn’t find these so we didn’t use them)
2 teaspoons of cornstarch
1/4 cup of vegetable stock
salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice (we squished the juice out of half a lemon)
1 scallion, white and green part, thinly sliced

1. Bring lightly salted water to boil in a saucepan.
2. Peel and cut each potato into 8 and 12 wedge pieces.
3. Boil the potatoes until almost done. When you stab them with a knife they should still have a little bit of resistance. Drain and set aside.
4. Heat the oil in a wok over high heat. Add the garlic and saute until lightly brown. Add the onion and saute till slightly soft.
5. Stir in the chili flakes and red chili paste.
6. Add the potato wedges and toss well.
7. Add the sugar, soy sauce and peppercorns. Toss again.
8. Blend the cornstarch and the vegetable stock. Mix into the potatoes.
9. Cook till the sauce has thickened.
10. Salt to taste.
11. Add the lemon juice and scallion. Mix well. Serve hot.