(I had to go with the alliteration, alright?)

Anyway, now that I’ve thoroughly confused everyone, let’s talk about the meatless dinner I threw together out of my fridge and pantry with no advanced preparation. I was caught out not knowing what we were going to eat at five in the evening, because I’d had so much fun working in the garden I forgot to think up an idea about dinner. These things happen to everyone, so I’ll let you know just how fast one can prepare vegetarian quesadillas with a homemade salsa in a bit more than an hour.

Even with the help of a five year old, I must add.

First, I had to dig around in the fridge and see what was there. Two leftover ears of grilled corn, still on the cob (so there’s one bit of advanced preparation), a block of local sharp cheddar cheese, some multi-grain tortillas, a pale green summer squash, a big bowlful of heirloom tomatoes, the first jalapenos and Thai chilies from our garden, local purple onions, cilantro, and some limes I got to make the Thai Basil Chicken we enjoyed last night. Oh, and the Greek yogurt I made yesterday.

All of these were pulled out of the fridge at top speed and handed off to Kat who shuttled them from Mom’s hand to the counter with all the speed and dexterity that every first grader has, which means one of the tomatoes got a bit bruised and a lime was stepped on, but that’s okay, that just broke the juice sacs so we could get more out of it. Right?

So, quesadillas came right to mind, but looking at the corn and the squash, I thought to myself that we needed some beans. Because if you have two of the traditional three sisters, you’d best invite the third one or something bad will happen along the lines of the fairy who wasn’t invited to that princesses’ christening and she laid a nasty curse on her. (Let’s just mix mythologies into a cocktail of confusion, shall we?)

But my containers of pre-cooked beans perished in the slowly thawing freezer during our long power outage, and I had no canned beans, because I’d been pre-cooking and freezing them for so long, so what to do?

Pull out the pressure cooker and make super quick smoky vegetarian black beans. Nothing to it. Once the pressure cooker is up to pressure, the beans took twenty-five minutes to cook and bam! There they were, ready to be drained and added to the quesadillas.

While the beans cooked, Kat and I made Calico Salsa, which she now insists we call Calico Kat Salsa, since she helped cut the tomatoes, pick the cilantro leaves, squeeze the limes and peel the garlic. So, please note the name change, and keep in mind this is the earliest I’ve made it ever, because the tomatoes are all coming in a month earlier than usual. I planted mine out in late March because out winter was so warm. I only had to cover them twice. So, yeah. Weird climate change stuff.

Anyway, on to happier thoughts.

Like sauteing squash.

It’s simple–I cut it up into thick julienne pieces (with Kat’s help, I might add), and heated some olive oil in a pan and sprinkled salt on the squash and tossed it around, seasoning it with Aleppo pepper flakes and a sprinkle of garlic halfway through cooking, then tossed it around some more. I let it get nice and toasty brown in spots, caramelizing the sugars nicely, then dumped it in a bowl to cool off.

Then, I shredded the cheese and Kat picked cilantro leaves from the stems and in a flash, we were good to go.

All that was left to do was assemble the quesadillas, fry them lightly in olive oil, cut them up and pass the salsa and yogurt as toppings, and there was dinner. Took Kat and I about an hour and fifteen minutes. (I would have been faster working alone, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.)

Now, this all said, you can do this even faster if you cook beans ahead of time and keep them in your fridge or freezer, have salsa made ahead or get it from a jar, and keep pre-shredded cheese around your house. Whatever shortcuts you like, do them! Just try and start out from fresh ingredients and you can’t go wrong with this simple, flavorful vegetarian dinner.

These taste great–the earthy richness of the beans, the sweet corn and soft, and the mellow squash are tied together with the tangy cheese and yogurt and the sparkle of the salsa. Well worth the trouble of making, whether are you meditating in the kitchen alone or are helped by little ones and friends.

Three Sisters Quesadilla
Ingredients:

1 pound dried black beans, rinsed and picked over then drained
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 zucchini or other summer squash, cut into thick julienne slices
salt
pinch of Aleppo Pepper flakes
2 ears of grilled corn, kernels cut from the cob
cilantro leaves to taste
whole grain mixed grain flour tortillas
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
olive oil as needed for pan frying
Greek yogurt or sour cream for serving1 recipe of Calico (Kat) Salsa

Method:

To cook the beans in a pressure cooker, after picking over them and washing and draining them, add them to the pressure cooker, along with smoked paprika, bay leaf, cumin and fresh rosemary leaves. Add one tablespoon of the oil and then add water to cover the beans by two inches.

Lock on the lid, turn the pressure valve to high, and put over high heat and bring to a boil so that the lid lock button pops up indicating full pressure. Turn the heat down to low and cook for twenty five minutes. Remove from heat, release pressure using the quick release method and when the pressure is released, unlock the lid and open the cooker. Drain out two cups of the beans, saving the rest of the beans and bean broth, if you wish, for another purpose. (I stuck mine in the freezer.) You may season the drained beans as you like–I added extra cumin, some salt and some more smoked paprika, and stirred them up well.

Add three tablespoons of olive oil to saute pan and heat on high. Add the squash pieces and sprinkle with the salt, then cook, stirring and tossing until the pieces go limp and start to turn golden. Sprinkle with the pepper flakes and keep cooking until the squash has released most of its water and has caramelized with some edges becoming crispy and brown. Set the squash aside in a bowl to cool.

To assemble the quesadillas, lay out one tortilla, and sprinkle with enough cheese to lightly cover the surface, excluding a 3/4 inch border around the edges of the tortilla. Add beans, corn, and squash to taste along with cilantro leaves, then sprinkle a small amount of cheese over the vegetables.

Top with another tortilla, and press the layers together gently but firmly with your hands. Heat in a microwave briefly–for about 12 seconds to melt the cheese slightly, then press the tortillas together so they are kind of “glued” into a single quesadilla unit.

Assemble all quesadillas before cooking.

Heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a frying pan that will fit the tortillas. Test the heat of the oil with a bamboo chopstick or wooden utensil. When fine bubbles form around the edges of the chopstick or implement, the oil is hot enough. Carefully slide a quesadilla into the pan and cook until the edges turn brown–about 1 minute, then carefully, with two spatulas, one on the bottom and one on the top, flip the quesadilla and cook until the underside is golden brown and the edges are crispy, about another minute.

Drain on paper towels and cut into wedges. Serve with salsa and yogurt or sour cream.

I adore huevos rancheros.

And until breakfast yesterday, I’d never bothered to make them at home.

I’m not sure why except for whatever reason I never had leftover refried beans in the refrigerator at the same time as eggs and freshly made salsa at a time that coincided with a desire to eat huevos rancheros.

Or, perhaps, until yesterday, I had simply been too lazy to bother making them myself since I can go downtown and get a really nice version of the dish made for me at the cosy little locavore haven, Casa Nueva.

I’ll cop to being lazy, so maybe that should just be the answer.

But yesterday, I wanted huevos and couldn’t just haul off and wander downtown because I was waiting for the dishwasher repair guy, so I looked in the fridge and lo and behold! There were refrieds, made the night before from Rancho Gordo’s Eye of the Goat beans, there was Calico Salsa made freshly the night before from heirloom tomatoes we grew in our very own garden, there were fresh local eggs, there was smoked goat cheddar from Integration Acres, and some whole wheat tortillas left over from burritos from the week before.

So, it only made sense to get in front of the stove and make myself a plate of huevos.

For the initiated, huevos rancheros is a dish from the cowboy days, born along the border of Mexico and the American Southwest, and today you can find it in restaurants, truck stops, diners and dives all through that area, all with slight regional variations, especially when it comes to what kind of salsa is featured with the dish. But the basic idea for “eggs, ranch-style” is always the same–one or two corn tortillas are layered with some warm refried beans and cheese, then the plate is put under the broiler to heat it all up nicely and melt the cheese. Two over-easy fried eggs are laid gently atop this bed of leguminous love, a bit of salsa is poured over, cheese is sprinkled again and then under the broiler the plate is put to melt the cheese and warm the salsa.

Then, out it comes to the diner who presumably tucks in gleefully, drinking copious amounts of black coffee which tastes mighty fine alongside the plate of eggs, beans and salsa.

Turns out, if you have the ingredients already prepped up and on hand, making huevos rancheros is a simple matter of warming some stuff up, frying a couple of eggs and melting some cheese, which really, truly, anyone can do in the morning, even if one hasn’t had coffee.

I’d say the trickiest part is frying the eggs. I’m not sure I can really teach someone how to cook over-easy fried eggs online, but I can at least describe the process. But, truly, it just takes practice to get the hang of it. I got good at it working breakfast shift when I was in culinary school. Breakfast shift in a diner or another quick-serve establishment will really teach a person how to cook eggs.

But here’s basically how to go about frying some over-easy eggs–which would be eggs that are fried until the bottom of the egg white is set, then are gently flipped over to set the white on the top. The yolk is only partially set–it is mostly just thickened slightly to a rich, smooth golden liquid. (Over hard eggs are cooked until the yolks are completely set and firm, but not rubbery.)

First, pick a good pan. I use a non-stick pan, but a good, well-seasoned cast iron pan is just as good, if not better. Heat it over medium heat and put a little bit of whatever fat you want to use in it: olive oil is good, butter is better and bacon drippings are the best. THE best. But, if you are watching your weight or are a vegetarian, by all means, use either olive oil or butter. When the oil is dripping, crack your eggs carefully by opening the shell less than an inch from the pan. (Using the freshest eggs possible will not only result in the tastiest eggs but also the most compact egg whites–older egg whites run a lot and spread out over the pan more. Fresher eggs are less likely to result in broken yolks as well.)

Cook the eggs until the whites are set–opaque white–with maybe a little bit of browning on the edges, and just a clear sheen of uncooked white on top. Then, using a thin but sturdy spatula, slide it under an egg, and without lifting the egg clear out of the pan, just gently roll the egg over so that the yolk goes down on the hot surface of the pan, hopefully without breaking the yolk. (The first few times you do this, you’re likely to break the yolk. The egg will still taste good though, so don’t despair and just keep cooking eggs until you get them right.) The closer to the pan you keep the spatula and the egg, the less likely you are to actually break the yolk, and the more gently you roll the egg, the better.

If you are cooking one egg at a time and you have a quick wrist and a strong intestinal fortitude, not to mention the courage of your convictions, you can flip the egg in the air. BUT, from personal experience, I can tell you that it takes about a dozen and a half eggs destroyed to get this advanced technique right and it never works if you’re cooking two eggs or more in the same pan.

Anyway, once you turn the egg over, let it cook for about thirty seconds or so more, just until the white on the bottom is set, and voila! It’s done!

So, that’s how you fry over easy eggs.

The recipe below will teach you what to do with them once you have them. Give making huevos rancheros a try–your taste buds will thank you.

Huevos Rancheros
Ingredients:

(For one serving)

2 fresh corn tortillas
1 cup refried beans
2 tablespoons shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon Chile Colorado Sauce or salsa (optional)
2 cooked over easy eggs, fresh from the pan
2 more tablespoons shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
Fresh salsa to taste
cilantro for garnish (optional)

Method:

Put your two corn tortillas on a serving plate. Spread the beans evenly over them and sprinkle with the cheese. Run under a broiler or microwave until heated through and the cheese is melted. Spread the Chile Colorado or salsa over the beans, then put the eggs on top of that, and sprinkle with the second bit of cheese.

Run under the broiler or microwave for a few seconds, just until the cheese melts and everything is bubbly and nice.

Serve with fresh salsa on the side and sprinkle with minced cilantro. (If you had no fresh corn tortillas, then skip them and spread the beans right on the plate, then serve with a nice freshly steamed whole wheat tortilla for scooping up cheesy-eggy-beany goodness.)

I was going to make quesadillas for this week’s meatless recipe, but after eating Boeuf Bourguignon for dinner Friday night and Provencal Roast Chicken (yes, you get a recipe for that this week!) on Saturday, that for Sunday, I absolutely did not want anything fried. Sure, sure, you -could- make quesadillas by baking them, but they don’t taste as good that way!

And yes, refrieds are made by lightly frying mashed beans in olive oil–but I use much less oil in frying beans than I do when frying quesadillas.

So, I had the inspiration of making a vegetarian version of arroz gratinado, the delicious Mexican casserole of rice, salsa and shredded meat covered with melty-gooey-cheesy goodness. My version includes refried beans anyway–so I decided, what if I left out the meat?

And what if I added sauteed kale and chard?

Oooh.

That sounded ever so delightfully tasty to me.

Look, you don’t need a recipe to make this–just do something like what I did.

So, what I did was make a batch of Wholly Vegetarian Refried Beans, and a pot of jasmine rice that I cooked with a mixture of V-8 juice and vegetable stock in my rice cooker (2 cups of jasmine rice with 1 cup of V-8 juice and 1 1/4 cups of vegetable stock go in the rice cooker with a sprinkle of salt and then the lid gets clapped down and the button is pushed and in 45 minutes, we have some nice pinkish rice that has the light flavor of tomatoes and other vegetables), then I simply caramelized two thinly sliced onions with 1 big clove of thinly sliced garlic and then sauteed about a pound of mixed kale and chard. (Here’s a basic approximation of what I did with the kale and chard, minus the mushrooms and truffle oil.)

Then I shredded some sharp cheddar cheese and started layering.

First a spray of some olive oil to keep the goodies from sticking. A smear of about three tablespoons of salsa, (you can use homemade or from a jar–I like Frog Ranch Chipotle if I don’t have homemade on hand) to cover the bottom of the pan, and then a layer of rice that gets packed down a bit. Then beans, a tiny bit of salsa, then greens,a little more salsa and finally, the cheese.

And then, into the 375 degree F. oven it goes for about twenty minutes, or until the cheese is melted, bubbly and browned in a couple of spots, and out it comes. Cilantro gets sprinkled over it and away we go!

I served it with freshly made Calico Salsa and some blue corn tortilla chips on the side.

Some other vegetables you could layer into this casserole would be roasted corn on the cob (cut off the cob, of course!), sauteed summer squashes seasoned with caramelized onions and garlic, roasted tomatoes and red bell peppers, roasted poblano chiles, or sauteed mushrooms.

Succotash is one of those dishes that sounds like a joke. You know, like when Sylvester says, “Thsufferin’ thsuccotasth.” It just doesn’t sound like anything that anyone would really eat.

But yes, people do eat it and it is very good.

But where did it get that outlandish name?

It isn’t outlandish at all–I mean really, we European descendant’s languages are the ones that are outlandish to this continent if you look at it from a historical perspective. Succotash, which is a Native American dish, came from the Narragansett word, “msíckquatash,” which means, “boiled corn.” But it doesn’t denote just boiled corn–it is corn and lima beans, another native food, boiled together. (Often boiled together in a tightly woven basket–one that is so finely wrought that it could hold water. Of course, because baskets cannot survive the direct heat of the fire, the food was cooked by heating clean stones in a fire until they were red-hot. Then, using tongs, the stones were lifted and dropped in the basket which was filled with water, corn and beans. When the stones cooled too much to heat the water, they were fished out and new ones were dropped in. Ingenious, yes?)

The original dish was seasoned with sea salt, and fat rendered from a bear or beaver, but after the Europeans came and brought pigs to the New World, Native Americans began using salt pork or bacon to season the dish. I have seen versions of the recipe that use wild onions and ramps to season the vegetables as well. When settlers took up cooking it, bacon or salt pork were almost universally used in the pot, often with some onions.

Later, during the Depression, when succotash went from being a historical traditional dish at Thanksgiving to being a staple food (because it was a meatless or mostly meatless dish made of inexpensive ingredients that were filling, tasty and nutritious) bell peppers and tomatoes were often added to the recipe.

My Grandma made succotash all the time, as did my Mom and I like it, but I think that was because they both cooked it with a generous dollup of bacon drippings in it. Bacon makes anything good. I am convinced that you could put it on nearly anything and turn it into a revelation, that is, if you are not inclined toward vegetarianism, are Muslim or a Jew who keeps kosher. Then, bacon isn’t so much of an attraction, but to the rest of us–it is nearly irresistible.

But, if I am going to present a vegetarian version of succotash and I want it to still be full flavored as if it were cooked with bacon–I don’t want it to be a pale, pallid, boring combination of beans and corn.

So, this version, which is sauteed in olive oil and simmered in vegetable stock, is flavored with deeply caramelized onions, garlic, sweet and hot peppers, cumin and smoked Spanish paprika.

I also added baby pattypan squash–the third in the triumvirate of staple foods among the agriculturally based northeastern Native Americans which were poetically called, “The Three Sisters.” Corn, squash and climbing beans were planted together in small plots close to villages in forest clearings; the corn rose tall like great green columns, with beans twining up their stalks, while the squash vines sprawled on the ground, shading the roots of both the beans and corn and also shading the soil enough that weed seeds could not germinate. The roots of the bean plants, furthermore, fixed nitrogen from the atmosphere into the soil–a nutrient which corn takes up from the soil in abundance. This interdependent system of agriculture is now called companion planting.

Not only do the Three Sisters benefit from being grown together, I think they benefit from being cooked together. If you do it right and don’t just boil everything to mush without any other flavoring. All three vegetables are sweet, but with different aromas and textures, so they work together perfectly.

Now we come to the drawback of succotash–shelling the lima beans.

You can cheat and use frozen limas, but I prefer the flavor of locally grown fresh limas. But, that means I need to shell the critters, and after years of shelling bushel after bushel of them at Grandma’s farm so she could freeze them–well, let’s just say my thumbs are still traumatized.

See, lima bean pods are really, really tough and leathery. You can’t just pop off the ends and peel back the string and have the pod pop open the way it will do with green beans. Oh, no, that would be too simple. The way we used to shell them when I was a kid was the adults would use a penknife to cut the end off the pod and then pull the string down. Then, their thumbs would scrape the beans into baskets and pots to be blanched and packed into plastic bags and sealed before being stacked in the freezer.

Until I was about eight or nine, I was only allowed to tear the bean pods off of the uprooted plants that lay in the center of our circle. These I would toss into the laps of the adults which were spread with dishtowels, where piles of pods had already been deposited. At each adult’s feet were baskets and pots to hold the beans. When those filled, I carried them and emptied the pretty pale green and creamy white beans into the huge speckled black enamel pot next to Grandma’s rocking chair.

Then, I would take the empty pods and load them and the uprooted and denuded plants into a bushel basket which I would drag to the cow pasture and empty there so the cows could eat their fill of the fresh green goodness. When we had hogs, I would take a basket’s worth to them, too, and chickens got an armload of the plants–chickens really love the taste of legumes like clover, bean plants and pea shoots.

When I was either eight or nine–I can’t remember which–I was allowed to use my brand new pocketknife to actually shell beans like everyone else while a younger cousin got my old job.

I liked the old job better. Even using a knife, the lima bean pods eventually caused blisters to rise on your thumb and made your joints ache. When Mom, Uncle John and Grandpa complained about how bad lima beans are, they were not bloody well kidding–they are beans that really make you work to obtain the delicious calories they contain!

Now, the truth is, shelling enough lima beans for dinner isn’t bad. They don’t raise blisters until you have done about a half bushel or so. And now that I have grown up and have really strong hands, I have come up with a new method of opening lima pods that doesn’t include a knife. I guess this would only work with really strong hands–try it and see if it works for you.

Hold the lima bean pod like I am in the photo above, on edge, and press down with your thumb really hard on the top edge. Usually, it will pop open at the top and you can pry the pod open the rest of the way and scrape the beans out with pretty minimal effort and no real danger of stabbing yourself in the thumb with a small, sharp knife. (Yeah, I did that when I was a kid.)

Kat helped me scrape the beans from the pods, and when we were done, she carried the pot of pods to the kitchen and down the front steps where we tossed them into the woods for the deer to eat.

I do wish we had cows, goats and chickens to eat them instead, but the City of Athens frowns the keeping of livestock in city limits.

But I can dream, can’t I?

Anyway, here is my way of making succotash–and it isn’t long suffering at all.

You can eat it as is with a batch of cornbread and a salad for dinner, or you can use it to fill enchiladas or tamales.

Three Sisters Succotash
Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely diced onions
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh, minced garlic
2 tablespoons finely diced sweet bell pepper (red is best, but orange or yellow are good, too.)
minced fresh chili (optional)
1 cup thinly sliced baby summer squash (the younger squashes have less water and more flavor)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper flakes (optional)
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
2-3 cobs of either fresh or leftover grilled corn on the cob, kernels cut off
2 1/2 cups fresh, shelled lima beans
1-2 cups vegetable stock or broth
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons finely diced sweet bell pepper for garnish (it is really pretty if you can use different colors)

Method:

Heat the olive oil in a saute pan for about thirty seconds. Add the onion and sprinkle them with salt. Cook, stirring, until the onions are a nice dark golden color. Add the garlic, bell pepper and chili (if you are using it) and cook for another couple of minutes, until everything is fragrant.

Add the squash slices and cook, stirring, until the squash takes on some golden color. Add the spices–cumin, Aleppo pepper and paprika, and the corn, and cook, stirring for another minute or two.

Add the beans and cook, stirring for a minute, just to get some of the caramelized flavor into the beans.

Then, add the vegetable stock or broth and turn down the heat. Cover and simmer until the beans are as tender as you want them–I like them fully tender for this dish. When they are done, open the lid and boil off most of the liquid, leaving only the caramelized goodness of the vegetables, all of which will have taken on a golden brownish hue.

Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in the cilantro leaves and the fresh, uncooked bell pepper.

Serve immediately.

So, yesterday, I posted my version of Jamaican “peas and rice,” which is what most Americans would call red beans and rice. Whatever you call it, it is tasty–in fact, probably the tastiest beans and rice ever.

A couple of readers asked for my jerk rub recipe, and so here is my favorite–the one that I have developed over the past decade or so.

Last year, I published two variations of jerk rub. I really love the Japanese-Jamaican version, and I used the basic recipe for it to create this variant, which I think is my favorite of all time. It has more black pepper in it than the other version, more garlic and some cumin.

Cumin is so totally not traditional, but I find that when it is judiciously used, it really enhances the meaty flavor of whatever it is used on it. I wonder if it has natural glutamates in it?

If you are more interested in a traditional jerk recipe–try the first one on the link above. It is pretty truly traditional.

But this one, while untraditional and inauthentic in the extreme, is pretty amazingly good, and while it makes great seasoning for pork tenderloin medallions, it also rocks on chicken. I can’t wait to try it on lamb, bison and venison, too.

Barbara’s Favorite But Not Traditional Jerk Rub/Marinade
Ingredients:

1 1/2 heads garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 cup very finely minced scallion, both green and white parts
3 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
2″ cube fresh ginger, peeled and minced
fresh chili pepper, minced–to taste (scotch bonnet or habanero are traditional, but I have used Thai chilies to good effect)
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns, freshly ground
2 tablespoons whole allspice berries, freshly ground
5 whole cloves, freshly ground
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, freshly ground
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 whole nutmeg, ground
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon tamari soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup pineapple juice
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 1/2 tablespoons canola or peanut oil

Method:

Mix everything together until you have a kind of chunky greenish brown paste. It will be quite fragrant, but in a good way.

Rub it all over whatever meat you are using–I like to cut my meat into small pieces for cooking, because you get more surface area to get the spice rub on for more flavor–but it is up to you how you do it.

Let it sit, well covered, in the fridge however long you like–up to overnight. Bring to room temperature before throwing it on the grill. Grill on a hot fire for however long it takes for whichever meat you use to get done. The meat should be crispyish on the outside with some nice browned crackly spots and juicy and tender inside.

You can make jerk rub up ahead of time and freeze it in an airtight container–I like doubled ziplock bags to keep the fragrance in–and it will keep for about six months.

If you would rather make a pourable marinade out of this, add more pineapple or lime juice and a bit more canola or peanut oil.