A pile of Tortilla chips dabbled with lots of lovely Negritos, a rain of grated cheese, some pickled jalapeno chilli slices all warmed in a hot oven until the cheese melted. Then a peppering of chopped fresh tomatoes and onions a confetti of lovely green leafy coriander and a plop of full fat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Finger lickin’ good.

Will the joy of a great pot of beans ever end? Not before we have eaten many more interesting delicious meals. Remember the entire pot costs only £1.35 to make!

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Oh man! That was good and full of protein, calcium, fibre, zinc, thiamine and vitamins A C & E as well as B12 and selenium. Why do I torture you with this? Lack of B12 is somehow linked to diminishing mental capacity as you get older and a problem for diets low in meat as ours is. Zinc will heal you and we are all trying to prevent Osteoporosis at this age. WHO (World Health Organization)reports that bone density in Mexican women is less prevalent than in their White counterparts. Proof enough for me.

I cannot tell you how good for you corn tortillas are versus flour tortilla wraps. Corn tortillas have no fat but flour ones do. The calcium benefit is visible in the large white teeth of every smiling Mexican. The dried corn is slaked with cal known as Calcium Hydroxide turning it into nixtamal, fat kernels of soft floury corn ground into a dough. Slaking is important because it releases Niacin making it available to your body and fills the corn with lovely Calcium. When the Spanish brought back corn to the Old World they poo-pooed the slaking process thinking it too laborious. That is how the introduction of corn plagued Italy, Spain, France and Egypt with Pellegra and Kwashiorkor rose in Africa where corn became a staple. The best thing is when corn tortillas are partnered with beans they form a complete chain of Amino Acids giving you a vegetable protein. Celiac’s alert corn tortillas are Gluten-free!

This does not mean you should go out and buy boxes of deep-fried tortilla shells. Sort of defeats the fat-free status but besides being cost prohibitive they are no where near as good tasting and satisfying as ones you make. You can find the corn flour, Maseca or other brands, and the tortilla press at this website in the UK. They also sell pre-made corn tortillas which are OK but as you can see from the cost of the flour they are still way more expensive than making your own and not as fresh. But if you don’t want the fuss they’ll do it for you. http://www.mexgrocer.com/

This pot of black turtle beans (Waitrose £1.09/500gm) is giving us many meals full of flavour and enjoyment for a total cost of £1.35.

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Yes it is a tiny bit Letitia Cropley but the basics will be there. Mofongo is simply fried slices of green unripe banana mashed up with lots of lovely smashed fresh garlic. I’ll serve it with a pool of Negritos topped with Yucatan Chicken Pibil. Maybe I’ll tie the hem of my t-shirt in a knot under my boobs and do a quick rumba as I cook. I just have to make sure they stay clear of the hot oil.

The ingredients for achiote paste: ground annatto, oregano, ground cumin, ground cloves. (Recipe) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yucatan Pollo Pibil, Yucatan Achiote Chicken

• 2 Pieces of lovely breast meat cut into 1 inch thick strips
• 1 tsp El Yucateco Red Achiote paste, you can buy this on-line in the UK at; http://www.mexgrocer.com/
• juice of 1 orange
• 1/2 onion sliced thinly
• A pinch of oregano
• A handful of chopped coriander/cilantro
• If you want some zip add a seeded, minced red chilli

Blend the Achiote paste and orange juice into a smooth sauce. This stains everything bright, deep red so be careful! Put the chicken strips, onion, oregano and coriander (and the chilli option) into the smooth red sauce inside a ziplock and leave it overnight in the fridge to marinate. The next day grill the chicken strips until they have lovely little dark bits over high heat so they cook quickly and don’t dry out. Serve with lots of chopped fresh tomatoes, chopped onions, tons of coriander with a squeeze of fresh lime, a stack of soft hot corn tortillas and in this case on top of a pool of Negritos and a lovely fat mound of Mofongo.

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This is my best black bean recipe which makes a lovely big pot which can be grazed down during the week. Tonight we eat them with Orange Yucatan Chicken marinated in Achiote paste, fresh orange juice, oregano, coriander/cilantro and onion then grilled on top of the stove. Guadalajarans slather beans on their sandwiches instead of mayonnaise or butter. Cubans serve them thinned down with a bit of stock and extra vinegar as a soup topped with chopped red onions, coriander and chopped tomatoes with a crumble of cheese. If we need a complete non-meat protein we use it as a topping for Mexican Red Rice studded with fresh green peas. Puerto Ricans cook black beans with a bit of white rice and a bit of smoked ham hock turning it into Moros y Cristianos; Moors and Christians. Salvadorians stuff Negritos ground into a paste with cheese and onion inside a ball of corn tortilla dough then press it into a fat tortilla and fry them creating Pupusas. A week’s worth of good, cheap eating all in one pot.

Negritos

• 500gms dried black beans
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp ground cumin (generous)
• ½ tsp ground allspice (generous)
• ½ tsp dry oregano
• ¼ tsp ground cloves (generous)
• 1 hot red chile seeded and chopped
• 2 medium tomatoes seeded and chopped
• 1 cube Knorr vegetable stock, (purists can substitute fresh vegetable stock for this and the water)
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 4 tbsp corn oil
• Salt to taste

Pick over the beans and then pour boiling water over them for a pre-soak. Let them sit until cool and then drain. Sauté the onions, garlic, tomatoes and chile in 2 tbsp of the oil inside the *pressure cooker until the onions go limp. Add the spices and oregano and keep cooking for 1 minute stirring constantly. Then pour in 500 ml of water and use the spatula you used for cooking to scrape off the browned spices stuck to the bottom of the pot releasing this goodness into the stock.  Add the crushed stock cube, sugar, pepper, vinegar and the drained beans. Top the water up until it is ¼ inch above the level of the beans and veg. close the pressure cooker and let it cook for 1 hour. Remove from the heat and when the cooker has cooled down sufficiently open it. Mash the beans until a soupy liquid is achieved adding the remaining oil. Season with salt if necessary. If the mixture is too thin cook uncovered over medium heat stirring occasionally until it thickens to your desired consistency remembering that it will continue to thicken as it cools.

* I use a pressure cooker to save on our electric bill as dried beans take some time to cook. This way of cooking makes incredibly creamy beans. If you choose to cook them in a standard pot then do not add either the stock cube or the salt until after the beans are cooked soft. Salt toughens the beans during cooking.

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Deutsch: Dr. Angela Merkel Bundeskanzlerin der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Vorsitzende der CDU Deutschlands (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A businessman in Germany thought it was a good idea to put up a life-size pink Barbie Dream House near the Alexanderplatz in Germany. It came complete with giant hot pink plastic high-heel shoe out front, a Barbie plastic cupcake kitchen, a visitor participation Barbie fashion show (for a price) and a group of greeters dressed as Barbie to welcome you in the door. It was celebrated out front by a partly topless protest group Pinkstinks, who burned a crucified Barbie on a cross while trying to discourage mom’s and daughters from entering the lurid atrocity. When Mattel, Barbie’s parent company, heard about this they were puzzled. The felt that they had modernised Barbie by adding positive role models to the Barbie Pantheon. Doctor Barbie (perhaps the name should have been revamped?) Astronaut Barbie, and my favourite Angela Merkel Barbie. Well they got the breasts right on that one, at least during Merkel’s election campaign when she tried but failed to win votes with her pair. Fire your campaign manager Angela.

Then Disney another merchandising juggernaut, tried to makeover the heroine Merida in the Pixar movie Brave to make her more princess-like. They took a terrific, intelligent, physically healthy girl and re-vamped her into an inappropriately sexy siren designed to attract a suitable prince. They gave her bosoms, lowered the neckline on her dress giving it an off-shoulder vamp cut. This from a company whose founder made Annette Funicello bind her breasts to appear less developed during her years as one of the original Mouseketeers. Merida’s eyes became sultry and cat-like with heavy eyeliner and suspiciously thick preternatural lashes. Disney even re-styled her unruly hair. They pared down her waist, not unlike the digital re-touching applied to celebrities and models who do not fit the unrealistic expectations of the media. Then they took away her bow and arrow replacing it with a low-slung, super-studded fashionista belt which no doubt cost her father the King a few ducats. Even the film’s co-director, Brenda Chapman denounced the change to the press. But best of all were the 200,000 women who signed a protest petition to re-instate the original Merida and won against this industry giant. Disney we do not need our girls to believe becoming a princess is a life goal.

Barbie bathroom scale set at 110 lbs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On top of all this hoopla burst the shocking story of H & M who put a normal size Jennie Runk in the lead position of their new swimsuit campaign. I wish to God that when I was young this had happened so I could have related to her slightly bulgy hips and thicker waist.  It might have saved me years of practicing agonizing and humiliating Bulimia which left me weaker yet still not waifishly thin. Perhaps I could have avoided the Hiatal Hernia that makes swallowing so difficult now and has left me with fewer back teeth. Maybe if the media embraces that normal is normal my friend’s youngest daughter will stop anguishing over whether her 7 year-old rake-thin body will balloon out if she eats her dinner. Why should a little girl worry about having an apple? Let’s hope H & M leads the way for others to follow. Listen up Kate Moss! Looking like an aging embryo is not beautiful.

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I just decided to do something different. Actually a lot of some things different. We are having Peanut Sauce & Prawn Crackers, Coconut Rice, Spicy Fried Hard-Boiled Duck Eggs, Nutmeg Sweet Soy Saucy Eggplant, Tofu In Kemiri Nut (read Brazil nut substitute) Sauce and Akar cold pickled salad. If I pull it together I might throw in a Green Fish Curry too. We’ll see and there will be leftovers so I won’t have to cook tomorrow.

With very little except everything was already in stock even Shrimp, Laos Root and Tamarind Pastes. We just had to buy a few stalks of Lemon Grass, fresh red chillies, and an eggplant. These were all on sale. Lucky choice.

We are sharing our bounty with friends too. Good company makes for a good meal.

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Reblogged from A GIRL CALLED JACK:

Score? 100 out / 1 in

This morning we used up the excess four-day-old Pain au Levain scoffing up a plateful each of New Orleans Pain Perdu made with duck eggs. This is considerably different from the Eggy Bread served as French Toast in the UK. I have to say the first time I had it here in Dorset I was mighty disappointed. Perhaps this recipe will give you an idea why.

Pain Perdu (Lost Bread)

• The last of at least a 2-day-old loaf of bread cut into thick slices, it is best if it is stale but not hard and dry, the best is old baguette cut in diagonal slices
• 1 egg for every 3 slices (duck if you can find them but chicken eggs work just fine)
• 40ml / 2 tbsp milk or light cream for every egg (this isn’t exact)
• a dash of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (double this when it reaches 3 eggs)
• 1 dessert spoon fine or castor sugar for every egg

Beat together the eggs, milk/cream, vanilla, sugar and salt until thoroughly homogenized. Place the slices in the egg mixture gently turning them every 10 minutes so that they soak evenly. Heat up some butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Too hot the butter will burn as will the bread. When the butter is melted carefully turn the pieces in the egg mixture one last time and then place them in the melted butter. Let each piece turn a golden brown before turning it to brown the other side. We serve this with fresh or if necessary fruit canned it its own juice or maple syrup.

We also do a Banana Nut Version;

Just add a really old mashed up banana to the egg mixture along with finely chopped pecans and 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon. It is DIVINE.

Perhaps a Savoury Version?

I think you could use the same bread and egg combo to create a savoury version of this dish. Perhaps beating the eggs with fresh goat cheese, chopped chives, salt and pepper would be great? Even adding bits of chopped sun-dried tomato or black olives with a tiny bit of anchovy, a small amount of fresh minced parsley along with the goat cheese would be outrageous!

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Our pooch Mr Squidge has figured out that eggs come from chickens’ rear ends. Squidgy is a wonderfully daft boy who has interesting likes and dislikes. He likes the cat. He likes the chickens and not just for their productivity. He liked them before he knew which end to focus on. Henrietta our big red hen is very friendly. If we open the back patio doors she wanders into the house and right up onto our bed where Squidge spends most of his daylight hours recuperating from an exhaustive night’s sleep in the same location. So far she is the only hen with a name as she exhibits the most personality. I think she likes Squidgy too but not enough to share her eggs.

Henrietta has been known to chase our dogs out of the hen-house after she has made her deposit. This has not deterred Squidgy who lurks around the pen in hopes of snatching a freebee. His favourite layer is our big white hen. She squeezes out large very odd-shaped elongated eggs with strange bumps and soft tips. I think she is the favourite layer because her eggs are the biggest and easiest to crack. Squidge isn’t so fussy that he would turn down anyone else’s egg or even a large white hard-shelled duck one. However I have noticed that of late he trails after the big white hen with his nose down near her rear. It’s like watching a cruise missile hone in on a target.

Fortunately there is a small amount of guilt in Squidgy. He has enough grace to look embarrassed when I yell at him through the kitchen window. This doesn’t mean he gives up his quest but he does momentarily pause in recognition of my order to stop. He even looks my way but his feet don’t actually stop moving, sort of like a rolling stop at an intersection. I would like to think it is his driving momentum that impels him forward. However at his speed he could not only have stopped but could probably have performed a 360.

He isn’t the only egg thief in the house. Our little mutt Peanut is the most successful at raiding the nests. He is fast and crafty something he learned when he was fending for himself down on the beach front in Spain where we found him. He has a low sneaking run that immediately signals there is an egg in his gob. We are usually able to catch him in time to save the egg though it will have a fang puncture in one end. We have to schedule egg gathering carefully as the ducks lay at dawn, the red and black speckled hens at 9am and the white one later in the morning. I listen for the give-away cackling as they produce. I think Squidgy does too. I know Peanut does.

We always have more eggs than we need. We didn’t really plan to have so many birds but they were free and came in sets. The duck eggs are for scrambling, omelettes, custards, baking and boiling. The chicken eggs are for poaching, frying and baking. We love quail’s eggs too especially pickled but quail are too difficult to raise. Any sudden noise and they all drop dead from a heart attack. I have eaten goose eggs as well but as they only lay once a year they are too precious to cook. We always let them brood them into lovely little goslings. It was the same with the turkey eggs, the chicks were more valuable.

Now we live with our own set of egg thieves who have very shiny coats.

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Dressing

• 125ml or 1/2 cp rice or white vinegar
• Demerara sugar to taste we use about 6 dessert spoons or tablespoons
• Fish sauce, Nam Plah to taste, this is your salt seasoning

Mix the vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves, then chill. When it is cold add the fish sauce until it tastes lovely.

Salad

• Fat sweet cooked and peeled prawns (authentically you would split them in half down their spines but we like them whole)
• Cucumber quartered and sliced a bit chunky, leave the peel on for colour
• Peeled and shredded carrot
• Shredded Chinese or Napa cabbage
• Thin transparent slices of white onion
• Cold, cooked wide rice noodles that have been drained, and chilled in cold water then re-drained and tossed with the sesame oil (you can leave this out but it adds so few calories for such a rich taste why bother?)
• Roasted salted peanuts chopped coarsely
• Little fresh red Thai chillies sliced into thin rings

Equal parts;

• Coriander/ Cilantro chopped coarsely
• Fresh Mint chopped coarsely
• Thai or other Fresh Basil chopped coarsely

We just tossed this all into the dressing and chowed down but…. if you are into presentation then compose it by arranging a bed of the Napa cabbage topped by the cooked noodles. Then mound up a tossed and dressed mixture of all but the carrots and peanuts on top of the noodles. Finish it with the shredded carrot, a few whole leaves of coriander artfully arranged and sprinkle with the peanuts.

Of course if you want to really go to town you could accompany it with Prawn Crackers and Thai Iced Tea.

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