Corn and Sweet Potato Soup

As the evenings are cooler, a hearty soup makes a welcome supper.

The other night I made this southwest-style corn and sweet potato soup with cheese.

I took this picture on the second night of eating it. We re-heated it a little too much and the cheese curdled so it looks a little lumpy. It still tastes great.

Corn and Sweet Potato Soup

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

6 cups vegetable stock

1 bottle Mexican beer

2 tsp ground cumin

1 bay leaf

1 large onion, diced
1 tbsp oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped
14 oz packet frozen corn, defrosted
1 poblano, roasted, peeled and chopped (or 4oz can green chiles)

2 tsp chili powder

cayenne pepper

2 cups milk

12 oz Monterey Jack cheese, grated

1/2 cup fresh cilantro (optional)

Boil the sweet potatoes in 3 cups stock, beer, cumin and bay leaf until crisp tender, about 12-15 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Do not drain.

Sauté onion and garlic in oil about 10 minutes until soft. Stir into sweet potatoes along with the remaining 3 cups of stock. Add corn, poblano, cayenne to taste, and chili powder. Gradually stir in milk. Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes until warmed through.

Reduce heat to low and stir in grated cheese until just melted. Season with salt to taste.

Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.

Serves 6

Tofu and Peppers

We enjoyed this simple dinner of Tofu and Peppers last night — simple in preparation yet rich in flavor.

The tofu is marinated in red Thai curry paste for an hour or so — I did this then went out to putter in the garden. A couple of hours later, I sautéed onions and peppers to yumminess. They served as a bed for the fried tofu, and a blender sauce of poblanos, onions and garlic provided the final flavor boost.

With roasted poblanos in the freezer, the meal was a snap to make.

I've previously made this dish with green Thai curry paste — also delicious. The poblanos I used this time were stashed in the freezer late last fall, when the peppers at the Hollywood Farmers Market were fully ripe red instead of the usual green. If I'd used green poblanos, the sauce would have been green not red. Then I might have used green Thai chili paste for color coordination.

Tofu and Peppers
14oz container firm tofu
1 tbsp red Thai curry paste
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, halved then sliced lengthwise in strips
1 red pepper, 1 green pepper and 1 orange pepper (I used a handful of orange lipstick peppers), cored,
seeded and slivered lengthwise
2 poblanos, roasted and peeled
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 shallot, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
juice of 1/2 lime

Cooking the tofu

Drain tofu and press for 5-10 minutes in a towel with a weight (like a jar of beans) on top. Cut it lengthwise into roughly 1/2 inch slices. Combine the curry paste with 1 tbsp water. Spread it on both sides of the tofu. Let sit at room temperature at least an hour. (2-3 hours is fine.)

Warm 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet. Cook the onion and peppers until soft and delicious.

Meanwhile, warm the other tbsp of oil in a heavy skillet. Add the tofu and let cook until crispy on one side, then flip and cook the other side. You can also cook the edges if you like.

While these are cooking, put the roasted and peeled poblanos in the blender along with the garlic, shallot, 1/2 cup olive oil and lime juice. Purée until smooth.

Put the peppers on a plate. Top with tofu, then pour the sauce liberally on top.

Serves 2 with extra sauce for another day.

Eggs with Green Chiles

I'm busy using the roasted poblanos from my freezer before this year's crop comes to market.

On Sunday, I added one to our scrambled eggs. Yum — spicy eggs are great with sourdough toast and breakfast potatoes.

Eggs with Green Chiles
2 tbsp chopped onion
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp butter
1 poblano, roasted and peeled
1 tomato, seeded and diced
6 eggs
1/2 tsp salt

Sauté the onion and garlic in butter until tender. Add the diced poblano and tomato and let cook until warmed through.

Beat the eggs with the salt until creamy. Add to the pan and cook, stirring regularly, until the eggs are cooked through.

Serves 2-3

Treasures from the Freezer

When we have leftover cooked rice, I stash it in the freezer for when I want to serve a simple casserole for dinner.

Also in the freezer are roasted poblanos, organic corn, and bags of diced zucchini from last summer's over-enthusiastic vegetable garden. This year's zucchini plants are starting to flower, so the pressure is on.

Fortunately, all these ingredients combined into a fabulous casserole. Some aged cheddar on top added the finishing deliciousness.

I combined leftover white take-out rice and leftover brown rice, just because those were the first two containers I found. Freshly cooked rice would be great too, of course.

I used 4 poblanos for a very spicy casserole. You can cut back the heat by using fewer poblanos if you like. Also, you could use fresh poblanos and skip the roasting, just dicing and adding to the skillet. But the roasting does add a yumminess. (See how I do it here.)

Poblano and Zucchini Rice Casserole
1 tbsp oil
1 cup corn, defrosted
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3-4 poblanos, roasted and peeled and diced
3 cups diced zucchini (from 4 medium zucchini)
4 cups cooked rice
aged cheddar

Warm the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté the corn for a few minutes until it starts to brown, stirring regularly so it doesn't burn. Add the onions, garlic and poblanos. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft. Add the zucchini and season with salt and pepper. Cook over low heat until the zucchini is tender.

Stir into the cooked rice. Pour into a large casserole dish and top with a few slices of cheese.

Bake at 350°F 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and everything has melded well.

Serves 6

Black Beans

Long-time readers know that Larry prefers to eat his barbecue hamburger with black beans on the side. While I think that's weird, I never turn down an opportunity to eat beans. I cooked our standard go-to black beans for our Memorial Day barbecue on Sunday. They are easy to cook and always get rave reviews.

They also freeze and defrost well, ensuring excellent feasts in the future.

I used a roasted poblano from my freezer. I usually use a chopped green pepper when they are in season — a couple of months away yet. Also, the birds / slugs have eaten my parsley to stalks. Otherwise I would have added 1/3 cup chopped parsley with the cilantro.

Black Beans

2 cups black beans

1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped

1 roasted, peeled poblano, seeded and chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

6 cloves garlic, peeled

3/4 cup chopped cilantro

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp Mexican oregano

2 tsp salt

pepper

1/2 cup white wine

Soak beans in water to cover by 2 inches for 3 hours. Drain. Put the beans in a large pot with the onion, pepper, and water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until the beans are tender, about 1 hour. Turn off the heat and set aside. Do not drain the beans.

Warm the olive oil in a small frypan over medium heat. Add the garlic, cilantro, sugar, cumin, oregano, salt and a dozen grindings of pepper. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is golden, about 10 minutes. Add the white wine. Simmer over high heat until the wine is reduced by a quarter, about 5 minute.

Stir the contents of the frypan into the beans. Cook over medium heat, uncovered, until the liquid has evaporated and the beans are yummy, about 15 minutes.

Serves 6

Ethiopian Lentils

A standard dinner around here is beans, greens and grains. Within that structure, the possibilities for diversity are endless.

The other night the beans were lentils with Ethiopian spices, the grain was millet, and the greens were curly kale.

I seasoned the lentils with a spice combination I made recently and stored in a jar in my pantry. It has an aroma similar to the food I ate in an Ethiopian restaurant near my home in Montreal many years ago (if my nose is remembering right), wonderfully warm and spicy on a winter evening. It's more warming than heat-hot, so add cayenne as desired.

The spice recipe makes about a cup and will last about 3 months in a cool place, ready to be stirred into a pot of beans any time you're wanting a cozy meal.

I added roasted poblanos to the stew because I keep them in the freezer. (See my fall pepper prep here.) You could use fresh diced poblanos or even regular green peppers.

The lentils only take about 20 minutes to cook, but then this stew simmers for another 40 minutes or so for all the flavors to combine. The kitchen becomes fragrant, hungry diners hover, and finally it's time to eat.

Spice Mix
1/2 cup dried basil
2 tbsp whole cloves
1/2 tbsp allspice berries
1/4 cup ground ginger
3 tbsp fenugreek seeds
2-inch stick cinnamon
1 tbsp cayenne

Combine all in spice grinder and grind until smooth. This will stay flavorful in a cool dark pantry for 3 months or so.

Ethiopian Lentils
2 cups green lentils
2 large red onions, chopped
1/4 cup ghee or vegetable oil
5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger root
1 carrot, chopped
2 poblano peppers, roasted, peeled and chopped
3 tbsp tomato paste
Ethiopian spice mix (above)
cayenne pepper to taste (optional)

Cook the lentils in 6 cups of water until tender, about 20 minutes. They should absorb most of the water. Drain them but reserve the cooking liquid.

Heat a large cast iron fry pan over high heat until very hot. Lower the heat a little and add the onions. Cook, stirring constantly, until they look a little browned and are starting to soften. This dry cooking of the onions adds great flavor. Lower the heat to medium, add the ghee, and stir in the garlic and ginger. Keep stirring for another minute, then add the carrot and poblano peppers.

Add a ladle of the lentil cooking liquid to the pan and stir in the poblano peppers, tomato paste, tomato paste and 1 tbsp spice blend. Season with salt and pepper to taste. This is the time to add a little cayenne if you want it hot - I generally don't. Add a little more of the spice blend to taste - I used a couple of tablespoons in total.

Add the lentils and half their cooking liquid to the pan. Let them simmer, uncovered, until they are tender and the sauce has thickened, about 40 minutes. Add more liquid as necessary so the stew stays moist.

Serves 4-6

Rice and Poblano Casserole

Poblanos and rice - one of the best combinations ever. When I have leftover rice, I always throw it in the freezer to be able to make a simple casserole like this.

Unfortunately, we had eaten all the freezer rice, so I had to cook rice from scratch. That's okay. This casserole was worth it.

Rice and Poblano Casserole
2 poblano peppers
1 tbsp oil
1/4 cup diced onion plus 2 tbsp onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (opt)
5 oz cheddar, grated
3/4 cup frozen corn, defrosted

Toast the poblanos over a gas burner or under the broiler until their skins are charred and blackened. Put in a covered pot until cool, then remove the stems and seeds. Scrape off the blackened skin (if you leave a little on the pepper, that's okay). Dice the flesh and set aside.

Warm the 1/4 cup diced onion over medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add poblanos and cook another minute.

Crumble the rice into a large bowl. Add the onion mixture and stir well.

Whisk together the yogurt, cilantro and remaining raw onion. Stir into rice along with cheddar and corn.

Grease a 2-quart casserole. Spoon in the rice mixture. Cover and cook at 325°F for 25 minutes until heated through.

Serves 6

(This casserole can be made ahead and refrigerated. Bring it to room temperature before baking.)

Roasting Peppers

One of the fall aromas in our house is that of peppers roasting on the gas stove.

A little burn, a little sweet, a little spicy. Fortunately I rarely set off the smoke detector.

Fall is the time organic peppers are inexpensive at the Hollywood Farmers Market, and I buy extra to roast and freeze. All winter I will enjoy the ease of pulling a roasted pepper from the freezer and adding its smoky sweetness to a stew or casserole.

I mainly roast red peppers and poblanos. You can read how I do it here.

Our friendly squirrel prepares for winter by burying nuts. I prepare by burying peppers in the freezer. We are both most satisfied.

Braised Carrots Provençale

I had long slender carrots in the fridge and decided they would look beautiful cut in slivers and cooked Provençale style with tomatoes and basil.

I rarely cut vegetables into julienne, but these carrots were so slender it was easy. I cut them in half lengthwise, then put the halves flat side down on the board and cut them into 3 or 4 long slender pieces each. Some of the carrots were so long that I cut them in half horizontally for ease of cooking.

(No self-respecting cook would call these juliennes because I cut the carrots much larger than matchsticks. Feel free to cut matchsticks if you prefer - the carrots will take less time to cook if you do this.)

You will notice the carrots are steamed in a little oil, no water. Hard to believe it will work, I know. But it does. And I feel that cooked this way, all the nutrients are preserved in the carrot.

I used a ripe red poblano pepper from our garden for color, but an ordinary red pepper would work just as well.

It made a colorful and tasty vegetable side. The main dish was an awesome homegrown eggplant - more on that later.

Braised Carrots Provençale
1 lb slender carrots
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 red poblano or red pepper
1 large tomato
2 tbsp basil, chopped
lemon

Trim the carrots and peel them. (They look prettier peeled, but feel free to leave the peel on for the extra nutrition.) Cut them lengthwise in half, then put the cut side on the board and thinly slice them lengthwise.

Heat oil in a 10-inch skillet. Add the carrots, cover the pan, and cook over medium-low heat for 15 minutes. Add the garlic to the pan, stir, cover, and cook another 5 minutes until the carrots are flexible but not overcooked. Pour them out of the pan onto a plate.

Halve, seed and slice the pepper thinly. Core, halve and slice the tomato. Put the skillet over high heat, add the pepper and tomato with 2 tbsp water, cover, and cook until the water starts steaming (a glass-covered skillet makes this easy). Then cook 2-3 minutes until the pepper is tender.

Return the carrots to the pan, toss lightly, add the basil, toss again, and cook until warmed through. Squeeze some lemon juice over and serve.

Decorate with basil flowers if desired.

Serves 4

Summer Entertaining

Summer is an easy time of year to entertain. The fresh produce is spectacular and needs very little fussing - serve plain old corn on the cob and everyone's happy. And many dishes can be made ahead and served at room temperature on these warm evenings, so the chef can mingle with her guests.

Saturday night, we invited Shane and Emma to dinner. We poured glasses of hibiscus-lime iced tea and strolled the garden. I picked some herbs, greens and cherry tomatoes to round out the main course, and Shane picked blueberries for dessert.

We chatted over corn chips and our homemade salsa while I dressed the greens for the grilled eggplant salad. I had grilled the eggplant a couple of hours before when I got home from work, and left it at room temperature.

Warming up in the slow cooker was a white bean and tomato stew I had cooked early that morning. It had a little heat from our home-grown poblano and jalapeño peppers, but was still a gentle foil to the tart and spicy greens on the eggplant. (The slow cooker is a great way to warm food without having to watch that it doesn't burn.) Larry cooked corn on the cob, and we sat down to an easy yet delicious meal.

Dessert was peach ice cream that I'd made Wednesday evening with mountain-grown peaches from Ha's Apple Farm. I felt bad turning this luscious fruit into ice cream, but it got rave reviews, especially with our homegrown blueberries scattered on top.

As we ate dessert, the night grew dark and we lit candles. An owl flew to the top of our cypress tree, and the full moon rose. There's nothing like a simple summer dinner in the garden.

White Bean and Tomato Stew
1 cup dry white beans
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large tomato, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 poblano pepper
1 jalapeño pepper
1 heaping tablespoon fresh basil
1 teaspoon fresh oregano
1/2 cup parsley

Cook the beans in plenty of simmering water until tender, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours depending on the age of the beans. They should be just cooked, not mushy, because they will cook further in the stew. Drain them and set aside. They can be refrigerated overnight. If you prefer, you can use 2 14-oz cans of cannellini beans. Drain them and rinse them well.

Warm olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender. Add the garlic, tomato, and seeded and chopped peppers. Cook a couple of minutes and add the beans. Season with salt to taste. It can be refrigerated now if necessary.

Chop the fresh herbs and add to the stew as it warms. If it gets too dry, add a splash of water. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve warm.

Serves 6

Poblano peppers - like green peppers but with a little heat

Stuffed Peppers

These are not the stuffed peppers I grew up with - green bell peppers stuffed with seasoned rice and tomato sauce and baked until the peppers were wrinkled.

These peppers are loosely mounded with corn, tomatoes and herbs, topped with a little cheese, and then baked 15 minutes or so in the toaster oven until warmed through.

They make a nice light summer supper, especially with a green salad on the side.

You can use any pepper for stuffing. I used an Italian gourmet pepper I grew. It was a little sweet and held its shape when it cooked.

Stuffed Peppers
2 tsp olive oil
2 spring onions, sliced
1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup corn (defrosted frozen is fine)
1/4 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 green pepper to stuff
2 tbsp firehouse Mike cheddar (optional)

Warm the olive oil in a skillet and sauté the onion and poblano pepper until softened. Stir in the corn and cherry tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

Slice the pepper you'll be stuffing in half. Take out the seeds. Pile the filling on each half. (There will probably be too much, so mound it high.) Sprinkle the optional cheese on top.

Bake at 350°F for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the tomatoes are warmed through.

Serves 2 as a side dish.

Black Bean and Corn Salad

Beans are one of the healthiest foods we can eat - full of fiber, protein, antioxidants, B vitamins, iron - plus they're inexpensive, and they travel well in the lunch box.

A bean salad and a green salad combine to make an excellent portable meal.

I make one or two bean salads a week for our lunches. The variety is infinite - beans never have to be boring. Here's the colorful salad we're eating this week.

Black beans cook quickly in boiling water - usually in under two hours without soaking. You want them to be tender, but not mushy. If you prefer to use canned beans, 3 to 4 14-oz cans will do.

I still have some of last year's poblanos in the freezer. (You can see how I froze them here.) If you are not so lucky, substitute a red or green pepper, or a jalapeño if you'd like a little heat. Or skip the pepper completely. Make sure you use organic celery - the non-organic kind is one of the most heavily pesticided vegetables. Fortunately, safe celery is becoming easier to find in the organic section of grocery stores. Also, pick up a couple of extra limes - it's nice to squeeze a little more lime juice over the salad before serving or packing in a lunch box.

Black Bean and Corn Salad
1 1/4 cups dried black beans (turtle beans)
10 oz packet frozen corn kernels (about 2 cups)
1 poblano, roasted and peeled, seeded
3 stalks celery
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
3/4 cup slivered red onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
juice of 1 lime
1/2 cup olive oil

Pick over the beans, discarding any small stones or clumps of dirt. Wash them well, then cook them in plenty of boiling water, partially covered, until they are tender - 90-140 minutes depending on the beans. Drain and put in a large bowl.

Cook the corn in a small amount of boiling water until tender - 2-3 minutes. Chop the poblano and celery into bite-sized pieces. Add them to the beans along with the corn, grape tomatoes, and red onion.

Whisk the salt, cumin and lime juice together. Slowly whisk in the olive oil to make an emulsion. Dress the salad and let it sit at room temperature for half an hour for the flavors to meld.

Serve immediately, or refrigerate for a few days. Serves 6-8

Tomatillo Salsa

Tomatillos are interesting vegetables (actually fruits). They look like giant cape gooseberries with a papery husk that covers a hard green ball which has a sticky surface. They are tart and tangy, and form the base of the green sauce poured over cheese enchiladas.

I made this variation the other day and poured it over cheese omelets for breakfast. It was great.

Tomatillos are coming to the end of their season, but they last for a few weeks in the fridge still in their husks. I've also husked and rinsed them and frozen them successfully in the past.

The poblano pepper adds a slight heat to the salsa. But this is not a hot sauce - it makes an interesting but not overwhelming breakfast dish. It would also be good on enchiladas or stirred into rice.

Tomatillo Salsa
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tbsp chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup husked, rinsed and diced tomatillos (4-5)
cilantro for garnish

Warm oil in a small pan over medium heat. Sauté poblano and onion until tender. Add the garlic and tomatillos. Cook until they start to brown, just a few minutes. Remove from heat and keep warm.

Make a 2-egg omelet, layering a little cheddar in the middle before you fold it over. Spoon some of the salsa on top and serve.

Makes enough salsa for 2 omelets.

Calabacitas

At Thanksgiving, I made this sauté of peppers, zucchini and corn to spoon over the lentil loaf. It's also great with mashed potatoes or wrapped in warm corn tortillas.

Regular readers know my affection for the poblano. When roasted, it has a smoky depth that enhances this dish. (Click here for roasting instructions. You could substitute a regular diced green pepper. The heat of the jalapenos is mellowed by the cream -- add more or less to taste.

The recipe calls for a lot of stirring, but it's more a matter of keeping an eye on it and stirring as needed rather than hovering over the pot.

Calabacitas
1 poblano, roasted and peeled
1 red pepper
1/2 lb medium zucchini
2 jalapenos
1 tbsp oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups corn kernels, thawed if frozen
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried
1 tbsp whipping cream
1 tbsp chopped cilantro

Seed and quarter the roasted poblano and the red pepper and cut into 1/2 inch wide strips. Keep separate. Halve zucchini lengthwise and slice across in 1/3 inch half-moons. Seed and chop the jalapeno.

Heat oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion until golden, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini, red pepper, jalapeno and garlic. Sauté until zucchini begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Add corn, oregano and poblano. Stir 3 minutes. Add cream and half the cilantro. Cook, stirring, until the cream thickens, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve sprinkled with the remaining cilantro.

Leftovers can be refrigerated for a few days.

Serves 4

Roasting Peppers

The peppers were overflowing the Tutti Frutti stand at the Hollywood Farmers Market last week, and I brought home a big bag of organic red peppers, poblanos and jalapenos.

I froze the jalapenos whole to use in chili and other spicy dishes throughout the winter. They defrost quickly, and still retain much of their heat.

The red peppers and poblanos I roasted and peeled, and then stored individually wrapped in the freezer. They add color and flavor to bean dishes and cobblers -- I feel rich when I have peppers in the freezer.

You might have noticed that I don't use a lot of red peppers on this blog. That's because organic locally-grown ones are only available for a short time each year. The rest of the year I pull them from my freezer - not for eating raw, of course, but for any cooked purpose they are great.

Poblanos are available year-round at Mexican markets, but I prefer the organic ones that only come to the farmers market in the fall. I grew some in my garden this year too - and harvested a dozen over the weekend. These are my favorite peppers - they have a rich flavor and a slight spiciness that I find addictive.

There are many recipes for roasting and freezing peppers. Mine is the simplest.

Roasting Peppers
Rinse and dry the peppers. Turn the gas flame on the stove to high and lay the peppers on the rack above the flame to char. I fit three on each burner. (If you don't have a gas stove, put the peppers on a rack under the broiler.)

Use tongs to turn the peppers as they blacken on each side. When a pepper is black all over, put it in a saucepan and cover it with the lid. Add peppers as they are blackened, and let them sit in the covered pot until they are cool enough to handle. The steam released as they cool helps release the skin.

To peel a pepper, hold it by the stem, and with a small knife scrape off the blackened skin. Do not run the pepper under water - this washes away the flavor. Don't fuss if some of the skin won't come off.

When you've peeled the pepper, cut off the top and then slice down one side to flatten it. Scrape out the seeds and the thickest membranes.

When you've prepped the peppers, put each one in an individual baggie and seal it. Then put them all in one big freezer bag labelled with the date and the kinds of peppers, and toss it in the freezer.

This winter, when you want a pepper, just pull it out and let it defrost in its small bag on the counter. Then chop it and add it to whatever you are cooking. Or toss it with olive oil, garlic and herbs as a quick appetizer.

Inexpensive and delicious - organic roasted peppers from the freezer are great.

Black Beans

We had a great cook-out on Memorial Day weekend. Larry cooked my portobello mushroom to perfection, the potato salad was delicious, and the black beans were out of this world.

It was Larry who introduced me to the idea of beans with hamburgers. When we first moved to Pasadena I headed to the library to find a good recipe for this bizarre use of beans. The one I've used ever since is from the Williams Sonoma Vegetarian cookbook.

The beans cook in an afternoon, and taste even better the next day. They store in the fridge for a week, and they freeze well, so I can make sure to always have some on hand. They are great in burritos, or with rice and vegetables. Or you can serve them as soup - add extra stock, purée some to get the texture you like, and serve with hot sauce on the side.

Best of all, these black beans are delicious.

The key to the good flavor is the sofrito added to the beans after they are cooked. So while cooking the dried beans with pepper and onions enhances their flavor, you could make this recipe with canned black beans and it would still be great. Drain 4 14-oz cans of black beans and rinse them thoroughly. Put them in a saucepan with 2 cups of water or stock. Bring to a boil and then continue the recipe with the frying of the cilantro and garlic.

I used one of my homegrown poblano peppers in place of the green pepper. The white wine is a little better than Two Buck Chuck, but nothing too expensive or oaky. A sauvignon blanc or a fruity gewurtztraminer would be good. All the alcohol burns off but the flavor is left. If you prefer not to use alcohol, use an equal amount of vegetable stock.

Black Beans
2 cups dried black beans, picked over and rinsed
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, seeded, deribbed, and cut into 1/2 inch dice
1/4 cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic, peeled but not chopped
3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsps dried oregano
salt
pepper
1/2 cup white wine

Soak beans for 3 hours in water to cover by at least 3 inches. They'll expand a lot and you don't want the top ones to get dry.

Drain the beans and place in a saucepan with the onion, bell pepper, and water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, until the beans are tender, about 1 hour. Add hot water from the kettle as needed so the beans are always covered by water. Remove from the heat. Do not pour off the liquid.

Warm the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed frypan over medium heat. Add the garlic, cilantro, brown sugar, cumin, oregano, 1 1/2 tsp salt, and ground pepper to taste. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is golden, about 10 minutes.

Add the white wine. Simmer over high heat until the wine is reduced by one-fourth, about 5 minutes. Add to the beans and simmer, uncovered, about 15 minutes until the beans are hot and most of the liquid is evaporated.

Serves 6

Potato Salad

Just in time for the start of summer barbecue season -- Victoria Day in Canada and Memorial Day in the US -- here is my favorite potato salad recipe.

Larry will cook burgers (well, a portobello mushroom for me) and we'll eat them with potato salad, black beans and a green salad for our ceremonial cook-out. (A grilled portobello mushroom in a bun with grilled red onion and avocado is a messy but delicious eating experience.)

Potatoes have been much maligned in recent years, but they are actually a wonderful food for the colon, the blood sugar and blood fat levels.

They contain a resistant starch that is not broken down by our digestive enzymes so makes it to the large intestine intact. There it provides bulk, offers protection against colon cancer, improves glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, lowers plasma cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, and possibly even reduces fat storage.

The way to double the amount of resistant starch in a potato is to cook it and then cool it. Potato salad!

So enjoy your holiday barbecue, knowing that the potato salad is possibly the healthiest part of the meal.

The buttermilk ranch dressing is also great on green salads, and keeps in a jar in the fridge for a few days. While it sounds like a lot of dressing, the hot potatoes will absorb it and become flavored all the way through.

You get more protein and nutrients from the potatoes if you don't peel them.

For a little extra flavor, seed and dice a poblano pepper, sauté it in a little olive oil, and stir it into the potatoes along with the red onion. My poblano plant is covered in peppers. If you're not so lucky, you could use a green pepper instead.

Potato Salad with Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
3 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch dice
1/4 cup buttermilk (or put 1 tsp of lemon juice or vinegar in the bottom of a measuring cup and fill to the 1/4 cup mark with regular milk)
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 tsp lemon juice
2 scallions, finely chopped
1 small red onion, peeled, halved, and cut in thin slivers
black pepper

Place the potatoes in a large pot. Cover with cold water and sprinkle with salt. Bring to a boil and simmer, partially covered, until fork-tender, about 12 minutes.

Meanwhile make the dressing. Whisk together buttermilk, mayonnaise, vinegar, garlic, lemon juice and scallions.

Drain the cooked potatoes and place in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over them while they are still warm, tossing gently to make sure all the potatoes are coated.

Let them cool a little, then stir in the red onion and season with black pepper.

Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours to chill.

Serves 6 to 8.