Hello veggie burger!

One of my ongoing quests is to find the perfect veggie burger.

Here’s a hint: It’s definitely not in the freezer section of your local supermarket. Unless, of course, cardboard is your idea of perfect.

In my opinion, the perfect veggie burger should be really filling and have a substantial texture (like meat). It should have lots of flavor and spices and should leave you not missing meat.

Honestly, I try a lot of different veggies burgers and I rarely post them because I find them to be kind of blah.

To date, my best veggie burger attempt, in my opinion, was the beet burgers I made over a year ago.

I still like those burgers, but I think this brown rice burger might surpass it as my favorite for one simple reason: it’s a lot easier to make! You can use leftover rice and have a very delicious burger in no time.

I’m not kidding at all when I say that I would take one of these instead of probably 95% of beef burgers in the world.

Brown Rice Burgers

Yield: 4 burgers.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups brown rice, cooked
1/2 sweet onion, sauteed
1/4 cup cilantro, minced
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 large egg
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/3 cup oat flour
Salt and pepper
4 large buns, toasted
1 avocado, sliced

Mango-pineapple Relish:
1 cup pineapple
1 mango, cubed
1-2 Serrano peppers, with seeds

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor for relish

Directions:

1) For relish, combine ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. If you don't have a food processor, you can also just dice everything very finely.

2) Cook brown rice according to package and let cool or use leftover rice.

3) Sautee diced onion in 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until the onion is translucent, but not browned, about 5 minutes.

4) Mix onion, cilantro, and garam masala with rice. Crack in an egg and combine well. Stir in oat flour. You might need a bit more oat flour. Your rice should be firm and stick together if you press it into a ball.

5) Form 4 large burgers with the rice mixture and season each burger with salt and pepper.

6) Cook the burgers in a heavy pan over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the pan. Cook until browned evenly on both sides, about 4-5 minutes per side.

7) Toast buns and serve rice burgers on bun with relish and topped with sliced avocado.

Hello Mango

The other nice thing about this burger is that it’s actually incredibly healthy for a burger. No cheese or mayo or anything. For the sauce, I just pureed a few really flavorful ingredients into a spicy relish that was very delicious.

Great flavors.

Ideally, just cube up these ingredients and add them to a food processor and pulse them until it’s mostly smooth.

I used one Serrano with the seeds and I thought it was pretty spicy, but if you wanted to up the heat level even more, you could use two.

If you don’t have a food processor, don’t fret. Just dice up the ingredients very finely and you’ll have more of a salsa, but it’ll still be really tasty.

Some chunks are okay.

Making the Burgers

The one down side of these burgers is that brown rice does take a while to cook. While you could use white rice for it, I worry that the burgers would end up being a bit bland. Brown rice has a nice nutty flavor that really adds to the burgers.

In an ideal world, you could save a few cups of leftover brown rice for a separate meal and then use it to make these burgers. That would cut your prep time down to just minutes.

Leftover rice would be great.

Once you have your rice, add to it your sauteed onions (just cook them over medium heat in a drizzle of olive oil until they soften). Also add the minced cilantro and stir this all together.

Cook the onions first!

At this point, the burgers have a great texture and some good backbone flavors going on, but I thought they needed a hit of a good spice.

Enter garam masala! This was the perfect spice for these burgers. These days you should be able to find this spice mixture in most supermarkets.

If you’ve never used garam masala before, it’s a pretty popular spice mixture for Indian food. It normally has a pretty large list of ingredients in it, but almost always has some cumin, cardamon, cloves, and various peppers. It’s good stuff.

Spice is nice!

The Binder

Now our burgers should be pretty tasty, but there’s no way you’ll get this rice mixture to stick together as is. So crack in an egg and mix in some oat flour.

You can easily substitute all-purpose flour for oat flour, but the oat flour does add a little bit of extra flavor to the finished burgers.

The binder!

Making and Cooking

Make a test burger to make sure that the mixture sticks together well. If it seems really sticky, add in a bit more flour.

Once it’s a nice firm consistency, make four large burgers out of the mixture.

4 big burgers.

Season these burgers with salt and pepper and then cook them in a large heavy skillet over medium high heat with a drizzle of olive oil (about 2 tablespoons). Cook them for about 4-5 minutes per side until they are nicely browned.

I didn’t try it, but I think you could grill these guys. They were pretty sturdy actually and I think as long as you didn’t mess with them much on the grill, they would hold up just fine.

Any pan will work really.

Serving the Burgers

As always, I’m a fan of a toasted bun for my burgers so I definitely recommend that. Then add a good slather of the relish to the bottom bun.

Check out that color!

Love that color!

Stack on a burger and a few slices of avocado and you’re ready to go!

The 'cado is key.

The avocado acts like a creamy element for the burgers. It’s very essential in my opinion.

Betsy and I both gave these guys two thumbs up and fought for the extras for lunch the next day.

She w0n.

Just a great burger.

Now, if you are completely set on sabotaging my veggie burger recipe, you could make a beef burger and slap it between this relish and some avocado and still have a pretty tasty thing.

But try it with rice. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

Cooked maggots look just like rice!

Maggots are one of the best sources of protein you can get. I’m pretty sure that Andrew Zimmern has been preaching about how delicious they are for years now.

Normally, I think they are fried, but why not fold them into a delicious slider recipe. It makes the slider oh-so-juicy.

And remember, whenever possible use organic maggots that have been locally raised.

Maggot Sliders

Yield: 12 sliders

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup white rice, cooked
6-8 ounces cheddar cheese
12 slider buns
Lettuce
Sliced onions
Salt and pepper
Pickles (opt.)
Spiders and other scary stuff

Directions:

1) Mix cooked rice with ground beef then form 12 small patties with the mixture. I used long white rice, but if I made these again, I would try it with arborio I think.

2) Season slider patties with salt and pepper and cook in a skillet for about 3-4 minutes per side over medium-high heat.

3) Meanwhile, split buns in half and toast in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes.

4) Add cheese to buns and return to oven to melt the cheese.

5) Add patties to buns and garnish with lettuce, onions, pickles, etc.

Maggots Look Like Rice!

It’s pretty obviously rice. In a dark room though with a well-labeled “Maggot Sliders” sign, you could easily get away with it.

This is a fantastic use for leftover rice if you happen to have any. If you’re making fresh though, I might recommend using a fatter rice like arborio. My long grain rice ended up looking too much like, well, rice.

Next time I might try arborio rice.

The Sliders

Even though these are at least half gimmick, it’s still important to make a good slider. People will still want to eat them! So mix your rice in with some good ground beef and then form about 12 even patties with the mixture. Season them really well with salt and pepper.

Still season them well.

While you could grill these guys, I just seared them in a hot skillet over medium-high heat with a drizzle of olive oil until they were nice and browned on both sides.

Mine took about 3-4 minutes per side to be cooked the way I like them, which is medium.

Cooking them maggots!

The Buns.

In my opinion, the best slider buns are the savory King’s Hawaiian potato rolls that you can buy in the deli or bakery section of most stores these days. They are light and buttery and perfect for sliders.

I just cut mine open and toast them in a 350 degree oven for about 4 minutes. Then I pile on some cheese, which is optional of course.

Cheese goes well with everything. Even bugs.

Add the buns back to the oven for a minute to melt the cheese and then pile on all the slider patties.

Delicious.

You could serve these with a wide range of toppings including sliced onions, pickles, lettuce, and the normal condiments.

Plastic flies are optional, but encouraged.

One of my maggots hatched!

The most important part about these sliders is that they are actually really tasty. Nice and simple, but would be a great party treat.

I do think that with the correct lighting, you could convince anyone under the age of 10 that these were maggots!

You can really taste the corn! Not!

For last week’s poll, I kind of opened it up and just asked what people wanted me to make.

Alyssa wrote in:

“I have a ton of corn in my CSA share, and I absolutely love tamales. I would like to do something with the husk other than throw it out. Making tamales seems a bit daunting, but I was hoping you could make it seem easy and flavorful. Enjoy camping, I’m off to do the same!”

I did enjoy camping Alyssa except that I almost got my crappy Ford Taurus stuck on a road that was clearly marked for only 4X4 vehicles. Made it out alive though!

Anyway, back to corn husks. Honestly, tamales are kind of a chore. They aren’t that hard really, but they do take a fair amount of time. Like, if you’re going to make them, you should make a bunch and it’ll take you a day. I unfortunately didn’t have a day because I was camping and stuff, but you did get my mind on corn husks and maybe other things you could do with them!

It turns out there’s a great practical use for them: steaming fish!

I say practical because they don’t necessarily impart a lot of flavor. But they do get the job done!

Corn Husk Steamed Snapper

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 - 1 1/2 pounds white fish (snapper, grouper, cod, etc.)
4 ears corn, husked somewhat carefully to try to keep the husks in big pieces.
3-4 Cups cooked rice, I used basmati but this is flexible
1 lemon, sliced thin
1 inch fresh ginger, cut into coins
Soy sauce
Butter
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Peel corn. Try to leave husks in as big of pieces as possible.

2) Portion out fish into 4-5 ounce pieces.

3) Lay out a few corn husks and pile on about a cup of cooked rice. Flatten the rice and drizzle with soy sauce.

4) Place a piece of fish on the rice and top with sliced lemon and ginger.

5) Transfer each bundle to a bamboo steamer as you finish it. Use a spatula to transfer the bundles.

6) When each layer is done (two bundles per layer) pile come extra husks on top to trap some of the steam and flavors in.

7) Steam for 10 minutes and rotate the levels half-way through.

8) Serve with corn obviously!

Unwrapping and Wrapping

The problem that Alyssa posed comes from having too much of this stuff: corn.

The problem.

Or actually, more specifically, the husks:

Getting husky.

The only thing I’ll note is that when you’re peeling your corn, try to be gentle. The bigger pieces of husk you can get, the better off you’ll be.

Theoretically you could steam almost anything in these guys I guess, but I chose a nice light white fish: Alaskan snapper to be exact.

Any white fish will do.

Four to five ounces per serving is a perfect amount.

When it comes to actually prepping the steaming basket, I started out by trying to make it pretty.

Making corn husks pretty is very hard. After about 15 minutes of fiddling, I got really hungry, and just kind of gave up on the pretty aspect. But that’s okay. It’s not like I’m serving these at a Michelin star restaurant.

What I found is that the husks work great as a steaming plate. This is good because I wanted to make little bundles of rice, fish, and seasonings. I couldn’t have just done this in the steamer or the rice would’ve just went all over the place.

But lay down a few husks and then top with some rice and a drizzle of soy sauce and you’re in business.

It's like a plate.

Next, layer on your fish and top it with some sliced lemon and ginger.

Cool!

This is where I got fancy and tried to some how wrap up the bundles. This may have been possible if I would’ve made them a lot smaller. I didn’t want to deal with 20 little bits of fish though, so I just kept them big and not pretty.

I used a spatula to transfer them to my bamboo steamer and then just laid some husks on top of each layer to keep the steam in a bit.

Like I said… not pretty, but pretty functional.

Full steam ahead!

If you’ve never used a bamboo steamer before, you basically just get a large pot of water simmering and then set the bamboo steamer right on top. Ideally the water will be at a constant medium boil so the fish have an even steaming environment.

Gettin' steamy.

Because my husks were covering the entire floor of each layer in the steamer, I was a bit worried about the top layer getting the same heat as the bottom layer. So I steamed them for ten minutes total and rotated the layers half-way through.

Seemed to work just fine!

Once they come out of the steamer, you’ll have to use a spatula again to pick up the rice/fish bundles. You might lose some rice in the process but that’s not a big deal. Just try not to lose the fish!

I served these with the roasted corn which was really tasty.

Very tasty!

I drizzled on a little melted butter over the fish and corn because my plate was looking WAY too healthy.

The thing I was most surprised by was how much lemon was transferred to the fish and rice. The husks did a great job of trapping all the flavors and moisture. What didn’t surprise me is that the husks didn’t give the rice or fish any flavor. But that’s okay. They got the job done.

Traditionally, banana leaves are used to do a dish like this but banana leaves are kind of hard to come by. This time of year, since there’s so much corn around, might as well use it!

Just do yourself a favor and don’t worry too much about the presentation. You could drive yourself crazy aligning and wrapping corn husks with very little benefit.

So Alyssa, sorry I didn’t give you any tamale insights. That’ll have to wait for another day. I have never posted on them though so I’m definitely due for a tamale post. Hopefully, this inspired you to put those corn husks to use though!

So awesome.

One of the benefits and curses of working from home is lunch time. It’s a benefit because I can whip up a meal when I’m hungry. I can re-purpose leftovers and, I think, save money.

The curse is that I miss out a bit on some social aspects of lunch in the office which I always enjoyed. It’s fun to try out new lunch spots occasionally and talk shop with coworkers. I don’t really get to do that too much these days.

That’s okay though. I think I win out because I get to grill burritos whenever I freakin’ want.

All my social skills is a small price to pay for these suckers.

Grilled Burritos

Yield: 4 Burritos

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

4 large flour tortillas
2 tablespoons butter
4 ounces pepper jack cheese, grated
Refried beans
Spanish rice
Jalapenos
Any sort of protein leftover (chicken, beef, tofu)
Hot sauce

Directions:

1) Stuff burritos with fillings, cheese, jalapenos, and hot sauce.

2) Roll burritos up and spread on a thin layer of butter on both sides.

3) Grill burritos on high heat for 5 minutes per side. Start seam side down to seal the burrito closed.

4) Serve with avocado, salsa, and sour cream.

Re-Purposing Leftovers

This post isn’t so much of a recipe as it is a method. And also, hopefully, inspiration to try it out.

You could fill these guys with all kinds of stuff. Any leftover protein is a good idea. Any kind of bean? Definitely.

I also had some rice leftover from my Southwestern stuffed peppers that I wanted to use up.

This is a fridge-cleaning meal.

Just some random leftovers.

In my opinion, a burrito isn’t a burrito without a good amount of cheese.

I like pepper jack for Tex-Mex stuff, but you could use whatever you want.

Obviously important.

Making the Burritos

There’s no real trick to these guys. I like to do a layer of cheese, then some sort of filling, then some jalapenos or hot sauce.

If you have good tortillas, you should be able to stuff them pretty full.

Stuffed!

The Secret Ingredient

Ok. So I’ve actually tried to grill tortillas before and they work okay. Sometimes I found that they wouldn’t get as crispy as I wanted though.

So I figured out a way to give the burritos a bit of extra flavor and also make sure they get really nice and crispy on the grill.

Butter.

Secret ingredient!

Right before I threw the burritos on the grill, I just spread on a very light coating of butter on each side of the burrito.

Some of this will melt off and create flare-ups which is actually good. Think flame broiled burrito.

What stays on the tortillas will almost lightly fry them on the grill.

Butter never hurts.

I recommend putting the burritos on the grill seam-side DOWN first which will seal the burritos closed. I cooked my burritos for about 5 minutes on both sides.

They got kind of charred around the edges and super-crispy.

The bits of tortillas around the edges turned into tortilla chips basically.

Crispy and delicious.

It doesn’t really matter what you put in these guys, just trust me that you’ll end up with a burrito that’s pretty hard to beat.

I recommend serving it with some sour cream, avocado, and hot sauce or salsa.

So what do you think? Butter on a burrito? Over-kill?

Did I just one-up Rachel?

I’ve been known to give Rachel Ray some grief, but in reality, it’s just because I’m jealous of course. She’s made quite a name for herself coming up with inventive and fun dishes. And, without a doubt, she convinced more people in America to cook which is definitely a good thing.

But for some reason I have a hard time following her recipes. Maybe it’s pride. Maybe it’s that I’m pretty sure I can improve them. So it went with these peppers.

I was kind of shocked that they won the poll last week. But, clearly you guys were interested so I did my best to make them and even, I think, improve them a bit.

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

4 large poblano peppers, halved, cleaned, roasted.
1 1/2 Cups white rice
3 Cups vegetable broth
1 Cup strained tomatoes or tomato sauce
1 Tablespoon cumin, lightly toasted
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 Serrano pepper, minced
1 small onion, diced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Avocado
Sour cream
Cilantro
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) For rice, add stock, tomatoes, spices, and rice to a medium pan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, covered, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Be sure to check your rice for exact cooking times and liquid amounts.

2) For peppers, chop off stems, slice peppers in half and remove seeds. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes per side. They shouldn't be soggy, but should be flexible. Some scorch marks are good.

3) Chop onions and Serrano pepper and add to a medium pot with olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook for a few minutes, stirring, until onions are soft. Stir in cooked rice.

4) Season rice mixture with salt and pepper. Spoon it into pepper halves.

5) Serve with avocado, sour cream, and cilantro.

Seriously adapted from a RR Recipe.

Making the Rice

While this recipe is in the spirit of the original, it’s really different on almost every level. For starters, Rachel uses a canned enchilada sauce to give her rice some flavor, but I’m a big fan of using real spices instead. It’s not like it’s that much more work to add a few spices and some tomato paste instead of a can.

That said, I did keep mine pretty simple.

The basic stuff.

Add the veggie stock (you could use chicken also) along with the tomato sauce (or strained tomatoes) to a medium pot along with a pinch of salt and all the spices.

Add in the rice and you’re ready to cook!

Good rice.

This will need to simmer, covered, on medium-low heat for about 20 minutes. You should check your rice cooking time though as it might vary a bit depending on what kind of rice you use. Whatever you do though, don’t use the instant stuff. It won’t really hold up to the flavors.

The Peppers

Again, I changed a lot from the original recipe, but I liked all my changes if I do say so myself. For starters, the original used cubanelle peppers, but I subbed poblanos. I think they have a bit more flavor and are a lot easier to stuff.

Just chop them in half and clean out all the seeds.

Easy prep.

When it comes to cooking these guys, Rachel says to grill them in a grill pan. I don’t have a grill pan and the idea of firing up the grill for some stuffed peppers seemed a bit ridiculous. So I just roasted my peppers in a 400 degree oven for about 5 minutes per side.

You don’t want them soggy, but they should be flexible. Some scorch marks on the outside are nothing to be afraid of. They add great flavor.

After a quick roast.

Finishing the Rice

In a separate pan, add the olive oil over medium-high heat and toss in the diced onion and Serrano pepper. The Serrano is optional, but it gives the dish some nice heat.

Let this cook for a few minutes until the onions are soft and then add in all the rice. Stir it all together, season it with salt and pepper, and you’ll be in rice heaven.

Steamy!

Once your rice is done just add a good amount of it to each pepper half. Don’t worry about over-filling.

In fact, I encourage over-filling.

Fill 'em up!

I suggest serving these guys with some sour cream and fresh avocado.

They can be a side, but we ate them as a meal and what a good meal it was!

Avocado and cream is key!

I’m not really positive if my version was better than hers because I didn’t make hers, but mine was good enough for me. That’s for sure.

You’ll probably have some leftover rice after this dish which is great. The rice is delicious in burritos or just on its own.

Yum.

José Andrés, if you’re reading (yea right), you might want to stop.

Allow me to explain.

When I used to live in DC, there was this big event once a year or so when Chef Andrés would set up a huge paella wok thing outside in downtown DC and cook paella for like a million people.

I never was able to go to it. Sad face.

Recently, I was blessed with a fair amount of really good saffron from a few worldwide travelers and so I figured What the Hay. I can make paella.

And I can. And it was good.

But I started with chef Andrés’s recipe and ended up with something else altogether. So, if you happen to be him, sorry for mutilating your recipe, dude.

Cast Iron Paella

Yield: Serves 5-6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 ounces dried shiitake mushrooms
3 Cups water
6-8 Tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds chicken, cubed (you could sub 1 pound of shrimp for one pound of chicken)
1 pound mixed mushrooms, I used a mix of shiitake and oyster
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 Cups short grain white rice (paella rice)
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 Teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 Teaspoon saffron threads, soaked in a bit of warm water
2 Cups chicken broth
Chopped parsley (garnish)

Allioli recipe (Served with paella)
4 garlic cloves, halved and center germ removed
1/2 Teaspoon fine salt
2 large egg yolks
3 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar
1 Cup light olive oil
Fresh black pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Cast Iron Skillet!

Directions:

1) For allioli, smash garlic cloves and add them to a medium bowl. Use a fork to mash them up even more. Whisk in egg yolks, vinegar, water, and salt.

2) Set bowl over a water bath with simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water). Whisk continuously until temp is 140 degrees. It should take about 3 minutes and be hot to the touch, but not boiling. Continue to whisk, keeping it at that temperature for 3 more minutes.

3) Let yolk mixture cool and then whisk in oil in a steady, slow steam. Whisk constantly and it should thicken up. Season with black pepper. This can be made in advance and stored in the fridge.

4) For Paella, bring 3 cups of water to a boil and add to a bowl with dried mushrooms. Let reconstitute for about an hour. Then strain broth and squeeze any liquid you can out of mushrooms.

5) Dice fresh mushrooms, onion, garlic, and chicken.

6) Add a few tablespoons of oil to a cast iron skillet over high heat. Sear chicken in two batches for about 5 minutes per batch. Chicken doesn't need to be cooked through, just seared.

7) Remove to a bowl. Add a bit more oil and sear mushrooms. After a few minutes add onions and garlic and continue to cook. Season with salt and pepper and cook for another minute or two until slightly soft, but not completely cooked.

8) Add mushrooms and onions to chicken and set aside.

9) Add a bit more oil to pan along with rice. Stir over medium-high heat for about a minute to coat rice.

10) Add mushroom broth, spices, tomatoes, saffron (and broth), chicken, onions, mushrooms, and 1/2-1 Cup of chicken stock. The liquid should just cover all the ingredients.

11) Bring to a simmer on the stove and then add to a 400 degree oven. Cook for 30-40 minutes, checking frequently. If it is dry at any point and the rice still isn't cooked, add a bit more stock.

12) It's done with the edges are a bit crusty and the rice is cooked al dente.

13) Serve with chopped parsley and allioli.

Crazily adapted from this recipe.

Variations aplenty!

Like I said, I made a few changes to this recipe. One, I think, was a particularly good idea and one was a particularly bad idea.

I decided to not use any shrimp in my version, but if I had access to really good, large shrimp, I would totally use them. I think the lightness of the seafood would help the dish. But this was neither here nor there.

I think my good idea was to make this in a cast iron skillet. It allowed for even heat distribution and you ended up with some crusty edges which is what paella is known for. Normally paella is made in a very specialized pan, but if you aren’t making it regularly, it makes sense to use something that you probably have on hand.

My bad idea was using brown rice instead of white rice. It took forever to cook. Don’t do this. Just use short grain white rice (although not the instant kind) and you’ll be in much better shape. If you can find specially labeled paella rice, even better.

The Allioli

There some good spicy flavors going on in this dish and a garlic-packed sauce is the perfect complement. Allioli, or aioli, is almost like a mayonnaise, but slightly different. You heat the egg yolks first and pack in other flavors: mainly garlic.

So you’ll need these things!

Kinda like mayo!

Start by smashing your garlic cloves and adding them to a medium bowl. Use a fork to mash them up a bit in the bowl. Then whisk in the egg yolks, water, vinegar, and salt.

Set this bowl over a simmering water bath, but make sure that the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Continue to whisk until the eggs reach about 140 degrees. A thermometer really helps, but if you don’t have one handy, it should be hot to the touch, but not burning or simmering at all.

Continue to whisk, maintaining that temperature for 3 minutes. Be careful not to let it get too hot or the eggs will completely cook. Then remove it from the heat and let the yolks cool completely to room temperature.

Next, gradually whisk in oil in a very thin stream until mixture is thick. Cooking the yolks makes it a bit easier to incorporate the oil. Then season with pepper!

You can make this in advance without a problem. I think it gets a bit better after a chill in the fridge.

Aioli is a weird word.

The Paella

To start the paella, be sure to prep all your ingredients. This is one of those dishes where it’s kind of annoying to have to stop to chop an onion or something, so just make sure you have everything ready.

To start this, bring 3 cups of water to a rolling boil and add it to a bowl with the dried mushrooms. Let these sit for about an hour to reconstitute.

Flavor town.

When you’re ready, strain the broth out and squeeze as much liquid as possible from the mushrooms. Even though it’s kind of gross, I literally pick up the shrooms and wring them out like a wash cloth. There’s tons of flavor in those guys that you don’t want to waste.

Meanwhile, dice up the fresh mushrooms and an onion, and cube up the chicken.

Some basic choppin'

In your cast iron skillet, add two tablespoons of oil over high heat. Add the chicken in two batches, searing the pieces well on each side.

After the chicken is seared (about five minutes), remove it to a bowl and add a bit more oil. Then add the mushrooms and cook for another few minutes until they are seared. Finally add the onions and chopped garlic and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Cook all this for just a minute or two on high heat. You goal is just to get them started and bring some flavor to the party.

Then you can add your mushrooms and onions to your chicken.

Lightly cooked.

Working with saffron is super-fun. This is the first time I’ve had my hands on some really good stuff.

I added my saffron to about 1/2 Cup of water to let them kind of bloom and start giving off some color.

Just look at that color!

Devil sperm.

To get the paella ready for the oven, add a few more tablespoons of oil to the pan along with the rice over medium high heat.

Again, don’t use brown rice like me people. It was a bad idea.

Use the right rice please.

Once the rice is coated well with oil and hot, add 3 cups of the mushroom stock the pan. Also add the tomatoes, spices, saffron (and broth).

Then stir in all the chicken, mushrooms, and onions. Add about 1/2-1 Cup of chicken stock to the dish. The liquid should basically cover the other ingredients.

Ready for a bake!

Bring this all to a simmer on the stove top and then add it to a 400 degree oven, uncovered.

It will probably need to cook for somewhere between 30-40 minutes.

Check it frequently if it looks really dry at any point, but the rice isn’t cooked, add a bit more chicken stock. It’s done when the liquid is gone and the rice is cooked through.

If you were to add seafood to this, you would want to add it in the last few minutes. Cooking shrimp for 30 minutes is never a good idea.

Great color.

This dish had lots of really good flavor, but my rice never really cooked all the way through. Brown rice is just too sturdy to use in a dish like this.

I ended up cooking mine for about 75 minutes and eventually the rice softened enough that we could eat it.

But it was a struggle.

So feel free to make this. It was delicious. Just use the right kind of rice.

Colorful things!

A few weeks ago Betsy and I went skiing for the last time for this season. Betsy and I usually have a pretty light lunch while we’re on the slopes. Sometimes we’ll split a sandwich or something just because I’d rather not be in a food coma while speeding (falling) down a mountain.

On this day, we split a really delicious wrap that involved wild rice, butternut squash, goat cheese, and a few other veggies. Because it was on a ski slope, it also cost like $10.

I figured I could make them at home for a very small fraction of that. I substituted beets for the butternut squash just because beets are a bit easier to find in the spring.

These are fantastic for healthy and quick lunches during the week though!

Wild Rice Wraps

Yield: 8 Wraps

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Cup dry wild rice, cooked according to package
Chicken stock or veggie stock, for rice (probably need 3-4 cups)
Goat cheese, one ounce per wrap is good
Fresh baby spinach
2 beets, roasted and cubed
8 flour tortillas

Directions:

1) Roast beets at 350 degrees on a baking sheet for 60-75 minutes until knife tender.

2) When cool, peel beets and cube them fairly small.

3) Cook wild rice according to package.

4) When rice is cooked, stir in beets.

5) To make wraps, spread about one ounce of goat cheese on tortilla. Top with spinach and rice/beet mixture. Roll up and serve!

Roasting the beets

These wraps are easy to make, but not necessarily quick. Both of the two main ingredients (rice and beets) take a while to cook. You can obviously cook them at the same time though.

To roast the beets, just cut off the stem and bottom root section. Set them on a baking sheet and roast them at 350 degrees until they are tender. You should be able to easily push a knife into their center. It’ll probably take 60-75 minutes depending on the size of your beets.

These were mine after a good long roast.

Beets are so good.

Once they are cool enough to handle, peel the beets and cube them fairly small.

It’s kind of messy, but worth it.

Kinda messy but worth it.

The Rice.

If you’ve never worked with wild rice, it’s a different creature from the white stuff you’re used to. It has a really nutty flavor. It also takes about an hour to cook.

You should cook yours according to the package, but it’ll probably involve 3-4 cups of liquid per cup of rice, plus a pinch of salt and a drizzle of oil. I used chicken stock to cook my rice in, but you could use water or veggie stock if you wanted to make these vegetarian.

Basic stuff.

Just kind of throw all of this in a medium pot, bring it to a simmer, cover it, and let it simmer for about an hour.

Slow food.

When the rice is done, fluff it up with a fork and then stir in your cubed beets.

This would be a fantastic side dish as is. So you can use the leftovers for other meals pretty easily.

All mixed up.

Making the Wraps.

While you can use any flour tortilla for these guys, I found these fun veggie tortillas at the store. They came in different varieties (carrot, spinach, and tomato). I’m not exactly sure why the carrot version is yellow instead of orange, but whatever.

Carrot - Spinach - Tomato

For each wrap, spread about an ounce of goat cheese on the tortilla. This adds some nice richness to the wrap. Totally necessary in my opinion.

Can't go wrong with goat cheese!

Then layer on a good handful of spinach and top with about 1/2 Cup of the rice/beet mixture. Depending on the size of your tortilla, you might have to adjust. You want a stuffed wrap for sure.

Piled high!

Roll this up and you’re ready to go!

I sliced mine all in half so you could check out the cross-sections.

Rolled and sliced!

I found that a wrap is a really good healthy lunch. Two was almost too much for me. The rice is really filling actually.

I’m sure you could add other things to these wraps, but I wouldn’t get too crazy. The rice and beets are the stars of the show.

I think I made about 8 of these for the cost of one of the wraps on the slope. Go figure.

If you’re looking for a great lunch dish though, these hit the spot for me!

Frank's did not sponsor this post. Unfortunately.

When it comes to making economical, healthy meals, it really doesn’t get much better than beans in my opinion. There were a few other options in last week’s poll, but I was excited that you all picked beans as the winner.

I knew I wanted to keep this dish simple, but still make something interesting so instead of making a normal rice and beans dish (which I normally do on the stove top), I thought I’d try to make it more like a casserole which means it’s a bit more hands off.

While this dish is really healthy, really cheap, and very flavorful, it does require a few hours of time – especially if you start with dried beans. You can shave off some time by using canned beans, but I think that dried beans have a slightly better texture.

Rice and Bean Casserole

Yield: 8x8 dish. Serves 6.

Prep Time: 20 minutes + bean cooking

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups dried black beans, soaked overnight (or two 15 ounces cans black beans)
1 1/2 Cups long grain rice (I used brown rice, but white rice would be quicker)
1 medium onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Teaspoon cumin seeds
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 small can roasted green chilis
1/2 Teaspoon cayenne (opt.)
2 Cups Tortilla chips, crushed (for topping)
Salt and pepper
Hot sauce (for serving)

Directions:

1) If you're using dry beans, soak them overnight in cold water. Skim out anything that floats and pick out any pebbles. When you're ready to cook, drain the beans and rinse them.

2) Chop the veggies and add them to a heavy pan over high heat with the oil. Cook until veggies are soft, about 5 minutes. Add cumin seeds and continue to cook another minute.

3) Add dried beans and enough water to cover the beans by about an inch. Bring to a simmer, cover, and simmer until beans are tender, about an hour.

NOTE: If you're using canned beans, still cook the veggies, add in the beans and water, but only simmer for a minute or two to blend flavors.

OPTIONAL: If you want, remove half of your beans and mash them with a masher then add them back into the pot. This will give some different texture to your beans. I like the different texture this gives, but it's not completely necessary.

4) Add green chilis, rice, tomatoes, and cayenne (if you're using it) to bean mixture. Also add a good pinch of salt and pepper. Stir well to combine.

5) Pour mixture into a square casserole dish, cover with foil, and bake at 350 for about an hour. Check it after 30 minutes and add more liquid if it looks dry.

6) Taste for salt and pepper and add more if necessary.

7) As an optional step, crush up a cup or two of tortilla chips and sprinkle tortilla crumbs on top of casserole. Bake for another 15-20 minutes.

8) Serve with hot sauce! Use leftovers for burritos!

Cooking the beans

You definitely don’t need to use dried beans for this dish, but I like them and they are way cheaper.

To prep them, you just need to soak them overnight in cold water, picking out any bits that float. Also, be on the lookout for any pebbles that might have squirmed into the beans. Then drain and rinse them the next day right before you start cooking.

Pretty cheap eats.

I also like to throw in a few whole cumin seeds while the beans are cooking which gives them kind of an earthy flavor. I like to use whole cumin seeds because you can be a bit more liberal with them and the flavor isn’t so in your face as the ground variety.

They cook for so long in this dish that they almost dissolve away by the end.

I just leave these guys whole.

To start cooking the beans, add your olive oil to a heavy pan over high heat and once the oil is hot, add the diced red pepper, onions, and garlic. Cook this for a few minutes until the veggies are soft. Then toss in the whole cumin seeds and cook for another minute. This will give the cumin seeds a chance to toast a bit.

This will smell good.

Add water to this dish until it covers the beans by about an inch and bring it to simmer. Simmer the beans, covered, until they are tender, probably 45 minutes to 1 hour.

If you’re using canned beans, go ahead and cook the veggies and cumin, then add in the canned beans and water and bring to a simmer, but then you can just simmer it for a few minutes to blend the flavors. You still need the water though to cook the rice in the next step.

Blending the Beans

As a optional step, I like to take out about half of my beans and lightly mash them with a masher. This gives the beans two different textures in the final dish. Some are kind of creamy and some are firmer. You could skip it though if you wanted.

Mash attack!

Finishing the Casserole

Whether you mash your beans or not, for the next step you’ll need all these things.

Other good stuff.

Add the tomatoes, chilis, and rice to the pot with the veggies and beans and add a good pinch of salt and pepper. If you want it spicier, feel free to add a pinch of cayenne.

As this simmers, give it a good stir and cook for just a minute or two. Then pour the whole mixture into a square casserole dish.

This will look kind of murky and strange, but trust me. It’ll work out okay.

Strange brew...

Cover this with foil and bake it at 350 degrees until the rice is nice and soft. It’ll probably take about an hour. If you use brown rice like I did, you might need an extra 15 minutes.

If you use instant rice, you’ll have a big pot of mush. So don’t use instant rice.

Check it after 30 minutes or so and if the casserole looks dry, add more water to it so the rice can continue to cook.

This was mine after about an hour. At this point, be sure to taste it again for salt and pepper and stir in more if needed.

Now it's looking good.

The Topping

You can 100% just serve the casserole as is, but I thought it’d be fun to put a topping on it.

Tortilla chip crumbs were the obvious choice and also a great way to get out some aggression!

A tortilla topping.

Smash up a few chips and add them to the top of the casserole.

This was a good touch if I do say so myself.

Stick this back in the oven for another 15 minutes or so and the tortilla chips get a bit golden brown and nice and crunchy. They also absorb any extra liquid that might be in the casserole.

I obviously served mine with hot sauce, but it’s pretty good just like this.

A spoon full of casserole...

This was really good on day one, but it was maybe better on day two because I rolled it in a tortilla with some cheese and made an awesome lunch burrito with the leftovers!

The smell of turmeric is in the air.

If you’ve ever been to an even half-way legit Indian food joint, you will have probably seen a large open oven in the back that’s red hot. Daredevil cooks will be sticking their arms into it — pushing in breads and meats and pulling out beautifully charred food.

It’s called a tandoor and I want one. It’s kind of like a pizza oven except roundish and the hole is in the top of it. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that you need to make them yourself which is possibly a project I’d be willing to undertake if I owned the place I was living.

I have a feeling though that my landlord wouldn’t be thrilled if I constructed a large clay pit in the backyard just so I could make na’an.

But have no fear. We can make really good tandoori chicken in the oven with a broiler, or on the grill.

Broiled Tandoori Chicken

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes + marinade time

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

2 pounds chicken, bone-in. I like chicken thighs and legs.
2 Cups Greek yogurt
1 lemon, juice only
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 inches, fresh ginger, minced
3 Serrano peppers, minced
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon garam masala
1 Teaspoon cumin
1 Teaspoon coriander
1 Teaspoon turmeric
1/2 Teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Mince (or chop in a food processor) the garlic, ginger, and peppers until they are a rough paste.

2) Combine paste with yogurt, lemon, oil, and spices.

3) Marinate chicken in yogurt mixture for at least an hour but preferably 4-6 hours.

4) When ready to cook, wipe off excess marinade and lay chicken on a foil-lined baking sheet.

5) You can either grill the chicken on high heat until charred and then move to low/indirect heat or broil for 6-10 minutes on high until charred, then finish cooking in a 350 degree oven.

6) Serve chicken with steamed veggies and/or rice.

Prepping the Marinade

This dish is based around a yogurt marinade which a lot of Indian food uses. The yogurt keeps the meat really tender.

To start, you need a lot of garlic, ginger, and chilis.

Lotsa flavor here.

Mince these all up very finely. It actually works best if you have a small food processor that you can whiz them up in. You want to make sure that it’s almost a paste in consistency.

This is about perfect.

The paste.

Then you need some other very flavorful spices. If you can, try to use whole spices and grind them yourself. That’ll result in the best flavor, but using ground is just fine also.

You'll want these guys too.

Mix the yogurt, with the pepper-garlic-ginger paste along with all the other spices. Add in the lemon and oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Then add your chicken to this mixture and make sure the chicken is really covered in the marinade.

Let this marinate for at least an hour, but preferably a few hours. I let mine sit in the fridge for about 5 hours and it was good.

All mixed up.

Cooking the chicken

You have some solid options for cooking the chicken. First, you could grill it. I just got a grill actually which I’m super-excited about. I would go the grilling route if you can.

Second, if you don’t have a grill, you can broil it. Turn your broiler on hi and then line a baking sheet with foil. Wipe off the marinade and set the chicken, skin side up, on the baking sheet. If you removed your chicken skin, then just throw it on there.

You should still have a pretty good coating of marinade on the chicken.

What? You don't have a tandoor oven?

Cook this under the broiler until the chicken is nicely charred, probably 6-10 minutes depending on how awesome your broiler is.

Then turn off the broiler and finish the chicken in a 350 degree oven until the chicken is done, probably another 15 minutes.

You’ll end up with some beautifully charred chicken.

Nice and charred.

I served the chicken with some steamed snap peas and brown rice that I cooked with a few Teaspoons of turmeric. The rice wasn’t quite as flavorful as I had hoped, but I just drowned it in chili garlic sauce anyway.

The chicken was very crispy and still really moist on the inside.

Finish with some colorful stuff.

I think this would be a great dish for someone who wants an intro to Indian flavors. The ingredients are pretty simple so you may just have to pick up a few extra spices.

Even though I can make this in the broiler or on the grill, I still want my own tandoor…

Salty, sweet, spicy, savory.

You know how sometimes when people don’t get along you just need to shove them in a room together, lock the door, and not let them out until they are Besties?

What? You’ve never done that?

Well, you should try it. It works.

So I figured I’d try a similar approach with two of the most feared and disliked ingredients out there: Tofu and Brussel Sprouts. I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I smashed them together they would get along and make friends and taste delicious.

Seared Tofu with Sprouts

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound extra firm tofu
1/2 Cup brown rice
2/3-1 pound brussel sprouts, trimmed and roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic
2 Tablespoons cilantro
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
Optional toppings: More soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, chopped scallions, peanuts.

Directions:

1) Press tofu block between a few paper towels. Put a cutting board on top with something heavy to press out liquid. Let sit for 10 minutes.

2) Chop tofu into strips and marinate in a few tablespoons of soy sauce.

3) Prep all other ingredients. Cook rice, roughly chop brussel sprouts, and chop cilantro, garlic, etc.

4) Add a few Tablespoons of vegetable oil to a hot pan (a wok or nonstick pan works best). Add tofu in a single layer and let cook for a few minutes on high heat until the tofu starts to brown.

5) Turn tofu and brown on the second side.

6) After cooking for a few minutes on each side, add brown sugar and toss to coat tofu in sugar. Cook for a few minutes until tofu caramelizes.

7) Remove tofu and sprinkle with cilantro.

8) Add sprouts to hot pan (don't wash it) and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

9) Add garlic and rice and if pan is really try, a bit more oil. Season with salt and pepper and cook until sprouts are tender and some will be browned.

10) Serve tofu over sprouts with toppings of choice.

Adapted from a 101 Cookbooks recipe.

Prepping the Tofu

Anytime I’m searing tofu, I always press it first to get out extra water. It may not look like it, but even extra firm tofu has a lot of water in it. To press out some of the water, just set the tofu block on some paper towels, add a few paper towels on top, and set a cutting board on top with a bit of weight.

After 10 minutes a lot of water will be pressed out and the paper towels will be soaking wet.

Next, to prep the tofu for cooking, cut it into strips and toss it with a few Tablespoons of soy sauce.

A light soy sauce bath.

The Feared Sprouts

I’m not sure why people don’t like brussel sprouts. I think they are one of the most delicious veggies out there. They have great colors and flavors and can work in a number of different dishes.

What’s not to love?

The most feared of vegetables.

To “shred” these guys, I washed them and chopped off the stem end. Then I just roughly chopped them.

Because the sprouts kind of fall apart it, results in different textures which is nice I think.

Roughly chopped = shredded.

At your convenience for this dish, you’ll also want to boil some brown rice. I literally just boiled mine in some salted water and drained it when it was cooked, which was after about 30 minutes.

You could use any kind of rice you have on hand (leftover rice would work great) or just leave it out. I think it added a great texture to the dish though.

Great texture.

Before starting to cook, make sure all your other ingredients are ready. I have these cool little bowls which work great for prep ingredients. Chopped cilantro, garlic, brown sugar, oil. Check.

Fixins'

Searing the Tofu

In a large wok or non-stick pan, add a few tablespoon of oil and crank up the heat. Add the tofu in a single layer and cook for a few minutes until the tofu is nicely browned on one side.

Then flip all the pieces and cook for another few minutes.

Next, sprinkle in the browned sugar and toss the tofu. The brown sugar will lightly caramelize and create a bit of a crust on the tofu. Just keep an eye on this or the brown sugar might burn.

Caramelized.

After a few minutes the brown sugar should be coating all the pieces and the tofu should be a nice golden brown color. At that time, remove it from the pan and sprinkle it with some cilantro.

Some great tofu.

Cooking the sprouts

There’s no need to wash the pan for this. Just add another Tablespoon of oil and add all the sprouts. It should sizzle and pop which is a good thing. The brussel sprouts will pick up a bit of the brown sugar in the pan that’s left.

Toss the sprouts after a few minutes. Some pieces might be cooked more than others, but that’s fine.

Next, add in your rice and the chopped garlic. Mix to combine and season with salt and pepper.

A great mix!

Serve the tofu over the sprout mixture and top with any toppings you wish. I like a big dollop of chili garlic sauce because that’s how I roll.

This really hit the spot for me.

I knew I would like this dish, but Betsy also really liked it which is my evidence that it was a success. She even called leftovers for lunch the next day to my disappointment.

So, if you don’t like sprouts and you don’t like tofu, maybe you’ll like them smashed together?

Ok. Probably not. But I did my best!