Black Bean Salsa with Cucumber and Mango

I had cooked some fresh black beans that I bought at the Farmers Market, and threw together this recipe.  It's a combo variation of two of my summer favorites: black bean & corn salad, and mango & cucumber salsa.

Recipe:

1 mango, seeded & diced
1 cucumber, seeded & diced

1/3 cup red onion, diced
1 jalepeno, seeded & diced

1 tsp. cumin
1-2 tsp. Tabasco sauce (to taste)

1-1/2 cups cooked or canned black beans
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup cilantro (optional)

1) Mix together the "cool" ingredients - the mango & cucumber.

2) In another bowl, mix together the "hot" ingredients - the onion, jalepeno, cumin, and hot sauce.  You can adjust the amounts to your taste and your tolerance for "hot."

 

3) Mix the "cool" and "hot" ingredients together, then add the black beans, lime juice, and cilantro.

Is it a salad or is it a salsa?  In our house we use it as both.  You can eat it on its own, as dip for corn chips, or roll it up in a tortilla.  The cool and spicy tastes together in one dish really complement each other.  Like many spicy dishes, this is one that tastes better after a day in the refrigerator, so the flavors have time to meld.

Besides tasting great, this is a very attractive & colorful dish.  In fact, all the colors were not exactly what I planned.  My cooked black beans turned an unexpected and elegant shade of purple.  And the jalapenos from my garden were turning red, which gave the salsa even more of a rainbow look.

Bean Facts of Life: Where do beans come from?

Obvious answer, right?  Beans come from plants.

But how often do you actually see shelled beans (black beans, chick peas, navy beans etc.) in fresh form?  Chances are, if you cook with beans, you're using either canned or dried.  So when I saw a sign saying "black beans" at the Farmers Market, I was intrigued.  I bought about a pound and a half, and then tried to figure out what to do with them.

First of all, how long do you cook them?  Dried beans take hours to cook - you have to soak them for several hours, then at least another hour of cooking time.  Logically, fresh beans wouldn't need as much time because they haven't lost their moisture.  Sure enough, that's the case.  I found cooking directions by googling "shell beans".  You shell the beans (open the pods & take the beans out), and boil the beans in water for about 45-60 minutes, and they're ready to use in any recipe that calls for cooked beans.

So I started to shell the beans.  The pods weren't all that attractive, but inside were beautiful little black beans...

...that took an awfully long time to shell.  About 20 minutes later, I had 1-1/2 cups of black beans, which I put into a pot of water on the stove.  I tested them after 40 minutes, then kept them in for another 10 (50 minutes total).  Interestingly enough, the beans had turned purple during cooking.

The beans were tender and flavorful, but frankly, I couldn't tell the difference between these and cooking beans that started off dried. They cooked in less overall time, but I'm not sure the savings was worth the time spent shelling them.  I did save some of the uncooked beans to plant in my garden next spring - dried beans might be pretty cheap, but if I can grow black beans myself, for free, it would be worth the time spent shelling them.

Local Garlic

I love cooking with garlic - in stir-frys, salads, soups, sauces, pastas, you name it.  My family spreads roasted garlic on bread, and one day, I'm going to try out some of the chocolate-garlic recipes I have in my garlic cookbooks.  But it bothers me that most garlic in stores is from China.  That's right - China grows about 75% of the garlic sold in the U.S.

I'm not strongly on the locavore bandwagon - I support the idea in general, but the issues of where and how food is produced are more complex than just the country listed on the label.  There's also the issue of cost - in an ideal world, I'd buy local and shun internationally transported foods, but I need to be able to afford to eat.

But garlic... why on earth does that need to be imported?  It's not like buying peaches in January - it's a basic root crop, that can be grown in a variety of climates, and stored for a pretty long time. I might be willing to increase my carbon footprint for a persimmon or mango, but not for something as ubiquitous as garlic. So when I was at the local farmer's market, I decided to seek out some locally grown, organic garlic.

There was some sticker shock - the best deal I could find was 6 heads for $5, which was at least twice what I'd pay at the grocery store. Was it worth it? You bet. Besides the satisfaction of supporting regional small farms and not having used 7000 miles of fossil fuels to transport it from the other side of the planet, this was excellent quality garlic! The cloves separated easily and the peel fell right off to reveal perfect, smooth cloves.  I might not be ready to give up bananas or mangoes, but I can do my part and buy local garlic.

My Favorite Tofu Stir Fry

The first garden eggplant was ready to be picked, so I decided to make my favorite tofu stir fry.

My favorite tofu stir fry isn't my family's favorite tofu stir fry though.  The Picky Eater likes tofu, but without vegetables.  Even The Adventurous Eater doesn't particularly like eggplant and mushrooms, especially in large pieces.  So this stir fry is technically two stir frys, so that the tofu and veggies stay separate and uncorrupted.

 

The recipe is pretty simple, and doesn't really need exact measurements  - use the vegetables you have and the spices you like, in the amounts that suit you.  Besides the eggplant from the garden, I also had some shitake mushrooms in the refrigerator.  Basil from the garden, and garlic from the farmer's market (more about that here) finished off the dish.  If I had planned ahead I would have grated fresh ginger, but I didn't so I used ginger powder from my spice cabinet.

Recipe

(quantities approximate)

2 lbs. firm tofu

2 small japanese eggplants (these are the skinny ones - sometimes called chinese eggplants)

1/2 pound shitake mushrooms

handful of basil leaves

4-5 garlic cloves

2-4 tbsp. olive oil

3 tbsp. tamari* (or regular soy sauce)

white pepper & ginger to taste

1) Cut the tofu into cubes.  Slice the mushrooms and eggplant thinly, chop the basil, mince or press the garlic.

2) Put two large saute or stir-fry pans on the stove, heat some of the oil in each pan. When the oil is hot, add half the garlic to each pan and stir fry for about a minute.

3) Add the tofu to one pan, and add the eggplants and mushrooms to the other. Stir fry.

This is where it gets a little complicated, since you have to do two things at once.

4) Once the tofu has cooked for about a minute, add the tamari, ginger, and white pepper (I used about a teaspoon of each spice, but it really depends on your taste).  Keep stir frying for about 4 minutes.  When you cut open a cube of tofu, it should be an even tan color.

5) Meanwhile, keep stir frying the eggplant-mushrooms in the other pan, until the eggplant looks almost completely tender (around 7-8 minutes).  Add the basil and stir fry for another minute.

I usually serve this with brown rice.  Other vegetables on the side work well too.

 *A note about tamari - I use tamari both because I like the strong taste, and because unlike a lot of things labeled "soy sauce", tamari is just soy, without added ingredients. I like the "San-J" brand - it's reduced sodium, and O-U kosher.

Shitake Mushrooms, Roasted Red Peppers, Chick Peas & Basil

It's hot.
Really hot.
Too hot to cook.

But, in the midst of this hot weather, I had to bring a side dish to a potluck dinner. So, I needed an attractive side dish that wouldn't require a whole lot of cooking.  Luckily, even though I don't like hot weather, the basil in my garden does. I trimmed a few stalks from one of the basil plants, and searched through my kitchen for what might go well with it.

Recipe

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. shitake mushrooms
2  12oz. jars roasted red peppers, drained & chopped
2 cups cooked or canned chick peas
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Basil or arugula, or a mix

1) Slice the shitake mushrooms and sautee them in olive oil for 3-4 minutes until tender. (I also added some chopped oregano).  They'll reduce very quickly.

2) Mix the mushrooms, red peppers, chick peas, and balsamic vinegar, and add pepper to taste.

3) Now the dilemma - should I tear the basil into small pieces and mix it in with the vegetables, or serve the vegetables on a bed of basil?  I went for the bed of basil:

Easy, colorful, and I only had to have the stove on for a couple of minutes. Next time I think I'll use a basil-arugula mix, and mix it in with the vegetables instead of just having it underneath.  Or use this as topping for crostini - a piece of toasted bread, topped with a basil leaf and the mushroom/pepper/chick peas on top of that.