Polenta with Red Beans and Coconut

Today was a day off, I'm working all weekend, and a quick look at the cafeteria menu on the hospital's Intranet told me that this would be a bad weekend for a vegetarian to be at their mercy during her 30-minute lunch break.  Since the next best thing I could think of that doesn't involve cooking would be to venture out into the 100-degree weather to pick something up from the Chinese restaurant half a block away, I figured it would be best to cook enough today to last until Tuesday (my next day off).

I wish I could claim this as my own recipe, but alas...I used to make this a few times a year using the recipe from my Haitian cookbook, A Taste of Haiti (reference below).  I kinda got away from using this cookbook because meat recipes figure more prominently in it than veggies, and most of the veggie side dish recipes are for plantains and sweet potatoes.  I love both, mind you, but I can't eat them all the time.  However, I recently replayed the spinach praram sans sweet potatoes and found myself with half a can of coconut milk left over.  What to do, what to do?  Ah yes, the old coconut polenta with kidney beans recipe...

Before I give you the polenta recipe, I'm going to first provide the recipe for the Haitian ground "spice" mix that's needed at the very beginning.  I had hoped to be able to multi-task and save time by making the Zepis while everything else was getting started, but no...you really do need it first.  Here's that recipe along with some other suggestions (since this recipe makes a lot more than you'll need for the polenta):

Zepis (Haitian ground spice mix):
1 garlic head, peeled (or use 20-25 cloves of chopped garlic from a jar if you're too impatient to peel garlic)
2 green bell peppers
2 onions (or one big onion)
3-5 scallions
3 cilantro sprigs
10 parsley sprigs
1 cup of white vinegar (my preference; book says you can also use 1/2 cup oil or 1/2 cup water)

Combine all ingredients in blender or food processor and place in a jar (or two if they're small).  Keep refrigerated. 

Suggestions: this is very similar to the sofrito sauce that I made for the pigeon pea soup last summer; just add some chopped tomatoes and a few shakes of hot sauce (I like the Yucateco green habanero sauce because it adds more heat and less vinegar).  Zepis also has some potential as a marinade for meats and veggies, and the addition of some hot peppers (or that green habanero sauce) would make it into a delicious Mexican restaurant-style salsa verde.

The recipe book offers up a traditional, time-consuming version, involving dry beans and a whole coconut that you shred yourself, as well as a quick version using coconut milk and canned kidney beans.  Since their recipe calls for a whole can of coconut milk and two cans of kidney beans, I bought one can of kidney beans at the Pig this morning and made a half-batch for lunch:

Polenta with Red Beans and Coconut:
1 tbsp canola oil
1/4 cup Zepis (Haitian ground "spice" mix; see recipe below)
1 can red kidney beans, drained
1/2 can of coconut milk
2 whole cloves
1/2 cup plain yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

Heat the oil, add the zepis and saute for 5 minutes on medium heat.  Stir in the beans and cook for another 5 minutes.  Add the coconut milk and cloves and cook for another 5 minutes.  Add 1.5 cups of water and bring mixture to a boil.  Add cornmeal slowly, stirring carefully to avoid clumps (or mash them out if they start forming) and then add salt.  Reduce heat to low and cover.  Cook for 25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.
***

I served this up with a simple, Caribbean-inspired take on a familiar side dish here in the South:

Okra and tomatoes:
1 tbsp canola oil
1 pound of frozen okra, thawed
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or to taste
4 oz tomato sauce

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add okra and spices and cook until okra seems less sticky and/or is starting to brown.  Add tomato sauce and cook until mixture is heated through.
***

As you can see in the picture, the polenta doesn't hold its shape very well.  If you're concerned about space on the plate and/or don't want to have the huge quantity that I was ready for by the time it was done, consider serving it in a ramekin or a small side dish bowl.  Despite the mushy presentation, it turned out as well as the last time I made it a couple of years ago!  Try it - dishes from spicy regions like the Caribbean are a wonderful change from the ordinary in the summertime.

Stay tuned to find out what I made for dinner (and other weekend leftovers)...

Recipes from:
Yurnet-Thomas, Mirta.  A Taste of Haiti.  New York: Hippocrene, 2002.  ISBN 0-7818-0998-3

Steve's Birthday and Week in Review

Hmm...blogging more than once per week is turning out to be easier said than done.  I suppose that if this blog covered more than cooking, like my workouts and restaurant experiences, I'd have more to blog about.  As it turns out, last week's sambhar plus some other leftovers carried me into the middle of the week, so I quit cooking for a while so I could dispense with the leftovers.  By Thursday, I was getting too busy to cook again, so I actually ate frozen dinners, like, three nights in a row.  By Friday I decided that I was sick of frozen and I wanted to cook, so I skipped yoga in order to stay home and replay the sweet potato spinach praram.  Excellent fuel for the 10-mile run I did on Saturday morning!

For Saturday's lunch, I borrowed this recipe for garlic greens and white beans (pictured above) to finish off a big bag of kale but substituted black-eyed peas for the white beans because that's what I had in the cupboard.  And Romano cheese instead of the Parmesan, not that there's much difference between the two.


I didn't cook again over the weekend because we had ample lunch leftovers and we dined out on Saturday, Sunday and Monday for our birthday weekend - my birthday was yesterday, and Steve's is today.  So...I cooked for Steve and presented a couple of options for which I had already grocery shopped.  Steve's preference was the Chinese hot pots, so that's what I made.  The only deviations from this recipe were that I made it vegetarian (skipped the chicken pieces and used Better than Bouillon vegetable base instead of chicken broth) and made about a third of this recipe, since I didn't know how well any leftover rice stick noodles would keep.  I also added broccoli and cilantro as recommended in this spicy Thai soup recipe.  It turned out well, and for having over a dozen ingredients, it came together pretty fast.  Which was good, since we were both hungry early this evening.

Soon to come...more seasonal veggie goodness!

Veggie Blue Plate Special 2: Lentils, Polenta and Green Beans

Well, it's January 8 and I still haven't broken my New Year's resolution to go vegetarian this month (and at least 5 other months this year).  It seems like forever since I last cooked anything more than rice and some frozen stir-fry veggies - hence my neglect of this blog - but today we had no leftovers and, after a blustery 10-mile run, I knew that none of the 300-calorie Healthy Choice meals in the freezer would come close to hitting the spot.  So, I finally cooked again.  I thought about using some of the produce (which we've also been low on) that Steve picked up yesterday before deciding that just using what we had in the cupboard and freezer would be quicker and easier. 

The "veggie blue plate" that I whipped up for Steve and myself consisted of the following:

Lentils with Italian herbs:
3 cups water
1 cup lentils, rinsed and sorted
salt and Italian herbs to taste

Bring the water to a boil.  Add remaining ingredients, cover and simmer until the lentils are tender (no need to stir), about 25-30 minutes.

Cheesy Polenta:
2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup plain yellow corn meal
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
pepper to taste

Bring the water to a boil.  Lower to medium and whisk in the corn meal a little at a time, getting rid of any lumps that may appear.  (If it starts bubbling before you're done, turn off the heat.)  Once all the corn meal has been stirred in, the mixture should have a texture similar to mashed potatoes.  Stir in Parmesan and pepper.

Green Beans in Tomato Sauce:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups frozen green beans, thawed
salt and crushed red pepper to taste
1 cup tomato sauce

Heat the olive oil in a shallow pan over medium heat.  Add the green beans, salt and crushed red pepper and stir well.  Lower heat to medium-low, stir in the tomato sauce and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the tomato sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes.

The nice thing about this combo was that I didn't have to rinse and chop any fresh produce, because I was already too hungry by the time I started to make time for prep work.  Also, because I was so hungry, I went back for seconds on the polenta.  I'm just glad that Steve was hungry enough to enjoy it as much as I did. 

If you llive in the Southeast and haven't done so already, get to the store today and stock up on whatever you may happen to need for the next few days.  Not because the wintry mix that they're predicting will keep you inside or without power, but just so everyone else who's in a panic about the impending bad weather doesn't beat you to the store and clear whatever it is you need off the shelves.  That can be annoying.

Enjoy your weekend and stay warm!

Lima Beans and Turkey Smoked Sausage with Fresh Corn Polenta

This is about as country as my cooking gets.  I still had a bunch of veggies left from Thursday, and I'll get getting more in a couple of days.  I had no idea what I'd do with the lima beans at first; succotash came to mind, but for some reason I only ever want that in winter.  So, I hunted for a recipe and found this one, which called for chicken.  Since I just made chicken the other night, I figured I'd slightly alter the recipe to something just as flavorful (turkey smoked sausage) that wouldn't require so much effort.  Because of all the veggies I still had on hand, I almost made this without the smoked sausage so as to sneak in another veggie or two, but hey - make what you're in the mood for, right?

Lima beans with turkey smoked sausage:
2 cups fresh lima beans, rinsed and sorted
3 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsp canola oil
8 oz. turkey smoked sausage, cut in half lengthwise and sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 tbsp canola oil
3 mild banana peppers, finely chopped
2 tbsp flour
pepper to taste

Bring 3 cups of vegetable broth to a boil.  Add lima beans, cover and simmer on medium for 20 minutes.

In a wide, shallow pan, heat 2 tbsp canola oil over medium heat.  Add turkey smoked sausage and saute until warmed, about 3-5 minutes.  Add green bell pepper and continue cooking until smoked sausage begins to brown, another 5 minutes.  Transfer smoked sausage and bell pepper mixture to a plate, keeping as much of the pan drippings in the pan as possible, and set aside.

Add another tbsp canola oil to the pan.  Once heated, add banana peppers and saute on medium heat until they begin to brown, about 5 minutes.  Stir in 2 tbsp flour and continue cooking until flour-oil mixture begins to brown (stir often to keep it from burning).  Pour in cooked lima beans and all remaining broth and stir well.  Stir in reserved smoked sausage and bell peppers.  Continue to cook, uncovered, until sauce has thickened to desired consistency.  Check seasoning and add pepper to taste.

Fresh corn polenta:
3 ears fresh corn, baked with husks on
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Remove all husks and threads from corn after baking.  Cut corn off the cob using a serrated knife.  Place corn kernels in a blender with water and puree until smooth.  Pour polenta into a saucepan and heat to medium.  Stir constantly when it starts to bubble, and continue cooking, stirring often, until desired thickness is reached.  Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan cheese.

The end result was okay, although my original plan had been to make the polenta thick enough to form wells on the plate and spoon the smoked sausage and lima beans into that, making it a somewhat more sophisticated take on Southern cooking.  Turns out that if you want to put corn in a blender, you need at least four ears' worth if you don't want to have to add liquid.  Oh, well.  On the bright side, I learned as we were finishing up that Steve was still pretty full from the chicken l'orange he had for lunch!