beans | Kitchenbelle

Maple Baked Beans–Barefoot Contessa Style

Posted on January 9, 2010 by kitchenbelle

Hello, friends. Are you still there? I hope so! My absence has not been because I have not been cooking–quite the opposite actually! I spent a week cooking with my mom in preparation for our annual Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fish. Except, we do way more than seven! Baked stuffed lobsters, bacala, shrimp mousse, and baked scallops, just to name a few. I really should have planned ahead and done an entire Christmas Eve post for you! It’s just that sometimes whipping out the camera interferes with the mood, you know? I started taking photos on the first day of cooking but then doing so just seemed to interfere with the fun we were having!

Immediately after the start of the new year it was my husband’s birthday. I decided to prepare a laid-back-comfort-food-meal. It turned out to take a lot more time than I expected, though, I must say, in this case the time and labor really seemed to be worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed the meal! I made hot roast beef sandwiches with gravy (sometimes called Beef on Weck in Buffalo, NY), jalepeno cheddar corn bread, sunflower seed salad and these baked beans from Barefoot Contessa*, one of my most favorite ladies in the world. As if that wasn’t enough comfort food I made a special request for hotdog mac ‘n’ cheese from my mom. She hesitated, “Mac ‘n’ cheese with hotdogs? Really?” but after my serious begging and insistence that no one would turn it down she obliged. And everyone was quite thankful. DELICIOUS! …and the next day everyone made a mad dash for the gym. 🙂

These baked beans were very well-received. They are sweet, yet don’t let that fool you–they have a serious kick. You will definitely need to plan ahead to make these. The beans should soak in cold water over night and then they will need to bake for 6-8 hours. I made the number one amateur cooking mistake and I didn’t read the recipe through. I ended up putting them in the oven at 10am and taking them out the very moment I served dinner. Very close call! These are definitely a great side for a barbeque or tailgating party, but also they were really good on top of a baked potato for a super filling week night main course meal.

I doubled the below recipe and you may want to do the same if you are cooking for a crowd.

*If you don’t have any Barefoot Contessa/Ina Garten cookbooks, I strongly encourage you to purchase one. Each is a work of art. You can feel her warmth and passion as you turn the pages. Her excitement for good hearty unpretentious food is contagious. And her kitchen is a haven of peace.

Maple Baked Beans–Barefoot Contessa Style:

1 pound small red beans
1 large yellow onion, cut in eighths
1 bay leaf
6 whole black peppercorns
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Chinese chili paste
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (you can sub 1/2 tablespoon dry)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
5 ounces thick cut smoked bacon, cubed

Put the dry beans in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The next day drain and rinse the beans then drain again.

Place the beans in a large pot (I love using my Le Creuset) and add about 2 quarts of water, the onion segments, a bay leaf, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil then turn down the heat and simmer for about 50 minutes, or until tender. Drain the beans reserving the draining liquid.

Preheat the oven to 225 F.

In a small saucepan whisk together maple syrup, brown sugar, ketchup, chili paste, ginger, salt and 1 1/2 cups of the cooking liquid that you drained from the beans. Bring to a simmer and cook over medium heat for 6 minutes.

Add half of the bacon cubes to the beans and stir. Cover the top of the beans with the remaining bacon cubes. Pour the maple syrup sauce over the beans. Place the lid on top and bake for 6-8 hours. Check occasionally and if the beans appear dry add some of the reserved cooking liquid. Remove the lid for the last 30 minutes of cooking in order to thicken the sauce. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Serve warm.

Recipe adapted from this recipe by Barefoot Contessa/Ina Garten. Also found in Barefoot Contessa at Home published by Clarkson Potter.

Filed under: beans, Main Dish, Side | 5 Comments »

Rosemary Chicken with White Beans

Posted on November 10, 2009 by kitchenbelle

This meal is the definition of an easy and quick weeknight meal. The tomatoes make this almost like a chunky soup/stew. In fact, I wish we had some fresh bread on hand because this is a perfect dish for dunking! I served this with a simple arugula salad. We really enjoyed this dinner and I look forward to enjoying it again for lunch!

Notes:

For the chicken, I used Perdue thinly sliced chicken breast. I love how they are nice and lean and cook so quickly!
For the stewed tomatoes, I like to use Contadina Diced Tomatoes. They are perfect for quick weeknight meals! For this recipe I used the “roasted garlic” variety.
You can always use fresh herbs in place of dried herbs. In fact, I suggest you use fresh herbs as often as possible. However, sometimes you find yourself in a pinch and it’s necessary to rely on your stash of dried herbs. (Like when you have a hungry husband and you can’t get to the farmer’s market or the grocery store!) Whenever you substitute dry for fresh always use one teaspoon of dry for every one tablespoon of fresh that the recipe calls for.

Rosemary Chicken with White Beans:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary (if you have fresh, use fresh!)
~1/2 teaspoon salt
~1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 pounds of boneless chicken breast, sliced thin 2 (14.5 ounce) cans stewed tomatoes
2 (15 ounce) cans navy beans (or any other white bean like cannellini), drained
1/4 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Combine rosemary, salt, and pepper and sprinkle over both sides of chicken. Place chicken in pan and cook until brown, turning once. (Depending on the size of your pan, you may have to cook chicken in batches. Make sure there is enough space in the pan so that each peace of chicken touches the bottom of the pan.) Once all chicken pieces are brown set aside on a plate. Deglaze pan by adding tomatoes (with juices) to pan. Use a spatula to scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Reduce heat to medium and add chicken. Add the beans; cover and simmer 10 minutes or until chicken is done. Stir in olives.

Adapted from MyRecipes.com.

Filed under: beans, cannellini beans, chicken, Main Dish, olives, tomato | 1 Comment »

Escarole Soup

Posted on September 10, 2009 by kitchenbelle

Sept

Wow–it has been a while! It has been a whirlwind of a summer and the reason for my recent absence is that my husband and I just returned from a fabulous vacation in Spain. We had a really fantastic time and I have returned so inspired and excited to get cooking with some newly acquired Mediterranean perspective! We ate so much delicious food and I cannot wait to recreate some of the dishes.

With so many family birthdays and exciting celebrations of all sorts during the summer, I spent quite a bit of my time baking, as you can tell:

Yikes! Though it seems counterintuitive to spend so many hours indoors baking in a hot kitchen during the peaks of summer heat, in an odd way, it makes some sense. Summer tends to be a time of indulgence. Ice cream becomes a priority and my husband plays on 2-3 softball teams each summer, which prevent regular balanced sit-down dinners each night. Also, when the weather is nice and there are more hours of sunlight we are less likely to sprint home immediately after work to settle in and eat dinner. Now that fall is here (man do I love fall) it is time to get back into a routine and return to the table for long warm meals.

In addition to the overabundance of sweet treats, you may have also noticed some changes on Kitchenbelle.com! Yes–we got a facelift! I’d be happy to hear your thoughts about the new design. Please email me with any suggestions or feedback: kitchenbelle at ymail dot com.

And now, onto the soup! I did some major food shopping immediately upon returning from vacation. In Whole Foods, I picked up a leaflet advertising meals for under $15. This escarole soup caught my eye. In need of something easy, filling and nutritionally sound to make for dinner–something that could sit on the stove while I continued to unpack and restore order to the apartment–I settled on this soup.

The moment it began simmering our place smelled like my grandmother’s! She used to make escarole soup all of the time when I was a child, yet I didn’t realize it until the smell evoked the memory. The sense of scent is a wonderful thing.

I adapted the recipe by cooking the garlic and olive oil with just the smallest pieces of bacon fat. I was incredibly and pleasantly surprised by how unbelievably flavorful this soup turned out. What I found especially strange is that I did not even use any salt AND I used low sodium broth–something I very rarely do.

Escarole Soup:

3-4 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (less or more depending on your preference)
1 very thin strip of bacon or bacon fat
One large bunch of escarole, rinsed, dried and chopped
One 48-ounce can of chicken broth
Two 14-ounce cans of Pinto beans, drained and rinsed

Heat oil on medium-low and add garlic, bacon, and red pepper flakes. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Add the chicken broth and escarole and bring to a boil for about 15 minutes or until the escarole wilts. Add the pinto beans and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Remove bacon. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with crusty bread for dipping.

Adapted from Whole Foods leaflet.

Filed under: Appetizer, beans, escarole, Side, soup | 4 Comments »

White Bean Salad

Posted on July 13, 2009 by kitchenbelle

This salad is perfect for those nights when it is just too hot to cook. It is not only simple to make, but also it is delicious. The yogurt gives the dressing a bit of a creamy texture while balancing the punch of the vinegar and mustard.

I served this salad beneath yogurt marinated grilled turkey tip kebabs, however, it could certainly stand on its own as a delicious vegetarian dish. It is protein packed and quite filling.

One note: Serve this salad at room temp (not cold) for maximum flavor.

White Bean Salad:

dressing

3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2-3 garlic cloves , minced
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

salad

2 15.5 ounce cans white beans (Kidney, Great Northern or Navy), drained and rinsed in a colander under cold running water
2 red peppers, diced
4-6 tablespoons of finely chopped chives (reserve a few pinches for garnish)

Whisk all dressing ingredients together in a glass bowl. Set aside.

Combine all salad ingredients in a serving bowl. Pour dressing over salad and use a wooden spoon to toss and coat beans with dressing. Garnish with a few pinches of remaining chives.

Adapted from GlobalGourmet.com.

Filed under: beans, chives, Main Dish, peppers, salad, Side, VEGETARIAN | 1 Comment »

Taco Salad

Posted on April 15, 2009 by kitchenbelle

Spicy salsa! Chunks of avocado! Shreds of iceberg lettuce! Freshly grated cheese!

Last week my sister-in-law mentioned that she made a fabulous taco salad for dinner. She described it with such enthusiasm and detail that I have not been able to get it out of my mind!

Done right, a taco salad is a healthy week night dinner, so I decided to give it a go. Some notes on keeping it healthy:

Skip the chips
Replace full fat sour cream with Greek yogurt (for a great source of protein) or use non-fat or low-fat sour cream
Replace full fat cheese with non-fat or low-fat cheese and use just a sprinkle
Use extra lean ground turkey or chicken in place of beef
Use nutrient dense lettuce, such as romaine, instead of watery iceberg (something I didn’t do this time!)

It’s funny—we never eat ice burg lettuce. It contains mostly water and very little nutrients when compared to its darker leafy friends like romaine, arugula, spinach, Bibb, and Boston. So having iceberg felt like a treat! And shredded—I never shred lettuce so it made the salad especially special. This was a really enjoyable and filling weeknight supper!

Taco Salad:

1/2 cup salsa
1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream or Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound lean ground turkey (or chicken)
2 large plum tomatoes, diced
1 14-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
8 cups shredded iceberg (or romaine) lettuce (rinse, spin then shred using a grater)
2 avocados, sliced then cut into cubes
1/2 cup shredded low-fat sharp Cheddar cheese

Combine salsa and sour cream in a large bowl. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 2 minutes. Add turkey and cook, stirring often and crumbling with a wooden spoon, until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, beans, cumin and chili powder; cook, stirring, until the tomatoes begin to break down, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in cilantro and 1/4 cup of the salsa mixture.

Add lettuce to the remaining salsa mixture in the bowl and toss to coat. To serve, divide the lettuce among plates, top with the turkey mixture and avocado then sprinkle with cheese.

Recipe adapted from Eating Well.com.