Mexican Fiesta part tres: Black Bean Tacos

I love this black bean recipe. They turn out thick and flavorful, perfect for tacos or serving with rice.

Black Bean Tacos
Reanimate 1 1 lb bag of black beans, set aside
Saute 1/2 onion over medium heat, chopt
After the onion softens, add 6 cloves garlic, diced and hot peppers to taste, diced. We used 1 jalapeno and 1 red habanero. Not for the faint of heart. The (excessive?) heat was well-balanced by the rice and tortillas, though. Chipotle peppers would do well here, too.
After ~ 1 minute of cooking, add the beans and barely cover with vegetable stock.
Stir in 2T tomato paste.
Sprinkle in 2T cornstarch and stir.
Season with cumin, oregano, black pepper, and salt to taste.
Simmer until the dish thickens to a consistency of your liking.

I served it with cilantro-lime rice, corn tortillas, avocado, cheddar, salsa, and chipotle hot-sauce. Queso fresco and fresh tomatoes would be good, too.

Mexican fiesta part dos: Cilantro-lime cole slaw

Is cole slaw Mexican? Probably not, because if it were, it would have a far more attractive Spanish name. It does go well with Tex-Mex, though.

I make cole slaw often--you can use different oils and vinegars to give it all kinds of different flavors and it tends to last a while in the fridge. It even gets better with age. This incarnation was particularly easy and delicious. Cabbage varies a surprising amount with season and its appearance gives little clue to its quality, beyond obvious rot. (Seriously, if you have any tips about how to pick out a flavorful cabbage, I'm all ears!) Cabbage season seems to pick up in MD in the late spring and last through the fall, so I am looking forward to months of tasty slaws!

Cilantro-lime cole slaw
Chop a large handful of cilantro. I use the food processor.  Basically, I use the food processor for all of the chopping/slicing in this recipe and then just empty it into a large bowl whenever the processor's bowl gets too full.
Chop-shred 1 small head of green cabbage.  I chop the head in half, remove the core, then slice the cabbage into 1-2" wide wedges. I then run it through the food processor on the 2mm slicing blade.
Shred 2 carrots.
Dress with the juice of 1 lime, ~3T rice wine vinegar,  and ~2T EVOO. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Mix the salad and then knead it with your hands for a few minutes to soften the cabbage.
Optional: stir in a big handful of sunflower seeds (I do this if I'm pairing the cole slaw with a lighter main dish or having it alone.)

Enjoy in tacos or as a side. Yum!

Mexican Fiesta: Salsa!

I spent last Memorial Day basking in the sun in Mexico. It was fabulous.

We spent this Memorial Day hiding from the heat in our apartment, me too tired from last week's trip to the South West to want to go out and do anything.

This gave me the perfect opportunity to create last year's trip with a weekend of Mexican cooking. Yum!  I set out to make Mexican food on Saturday evening with a very empty belly and ended up with enough food for the entire weekend. Our Saturday evening feast consisted of:

• Mojitos
• Chips and salsa
• Bean tacos
• Fish tacos
• Chipotle-style cilantro-lime rice
• Cilantro-lime coleslaw

M. is our bartender, so I will leave descriptions of mojitos to him. The cilantro-lime rice was amazing--see the link to my friend Carolyn's blog above for instructions. The fish for the fish tacos was leftover Fish Tikka from The Ambassador (Indian and Mexican go surprisingly well together. Must be the cumin and hot peppers.) That leaves us with the salsa and the beans.  I'll start with the salsa.

This salsa is a great, versatile recipe. You use canned tomatoes, so you can make it in the winter, but it tastes fresher and is much more customizable than jarred salsa. I adapted the recipe from the White Grass Cafe cookbook. This cookbook is excellent and I recommend it to all of you! It has lots of delicious vegetarian meals and, since it comes from a ski shop in West Virginia, requires few fresh or seasonal ingredients.

Salsa
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/2 onion, chopt
2-3 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 red or green bell pepper, thinly sliced
hot peppers to taste, diced (we used 1 jalapeno and 1 red habanero)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1t ground cumin
1/2 t black pepper
big handful cilantro, finely chopt

Stir together and let sit in the refrigerator for a few hours to allow the spices to mingle. Serve with tortilla chips, in tacos, over huevos rancheros, etc. Yum!