Chipotle Chicken Soup with Lime Crema

You may have heard of tortilla soup, which is a strange name for what is often either a cheese-based cream of chicken soup or a brothy minestrone with chicken.  What makes it 'tortilla' soup is the presence of some tortillas shoved in there against their will, either fried or dissolved right in.  While this can be quite delicious, if you focus just on the soup itself, and not on the tortilla part, you can go one step further.

My family this recipe in some magazine years ago, but I have since tweaked it to enhance the flavor some.  It relies on chipotle chiles, which have become amazingly popular recently.  Chipotles are nothing more than jalapeno peppers that have been smoked, and they are either found dried, or canned in a spicy sauce seasoned with adobo, a latin seasoning.  But since adobo just means 'seasoning', I can't quite tell you what's in it, other than that it's good.

Save yourself some time on this one and buy a store-bought chicken.  But if you happen to have roasted your own, and you happen to have made a stock from the bones of that chicken afterwards, I'm not going to stop you from using them to make quite possibly the best combination of those things that you could get in your mouth without committing some kind of crime.

I got a bit experimental and made a lime crema this time, figuring it would balance out the soup.  As peppers are alkaline, meaning that they basic in terms of their pH level, they can be neutralized by acidic things, as well as fatty things.  This is because the capsaicin found in peppers is fat-soluble.  So, if your head didn't just explode there, the moral is that if you mix dairy and an acid, you have a powerful chile-fighting condiment that might not taste half bad either.

Chipotle Chicken Soup with Lime Crema

• 1 chipotle from can of chipotles in adobo
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 chopped red bell pepper
• 3 chopped green onions, greens and whites separated
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp freshly ground cumin
• 1 tsp powdered chiles
• 2 cooked chicken breasts or meat from a cooked chicken, about 3 cups, cut or shredded into small pieces
• 28 oz low-sodium chicken broth, or homemade
• 14-16 oz can chopped tomatoes with green chiles, such as Del Monte or Rotel
• 12 ounces frozen or fresh corn kernels
• 2 tbsp cilantro leaves
• 1/2 avocado, slices

Nothing too crazy in this, but a bit of chopping before you can start

Try to cut things up as evenly as possible to assist in even cooking.  Go for corn kernel-sized bits of pepper.

Finely mince the chipotle pepper, as well as the other vegetables.  In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add bell pepper, the white parts of the green onions, the garlic, the cumin, and the powdered chiles.  Saute for 4 minutes until soft but not browning, stirring frequently.

Next, deglaze with the chicken broth.  Stir in the chipotle chile, chicken, tomatoes, and corn.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until ready to serve.

To plate, heat bowls and then ladle in soup.  Garnish with lime crema (recipe follows), cilantro leaves, and the tops of the green onions.  Arrange avocado slices on top and serve.

Lime Crema

• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 lime
• 1/2 tbsp cilantro leaves
• 1/4 tsp salt

In a small bowl, mix sour cream, zest from the lime, and the juice of half the lime.  If desired, finely mince the cilantro and add to the crema.  Allow flavors to combine in the fridge for 30 minutes if time permits.

Pretty simple, and pairs up well with the spicy soup.

Chipotle Shrimp Tacos with Spanish Rice

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, a holiday celebrated mostly by Americans to celebrate a battle against the French, I'm presenting a recipe served with Spanish rice, and I'm posting it on May 6.  Why?  Because in life, nothing's perfect.  One day, you will come to accept this, and all will be well.

Perhaps a short backstory is in order on this.  I will attempt to guess at your day yesterday.  It's May 5.  It's getting late.  At some point in the day you've had this conversation:

You: "what the heck is Cinco de Mayo all about?"
Anyone who will listen: "I have no idea."
You: "well I think we should probably have a margarita somewhere, just to be sure."

Needless to say, I was no exception.  A quick Wikipedia search turned up the fact that this is not Mexican independence day, and that Cinco de Mayo is hardly celebrated in Mexico at all, unless you're from Puebla, where a fairly spectacular battle was fought against the French in 1862.  But it is celebrated in Mexican restaurants north of the border, and that's good enough for me.  So we settled on making some tacos, which soon gave way to burritos, as we had consumed overly strong margaritas following a 3-2-1 recipe and weren't quite in the mood for portion control.  Also an artifact of the margaritas was our inclusion of tequila in the shrimp recipe, which was invented last night.  And finally, the ingredients of the rice, which started off as plain brown rice but quickly became "whatever you feel like should be in there" rice, and which turned out to be one of the best parts of the meal.

But we'll get to the rice in a bit.  Let's start with these tacos, which were deemed so good that they arguably shouldn't be put on the blog.  After a lengthy discussion and more margaritas, it was decided that the world had to know, so here we are.  Some of the better shrimp I've ever eaten, let alone made.  Let's do this!

Burritos and Spanish rice, the results of a successful night of invention at the hands of a bottle of Herradura

Tequila-Fired Shrimp Tacos-Turned-Burritos
by me, entirely me, and nobody but me

• 1/2 pound large (21-25 count) shrimp, peeled, deveined
• 1/2 tsp cumin, freshly ground
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 chipotle, chopped fine
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp dried chile powder
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1.5 oz tequila
• 1/4 head cabbage, shredded fine
• 1/2 avocado
• Cilantro leaves as desired
• Tortillas
• Sour cream

In a medium bowl, toss the shrimp with the next 8 ingredients.  Try to work the lime juice into the shrimp.  Allow to sit for a few minutes, but not enough to accidentally cure the shrimp in the acidic solution.  While marinating, begin heating a large cast-iron skillet over high heat.

Season the shrimp in lime juice and a whole bunch of awesome.

Once smoking hot, add the oil and immediately add the shrimp so you don't burn the oil.  It may splatter if you just dump everything in, so individually add the shrimp, leaving behind the liquid.  Cook the shrimp for 2 minutes, then flip and cook another 2 minutes.

Not too much shrimp!  If you overcrowd, you'll end up with steamed nastiness, not seared crustacean magic.

At this point, a rational person would stop.  But someone 2 margaritas deep will instead forge on, and try to light the kitchen on fire.  By this I mean you will add 1 shot of tequila, and apply fire to it to get it to catch.  I had some difficulty with the flame part, but you can try to tip the pan or use a fireplace starter to get that thing to blow up like the Godfather.  Do it immediately, because it will evaporate quickly.  Once done having fun, remove shrimp to a bowl.

My alcohol-fueled tequila-fired shrimp.  Actual fire is optional.

To serve, assemble burritos/tacos with sour cream, cabbage, sliced avocado, the shrimp, and cilantro if you don't think it tastes like soap (I don't).  Serve with escabeche (pickled vegetables) if you have them, Spanish rice (recipe follows), or whatever you like.  More margaritas, for example.  ¡Olé!

Spanish Rice

• 1 jalapeno, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
• 2 green onions, white parts only, sliced finely
• 1/2 lime
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 cup brown medium- or short-grain rice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt

Begin by cooking the rice, which takes a while given that it is brown rice.  While rice is cooking, prepare your other ingredients.  In a pot, bring 2 cups water to a boil, then add 1 tsp of the oil and the brown rice.  Once boiling, add the brown rice, cover, reduce to a simmer, and cook for about 30-40 minutes, until rice is chewy and cooked through.  Drain rice in a colander or large strainer, and set aside.

Get your ingredients ready to go while the rice cooks

In a large skillet over medium heat, add remaining oil, and then add garlic, peppers, and green onion.  Saute for 3-4 minutes until soft and just starting to brown.  Now add the rice and toss to coat.  Stir in tomato paste and salt, and cook for 1-2 minutes.  Just before removing from heat, pour in juice from 1/2 lime.  Serve immediately.

Using brown rice gives a healthy kick, plus a delicious chewy bite to the rice that I thought was a huge improvement over standard long-grain white rice

Come on, work that lime!

Pork Carnitas

If you've been to Chipotle (or any actual Mexican restaurants), you may have come across a mean pork dish called 'carnitas', which really just means "little meats" in Spanish.  Made famous in the Michoacán region of Mexico, large hunks of seasoned pork are cooked for a very long time in either broth (braised) or fat (rendered in lard, essentially) before plating with tortillas, lime, and cilantro.  I didn't quite feel like cooking an already fatty pork shoulder in lard for many hours, so I went looking for a broth recipe, and merged a number of them to create what I thought was a very flavorful but simple finished product.  Rather than deep frying to get the right kind of crisp exterior and moist interior, I created a two-step method of braising followed by quick browning in the oven, with enough liquid to prevent it from getting dry.  I've made this dish a dozen times, and it's a consistently easy hit among company.

First of all, this dish is greatly facilitated by a pressure cooker.  If you don't have one, a slow cooker might do the trick.  If you don't have that, maybe just a heavy pot.  And if you don't have one of those, you probably shouldn't be on this site.  To make this, I use picnic shoulder, but I've also used Boston Butt.  Either one is great, as it will have the right amount of fat to add to the very lean cooking method.  Don't get all crazy on me and put in a pork loin, or you will miss out on the flavor imparted by the fat which, if you do this right, is mostly cooked out in the process of slow braising.  An explanation is in the directions.

Pork carnitas, served simply with corn tortillas and black beans

Shredded Pork (Carnitas)

• 2 16 oz cans of chicken broth
• 1 lime, juiced, zest shaved first with zester or removed in large strips with a vegetable peeler
• 1 large scallion, cut into 3 pieces
• 3 garlic cloves
• 4 pounds of boneless pork shoulder
• 1 tbsp chopped coriander (cilantro)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp cumin
• Corn Tortillas
• Chili sauce, such as Pico de gallo, chipotle or whatever you like

The setup.  It's a very short list, not hard to gather

Cut the pork meat in chunks and discard big pieces of fat, but leave some fat as it adds to the flavor.  Set a large pot or pressure cooker over mid-high heat.  Add the pork, garlic, lime zest, bay leaves, cilantro, cumin, green onion, juice from the lime, and broth.  I like to zest the whole lime into the pot and then just cut it in half and squeeze the mangled fruit juice right in there, making for easy cleanup.  If you prefer more tartness, add more citrus to your braising liquid.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 3-4 hours or until the meat is very soft and pulls apart easily, or 1 hour for the pressure cooker.

Before simmering.  This is a really easy dish to get started, just throw everything in there and close it up.  Takes 5 minutes or less.

After simmering.  This meat is now incredibly tender and falling apart, so remove carefully

20 minutes before the stovetop portion is done, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Remove the meat carefully and place it in a roasting pan, discarding the green onion and broth.  If you did this right, especially in the pressure cooker, the meat will fall apart, so you may need a slotted spoon.  Try to let as much of the liquid drain out as possible, which should contain a lot of the rendered fat from the pork.

Shred the pork with two forks, removing large bits of fat to lean it out some.  Drizzle some cooking liquid over and throw in the oven to crisp up

Grab two forks and shred the meat into bite-sized pieces.  As you shred the pork, it will be obvious where there are large lumps of unrendered fat.  You can pull these out and discard, making for a much more lean finished dish.  After you've shredded thoroughly, ladle back on about 1 cup of the cooking liquid from the pot, which you are welcome to run through a fat separator to avoid consuming the rendered fat.

After a few minutes in a very hot oven, the pork will develop an excellent crispy exterior without getting too dried out.  Don't leave it in too long.

Bake for about 20 minutes until the meat is brown and crispy.  Heat the tortillas and enjoy, serving with your favorite chili sauce, queso fresco, chopped onions, and cilantro.  Garnish with cilantro-lime rice, radishes, black beans, fried plantains, or whatever you like.

I had vegetarian friends over, so I added some pan-roasted vegetables with sofrito and vegetarian black beans

This dish also happens to freeze well, and has a number of leftover uses.  Put it over nachos, make it into a breakfast burrito, throw it in tacos, etc.  Basically, in the words of Jim Gaffigan, all you need is "a tortilla filled with meat, cheese, or vegetables", and you can recreate essentially any form of Tex-Mex food.  But at least with this recipe you know your dish will be a winner.

Chorizo Breakfast Frittata

I was stumbling through the shop of a Cracker Barrel recently (don't ask me why, I don't have a good answer) and picked up the Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook, by Pam Hoenig.  Figuring it would be a shameless way to promote Lodge cookware, I was skeptical at first.  But when the first recipe looked like gold and I tried to take a picture of it with my cellphone camera, I figured I might break down and buy the thing.  And so now I have many more excuses to use my cast iron cookware, which is most assuredly a good thing.

If you don't own any cast iron cookware, then shame on you.  Go down south, eat some country cookin', and then come back up to your posh city chic apartment and order some on Amazon.  You won't regret it, cast iron holds heat better than anything out there and develops great flavor by promoting browning.  And it's practically nonstick, since it's "seasoned" with a perpetual layer of stanky cooking oil that just keeps baking deeper into the metal as you use it.  Traditionally, a bride in many families in the southern United States was given an unseasoned (bare metal) set of cast iron, and it was supposed to last for the life of her marriage.  I suppose if this were one of Kim Kardashian's gifts, the thing would have rusted almost immediately.  But a proper kitchen will not use soap on their cast iron, and it will last for a lifetime of delicious, artery-clogging meals.  And so I present to you one of them...

Chorizo frittata - a one pan meal of epic deliciousness, done proper-like in the cast iron skillet

Breakfast Frittata with Chorizo

from the Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook

• 3/4 pound bulk chorizo sausage (casings removed)
• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Salt, to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• 2 large handfuls baby spinach, Swiss chard, or arugula, washed and well dried
• 8 ounces feta, cotija, or any Mexican firm cheese such as queso fresco, crumbled
• 1 large ripe tomato

All of the ingredients, including queso fresco and some homemade bulk chorizo at right

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Brown the sausage in a 10" cast iron skillet over medium heat, until crumbly and no longer pink.  Remove and drain on paper towels.  Drain all of the fat from the skillet, but leave the residue with the sausage-y goodness in the pan for some extra flavor.

'Brown' in the cast iron - don't just grey your meat, make sure you get some flavor through the Maillard reaction by browning it.  Why use the cast iron if you're not going to take advantage of its benefits?

Place the eggs, cream, salt, black pepper, and red pepper in a large bowl, and whisk until foamy.  Add all of the remaining ingredients, including the drained chorizo, and stir to incorporate.  WARNING: this is messy, so be sure to use a larger bowl than you think is necessary.

Get some air into the eggs.  Come on, work those ova!

"...and mix them all together in a big jug."

Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and cook over medium heat until it begins to set and hold together around the outside edge.  Transfer to the oven and bake until the top of the frittata has puffed up and is golden brown, 25-35 minutes.

Let the mixture set up on the bottom slightly, and then throw in the oven.  Not all of the spinach wilted down before baking, as you can see here.

Slice the frittata into 8 wedges and serve immediately.  You don't need to worry about letting it cool, since the cheese won't melt and make a huge mess.  Feel free to garnish with sour cream, sliced scallions, pico de gallo, cilantro, or nothing at all - it doesn't need anything extra!

Going, going, gone.  Leaving a little of the sausage drippings in the pan added to the flavor of the crust that forms on the base of the frittata.  Everything set up nicely, and was very easy to serve given the firmness of the cheese.

Holy Mole Poblano!

Apparently there's a Mexican tradition to cook a really heavy stew called mole (pronounced mole-ay) and then bring it to picnics, where you feed it to your relatives on a hot day and then they pass out from all of the blood rushing to their stomachs trying to digest it.  I think this is a tradition many of us can get behind, so I present you with a recipe for mole.

Mole is like a Mexican version of chili, or curry.  It's got a whole bunch of varieties, and it's more of a type of dish than a particular recipe.  There are all kinds of interesting versions, many of which I was able to sample at Red Iguana in Salt Lake City, UT of all places - a strawberry mole, an almond-based mole, pumpkin seed-based, red, green, pink, cream-colored, whatever you can imagine.  However, if you ask most people who have had it, they'll tell you that even the most iconic mole - a mole poblano - contains some very interesting ingredients, such as nuts, chocolate, chile peppers, and then some kind of protein.  It does not, contrary to popular belief, contain any moles.

Mole poblano - enough to fell a bull elephant

WARNING: this is another labor of love dish.  Do not attempt this if you're just bored and curious.  You will need time, energy, a few strange ingredients, a big kitchen, and a food processor to do it right.  What?  You're still going to attempt?  Fine, but I tried to stop you.

I will mention before presenting the recipe that I scaled this up by a factor of 5, to feed 9 people.  We ate half of what I made, and still felt full.  I ended up using less than 5x the olive oil (maybe 6 tbsp total), and only about 6 cups of stock to make it the appropriate thickness.  So keep that in mind as you make...

Mole Poblano de Pollo (Chicken in a Poblano pepper Mole sauce)

from: I have no idea where, somewhere on the internet

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 4 chicken pieces, about 6 oz each
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 hot dried red chili such as chipotle, or 2 milder dried chiles such as ancho, reconstituted & finely chopped
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted, plus extra for garnish
• 1 tbsp chopped almonds
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground cumin
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• 3 tomatoes, peeled & chopped
• 2 tbsp raisins
• 1½ cups chicken stock
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 oz/25 g semisweet chocolate with a high cocoa content, grated, plus extra for garnish

So you want to make mole, huh?  Well too bad, you have to spend an hour prepping first.  If you're crazy like me, you started with whole spices, fresh tomatoes and whole chickens, and toasted and ground / peeled / cut them up, respectively.  To see how to peel a tomato, check my other post on chili here.  While you're doing that, soak your chiles in boiling water, then take off the stem and scoop out the seeds, and chop coarsely.  This will ultimately go in the food processor, so feel free to slack on the precision a bit with your chopping.

All of the more interesting ingredients, ready to go.  Chocolate and peanut butter are among them - my cousin said the kitchen smelled like Reese's peanut butter cups

Blanching the tomatoes to remove the skin

Peeled tomatoes, ready for action.  This was surprisingly simple.

Now you're ready to start actually doing things.  Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large skillet.  Add the chicken and cook until browned on all sides.  Really brown it, don't just make it yellow.  And certainly not black, either.  Be sure to have enough fat in the pan, and don't overcrowd.  I did mine in two pans, over about 3 batches each, but I also had 27 pieces of chicken to deal with.  Remove chicken pieces with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Browning the chicken in multiple pans keeps things moving without you overcrowding.  Cast iron is far superior here.

Add the onion, garlic, and chilies and cook for 5 minutes, or until softened.  Add the sesame seeds, almonds, and spices and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, raisins, stock, peanut butter, and chocolate and stir well.  Add only as much stock as you think will be necessary for stewing the meat you're using - you don't want soup, this should be more like a curry consistency after you blend.  I found that placing each round of ingredients into separate areas helped to idiot-proof my throwing things casually into the pan without double-checking the recipe.  And, if you are hasty and didn't think to chop them up before adding, chop up the tomatoes somewhat with a knife or spoon while they're in the pan.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and let simmer for 5 minutes.

After cooking the onions, garlic and peppers, add the spices and nuts

Then things get really crazy - add the chocolate and peanut butter

Tomatoes could have gone in chopped, but I didn't think this through

Be sure to fill your pan dangerously full, so that stirring is nearly impossible and you make a huge mess.  Or don't.

Transfer the mixture to a food processor or blender and process until smooth.  Try to put a towel over the top so you don't spray mole all over your kitchen - it is best taken internally, not through the skin and clothes.

Into the food processor for a quick spin

Return the mixture to the skillet, add the chicken, and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat, cover, and let simmer for 1 hour, or until the chicken is very tender, adding more liquid if necessary.  If you're impatient, bust out the pressure cooker and cook for 20 minutes.

Serve garnished with sesame seeds and a little grated chocolate.  We served with homemade tostones and platanos (both plantain dishes), Mexican yellow rice, and tamales.  It was an excellent traditional feast, and well received by everyone.  Slightly sweet, nutty, rich, and just a little spicy.  I also had tons of sauce left over, which I froze to use next time I want to make this.  If that's the case, all you have to do is brown the chicken and then throw it into the ready-made sauce.  And don't forget to bring it to your next family gathering - especially if you are being taken against your will.

Spicy Black Bean Soup, or Beans: Nature's Digestive Nightmare

I'm not sure what it is about black bean soup, but my dad and I both seem to really enjoy it.  Maybe because we're Italian and it's a latin thing, or maybe because it's rich, fairly healthy, and not overly pungent.  A good black bean soup, to me, has a nice backbone of garlic and spices, but isn't overwhelming in any way.  It's served warm but not hot, and it's not pushy what you do with it - you can eat it as a dish or as a side.  It just exists to make you happy, which this recipe did for me.

I found a recipe for a basic black bean soup, but it called for canned beans.  And I wanted to start from scratch, using staples common to latin america that I knew I could keep for a while and pull out of storage at a moment's notice down the road.  So I made my version from dried beans, which requires some advance planning.  It also calls for cooking the beans with kombu, a form of kelp seen most commonly in recipes for dashi, which is the base for miso soup.  Kelp is one of the main culinary sources of glutamic acid (related to MSG, the condiment we all love to hate), and plays a strong part in the history of the word "umami", which many food lovers have been hearing a lot recently.  Cooking beans with the kombu will leach out some of the glutamines from the seaweed, and will give your vegetarian soup additional savoury notes without having to add chicken broth.

Now, as some of you may know, beans often pack a hidden surprise with them, in the form of awkward moments for you and your company a few hours after dining.  This is because beans contain a large amount of oligosaccharides, which are chains of roughly 2 to 10 simple sugars (such as glucose and fructose).  The human digestive track doesn't typically contain many (if any) anti-oligosaccharide enzymes, but the intestines do.  So guess what?  When those complex sugars find their way to the intestine, it's like Cinco De Mayo down there for your intestinal bacteria, and they just go to town.  And if you've ever made beer or bread before, you know that multiplying, festive bacteria create gas, and hopefully you can figure out what happens next.

Why We Should Keep Eating Beans

Fortunately for us, mankind recognized five things about beans a long time ago:

1. Beans are really healthy for you, containing high amounts of fiber, protein, complex carbohydrates, folate, and iron.  Along with lentils, they should be a staple in every vegetarian's diet, providing many of the necessary amino acid constituents that are otherwise hard to find in most vegetables.
2. If you eat a lot of beans, you can actually condition your body to break down their complex sugars.  It's a tough love campaign, but it will happen.
3. There are ways to cook beans that can remove a number of these complex sugars.  More on this shortly.
4. There are natural and man-made products to help with your crippling, post-bean gas.  These include products like Beano, and herbs that fall under the category of "carminatives", meaning prevent formation or they facilitate expulsion of gas.  This includes epazote, cumin, coriander, anise, and even pepper.  Side note - the current Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has decreed that "carminative" is his favorite word.  I'm not making this up.
5. Maybe it's worth it to just eat the beans and deal with the hand you are dealt afterwards.  Because, like my mom always said, "when life gives you lemons, just shut up and eat your damn lemons."

So How Should I Cook Beans so My Dog Will Stop Trying to Crawl Under the House After Dinner?

You may have heard a number of methods - soak them, soak them in distilled water, boil them for an hour, soak them AND pre-boil them, spin them in a bag over your head while throwing chicken bones on the floor and chanting, and so forth.  So I figured the best way to lay this one to bed was with actual, no-kidding data collected by Turkish researchers and published in the Pakistan Journal of Nutrition (where apparently this kind of thing is relevant).

In "The Effect of Soaking and Cooking on the Oligosaccharide Content of Sekera Dry Bean Variety (P. vulgaris, L) Grown in Turkey", by I. G. Sat and F. Keles, Pak. J. Nutrit. 1 (5): 206-208, 2002, many of the methods above are compared in terms of initial and final oligosaccharide content.  This included raw and soaking over a variety of lengths of time, cooking for different lengths, and cooking with or without a pressure cooker.  And here's the final breakdown, ranked from the most gas to the least:

Bean Gassiness Levels, Highest to Lowest

• Raw
• Cooked in boiling water (60 min)
• Pressurized cooking (121 C, 15psi) for 30 min
• Soaked in distilled water 12 hr and cooked in boiling water (60 min)
• Soaked in distilled water 18 hr and cooked in boiling water (60 min)
• Soaked in 0.5% NaHCO3 (baking soda) solution 12 hr and cooked in boiling water (60 min)
• Soaked in 0.5% NaHCO3 solution 18 hr and cooked in boiling water (60 min)
• Soaked in distilled water 12 hr and pressurized cooking (121 C, 15psi) for 30 min
• Soaked in distilled water 18 hr and pressurized cooking (121 C, 15psi) for 30 min
• Soaked in 0.5% NaHCO3 solution 12 hr and pressurized cooking (121 C, 15psi) for 30 min
• Soaked in 0.5% NaHCO3 solution 18 hr and pressurized cooking (121 C, 15psi) for 30 min

So clearly, the best solution to reduce the gas-causing sugar content is to do EVERYTHING, which I'm not prepared to do.  They go on to say that soaking in the alkali solution may destroy B vitamins, and propose using tap water as a good compromise.  So I'm prepared to use my pressure cooker after having soaked the beans for 12 hours, which I consider to be a fair compromise.  By the way, if any budding scientists read this and thought "how the heck can I boil something at 121 C?" since water boils at exactly 100 C, well, that's the magic of cooking under pressure!

That was a lot of science.  Let's go through a recipe and make it worth your while.

Spicy Black Bean Soup

This one's all me, baby - a Frankenstein recipe from many places

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped red onion
• 1 4-ounce can diced mild green chilies
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped jalapeño chili with seeds
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 1-pound bag black beans, soaked overnight in cold water
• 1 4"x8" piece of kombu kelp (found at asian grocery stores)
• 2 cups canned low-salt vegetable broth
• ½ cup red wine
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 lime
• 8 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• Sour cream
• Tortilla strips / chips, or corn tortillas and enough oil to fry them

If you're soaking your beans, put them in a large bowl of cold tap water.  Soak for 12-18 hours as directed by the Turkish folks above.  Then DRAIN this water - don't use it, or you're just going to end up with the same result as if you hadn't soaked them.

The soaked beans in the pressure cooker, along with the kombu for some extra flavor enhancement

Now place your beans and the kombu in a pressure cooker, bring to temperature, and cook for approximately 30 minutes.  The first few times you do this, err on the side of overcooked, but you can gradually reduce this if your beans start falling apart because they're overcooked.  You want them to have some bite, but not dissolve completely (unless you're into that sort of thing).

The beans after they've cooked for 30 minutes.  Check them to make sure they're cooked through; if not, boil for a few minutes

While beans are cooking, heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, green chilies, garlic, jalapeño, and cumin. Sauté until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Have this mixture at the ready. 

How could these ingredients possibly do you wrong?

Once beans are cooked through, remove the kombu, and add the mixture from the pan to the bean pot along with the broth, tomato, and wine. Bring soup to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer (not under pressure) until the flavors blend, about 15 minutes. Puree 3 cups soup in batches in blender. Return puree to same pot. 

If you want to get really fancy, take some corn tortillas and cut them in strips, then fry them in a little canola oil for 30 seconds and drain on paper towels.  Use these as a garnish - they make a world of difference and add some class to your soup.

Fried corn tortillas, as a garnish

Add 6 tablespoons chopped cilantro to the soup, season to taste with salt and pepper, and squeeze in lime juice.  Ladle soup into bowls. Top with dollop of sour cream, tortilla strips, and remaining 2 tablespoons cilantro.

Black bean soup, sans gas-causing sugars, garnished as I saw fit

Tomatillo Salsa and Homemade Tostadas

Do you ever wake up and think, wow, I need some tomatillo salsa!  Well, I did recently, and decided that rather than traveling to Mexico, I might make some of my own.  Recently some friends of mine made a batch, and it made me realize that I need to stop eating the jarred version.  I put this stuff on everything - burritos, nachos, tacos... well, basically anything that's a tortilla covered in meat, cheese, and/or vegetables.  What I have since learned is that made well, it's tangy, a little sweet, spicy, and incredibly fresh, more like pico de gallo than jarred salsa.  Made poorly, and it's often tart and no better than what you can buy from a jar.

Last time I tried to make this, I ended up with option b above.  I tried to oven-roast the tomatillos, and in the process just cooked the heck out of them, losing their fresh taste.  This time I switched recipes and went for the broiler, mostly because it was threatening to rain outside and I didn't want to turn on the grill.  If you have a gas oven, I recommend the broiling option, which seemed to work pretty well.

Tomatillos.  A nightshade like tomatoes, but they grow in a husk, are much more tart, and remain green.

For once, I didn't want to build a menu around meat, so this meal was all about everything else.  I opted to make tortillas from scratch, use some pickled onions from my recent poblano burger recipe, and whip up a quick beef filling to serve as the protein.  But trust me, you could use anything here - roasted vegetables, tofu, refried beans, whatever.  I will present the recipes for the tomatillo salsa (courtesy Rick Bayless), the tortillas (courtesy of my friend German from Mexico), and the beef tacos (from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook).

Tomatillo Salsa

unmodified from Rick Bayless recipe

• 1 pound tomatillos, husked and rinsed
• 4 to 5 serrano chiles, stemmed
• 1 small (4 oz) white onion, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, loosely packed
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tsp salt (approximate)
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)

Heat the broiler. Lay the whole tomatillos and serranos on a broiler pan or baking sheet lined with foil. Set the pan 4 inches below the broiler and let roast until the tomatillos are softened and splotchy black in places (the skins will split), about 5 minutes; your goal is to cook the tomatillos through while they roast, which means they'll have begun their transition from light bright green to olive color on the top side. With a pair of tongs, flip over the tomatillos and chiles and roast the other side for another 4 or 5 minutes or so. Set aside to cool.

Broiled tomatillos and peppers.  Notice the hints of bright green still seen in some parts - this means I didn't overcook them.  Try to get the char on as quickly as possible!

Turn the oven down to 425 degrees. Separate the onion into rings and, on a similar pan or baking sheet, combine them with the garlic. Set in the oven. Stir carefully every couple of minutes, until the onions are beautifully roasted (they're going to look rather wilted and translucent, even have a touch of char on some of the edges); the garlic should feel soft and look browned in spots. Total roasting time will be about 15 minutes. (If you like smoky flavors in your salsa, try roasting the onion and garlic on a perforated grilling pan over a moderately low charcoal fire.) Cool to room temperature.

In a food processor, pulse the serranos (no need to peel or seed them) with the onion-garlic mixture until moderately finely chopped, scraping everything down with a spatula as needed to keep it all moving. Scoop into a big bowl, then, without washing the processor, coarsely puree the tomatillos and their juice. Stir them into the bowl. (If you're making the largest quantity, you'll have to do the tomatillos in two batches.) Stir in the lime juice and enough water to give the salsa an easily spoonable consistency-in Mexico they like this salsa spicy and pretty runny, the kind of salsa you dribble on rather than scoop up with chips. Stir in the cilantro.

Taste and season highly with salt.  Taste again and, if you wish, add just enough sugar to take the edge off the tomatillos' very bright tanginess. If you're planning to use your salsa right away, simply pour it into a bowl and it's ready, or refrigerate it and use within 5 days.

Tomatillo salsa, coarsely pureed and seasoned to my liking.  Best recipe I've found so far.

Homemade Tortillas (enough for 4 small)

• 1/2 cup Maseca tortilla mix
• 1/3 cup water
• pinch (1/4 tsp) salt

In a bowl, combine all three ingredients.  Stir with a clean hand to combine (there is a reason for this).  You want to make sure the mix is the right consistency.  What is this consistency, you ask?  Ah, now THAT is hard to describe.  Perhaps a picture will help:

Tortilla dough, mixed to the right consistency

This is why I say mix with your hands.  You want to make sure the dough is coming together, and not too wet.  Odds are, you will need to add more water than the recipe.  But don't go crazy - add 1 teaspoon at a time until everything just comes together, and forms a relatively dry ball with no small grains that can't be incorporated.  But if it's too wet, it won't cook right, so be patient and be one with your dough.  For the record, this type of guesswork is the same process for making crepes and, to a certain extent, pancakes as well.

Now just whip out your tortilla press.  What, you don't have one?  Well why are you following this recipe!  You need a press to make tortillas, they can't just be rolled out with a rolling pin.  I suppose you could put two plates of metal down and then drive over them with your car, but that's fairly inefficient.  No, what you want is one of these:

My tortilla press, safely wrapped in plastic bags to make getting the tortillas out of them a lot easier.

My Mexican friend gave me one that he bought south of the border for like $5, although Amazon will charge you $12 for one.  Homemade tortillas taste pretty great, and you can make them very easily from basically one ingredient, so I think it's a worthwhile tool to keep in the kitchen.  Anyway, separate the dough into 4 equally sized pieces, and form them into balls.  Place one ball in the press, closer to the hinge side than the center, and work your magic:

Pressing out a tortilla.  It's a fun way to take out some frustrations, up there with tenderizing meat and shelling walnuts

Once you've got your tortillas pressed, cook them in a dry skillet set over high heat, about 2 minutes per side.  You're looking for a little char, but not full-on bursting into flames.  I tried an electric skillet this time, which is great for the surface area, but a large skillet set over a gas flame would be better.  You may need to do just one or two at a time.  As they finish, place them in a towel, basket, or some other storage vessel to keep them warm.

Homemade tortillas, warming in my tortilla basket.

Beef Taco Filling

America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

I put this recipe here to convince you that the packet of taco seasoning from the store is not the only way to make tacos.  It's mostly salt and MSG in that stuff, anyway, and this recipe had a nice balance of flavors that I look forward to nursing for the next few days.  It also didn't take much time to make.  However, it does assume that you keep chile powder on hand.  Note well - chile is not the same as chili!  Chili powder is an uncreative mixture of spices that you buy pre-mixed.  Chile powder is exactly that - powdered chiles.  I make my own by grinding a mixture of ancho and guajillo chiles.

Chile powder, not chili powder.  Note the dark color and lack of spices like salt, pepper, etc.  That's because it's just chiles!

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, minced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons chile (not chili) powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• salt
• 1 lb lean ground beef (or chicken, or tofu, or vegetables, or anything you like)
• 1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup low sodium broth (beef, chicken, vegetable)
• 2 tsp cider vinegar
• 1 tsp light brown sugar

To begin, grind up any spices you might need to prepare, and set everything at the ready.  Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. 

Sauteing onions for taco filling.  Don't cook them much more than this

Stir in the garlic, spices, and 1 teaspoon salt.  Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Stir in the ground beef.  Cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the tomato sauce, broth, vinegar, and sugar.  Simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Season with salt to taste.

Final skillet of beef taco filling

The Final Product - Homemade Tomatillo Salsa over Homemade Beef Tostadas

So now let's put it all together.  To serve, I like to let everyone assemble their own dish, but the general idea is to layer everything on the tostada so you can get a hint of all the flavors in every bite.

Here's what I like to bring to the table.  Nice serving size, right?  Left to right, you've got the tomatillo salsa, cilantro, sour cream, pickled onions, grated cheese, and hot sauce.  Up top are the homemade tortillas and beef taco filling.

And here's what a couple of finished tostadas looked like.  This is definitely knife and fork food.

Here's what a vegetarian version looks like, from my last round.  Sub the meat out for zucchini, peppers, and black beans.