Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Beans & Rice & Rye

OK! So I love refried beans. Point of interest if you didn't already know, but the re prefix in Spanish adds emphasis instead of denoting repetition, so refrito is more accurately translated as 'fried all to hell' rather than 're-fried'.
Anyways! How do I like these things?
Well, mince up some garlic and a chipotle pepper (visited every grocery store in town looking for them), and fry them up with a little bit of thinly sliced then chopped up chorizo (spread a little meat out for extra texture and flavour). When the oil's all nice and red from taking in the sauce of the chipotles (unless, like, you got fresh chipotles somehow?), throw in them refried black beans from a can. Fry it up, then for the last minute, throw in chopped parsley, crumbled feta, and grated white cheddar (close enough for queso blanco). Mix it, heat it, plate it. Along with some rice and flatbreads rye bread and sour cream and tomatoes & parsley for garnish. Rye is, of course, not the typical pairing, but it's what I've got.



I was trying to plate it up nice and got the parsley in there, then mom and her friend BJ (she makes beads and jewelry, sells them here, she is from the Yukon or one of the territories, I think?) were hanging around and drinking wine and demanding cooking demonstrations (I think you would fit right in there, drinking wine with ladies and making me cook things), and BJ being an artist and mom being a quilter, they said I needed some red so there was some more adobo on top of the rice and I slipped the tomatoes in underneath after the fact by guiding them in with a knife. The beans actually looked a lot nicer in the pan spread out but on the plate you're missing all the nice little bits of stuff in there.

action shot!



All mexican food shots © my mom.

Bonus "Consuming All My Rye Bread" pictures:

meats&cheeses                                                        mushroom&onion grilled cheese

3 comments:

  1. Amazing plating, friend! Really great work :D
    I find that the extra splash of colour/extra pairing of side food adds a lot to any meal. I mean, some people may not eat the added tomatoes, but to others, oh, it will make all the difference. And it looks just delicious.
    Also, I have a GIANT parsley plant in my kitchen (I dug up most of my herbs), and I put it on a ton of my meals (and also eat sprigs of it when I pass by). Good choices all around.

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  2. The sandwich lady who used to sell us sandwiches at work always included a sprig of parsley in the wrapped sandwich and no one else ate their parsley and I was like 'whay*?' because garnishes are so good and I can't stand to waste food.

    *whay is a typo that I realized is a combination of what and why so I left it.

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  3. also you should know that on the meat & cheese plate the little pile of lumps in the back were pickled capers that I was eating straight. It led me to question my competency as a taster of food but I was loving those little guys that day.

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