What's Cooking Tuesday

I don't think I can profess my love for the Veganomicon cookbook anymore. Seriously - if you like interesting and unboring food, BUY THIS COOKBOOK. My meat-eating husband has loved everything that I have made from this book so far. Buy it. Now!

With that said, I'm still not to the point where I can pair a side dish with a main dish so I've been relying on the section in the Veganomicon cookbook that pairs meals together and suggests starters and desserts. It's very helpful.

Sunday night was about going Mexican. We heart Mexican food. So I decided to make the "Black Beans in Chipotle Adobo Sauce" (sounds good already, right?) with a side of Mexican Millet. I think this was the best dinner that I've made so far and The Mr definitely agrees. I did encounter, however, the same issue with my contact lens and burning the shit out of my eye because the spices just don't wash off my fingers well. Apparently I have super porous fingers.

Without futher ado...

Black Beans in Chipotle Adobo Sauce

Beans:
2 (15-oz) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 bay leaf
3 cups of cold water
1 large onion, peeled and halved (It is very important to read that the onion is just halved and NOT chopped!)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Chipotle adobo sauce:
1 large onion, cut into small dice
4 gloves garlic, minced
3 tbsps olive oil
2 chipotle peppers in adobo, minced
2 tbsps adobo sauce from the chipotles

Combine the beans, onion (seriously - don't forget that you're just putting the HALVED onion in the mix. I didn't read the instruction and threw in diced onion. When I realized my mistake, after cursing for about a minute, I fished out all of the diced onion from the mix), bay leaf and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and let boil for 1 minute. Lower heat to medium and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes. Most of the water will have evaporated.


Remove bay leaf and onion before serving.

While the beans are cooking, start prepping the chipotle adobo sauce. Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil for 10-12 minutes (or until the onions are very soft). Stir in the chipotles and adobo sauce and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from heat!

Allow sauce to cool and then put in a food processor then pulse to create a chunky sauce. Serve the beans with the sauce drizzled on top.


Mexican Millet
What the fuck is millet and why is it so hard to find in the grocery store?! Seriously - I looked up what it was but you can't find this shit anywhere. Luckily the cookbook compared this dish to Mexican rice so I used brown rice instead but geezy peezy. I went to 3 fucking grocery stores!

2 tbsps peanut or vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup millet (or brown rice since this shit is damn near impossible to find)
1 small yellow onion, diced finely
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 cups vegetable broth (I have to give The Mr a shout out here. I didn't realize that the vegetable broth in our fridge expired 4 months ago and truly was BAD. He ran out to the grocery store while I was cooking. This probably had more to do with his hunger than being nice but it was still awesome of him to do.)
3 tbsps tomato paste
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/3 cup finely diced tomato
2 tbsps finely chopped cilantro (I totally didn't use this. Whoops.)
Freshly squeeze lime juice, for garnish (I totally didn't use this either.)

Heat the oil and garlic over medium heat. When garlic begins to sizzle, add the onion and jalapeno. Stir occasionally until the onion is soft and slightly golden, 6-8 minutes.

Add the millet, stir to coat and saute for 4-6 minutes until the millet is slightly golden.

Pour in the vegetable broth and add the tomato paste, salt, cumin and diced fresh tomato. Bring the mixture to a boil, stir once and cover. Lower heat to low and cook for 25-30 minutes until all liquid is absorbed.


So I realize the liquid isn't completely absorbed. I used twice the amount of vegetable broth since I had to use brown rice instead. And we were starving. I figured the liquid would eventually be absorbed...

And voila!


I really need to work on my presentation skillz. That's right, skillz with a z.