Tangy Vodka Style Baked Beans OR Bean There Done That

As a kid, there were few things that looked more unpalatable than baked beans. I'd watch my parents scoop the odd colored goopy drippy beans onto their paper plates at numerous summer picnics and think, uhg, no thanks--either that or, please don't make me eat that!

It would appear I've matured since then because few things evoke such a distinct craving now as baked beans, particularly if they have some tang to them. It could have something to do with my adoption of the Boston Red Sox when I was fourteen, if so, I owe them my thanks.

Today, I felt that twang in my stomach for tang, so I pulled up this recipe.

Alcohol Element

I was reading some cooking blogs and came across this one, Cooking with Vodka, that has a recipe for baked beans with 1/2 cup of vodka. Vodka is essentially without flavor, so why bother cooking with it? Some people may wonder why anyone would pose such a question. Here in Elder in the Kitchen, I ponder these things. It acts as a flavor enhancer. It's like MSG but without the bad reputation or restraining order.

Many foods have flavor compounds that aren't soluble in water, only in alcohol, so a splash of vodka can release those flavor combinations in a way that nothing else can. Vodka and tomatoes are particularly fond of one another.

Since we don't cook with alcohol at EITK, I thought what other flavor could I enhance? Did I mention I like tang? So instead of vodka, I chose to enhance the zip, and added 1/2 cup of white wine vinegar.

Ingredients

2        16 oz cans of your favorite brand of original baked beans
1/3     pound sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch wide strips
         (if you use peppered bacon the probably won't need to add more pepper later)
1        medium size Spanish onion, diced (can substitute with a yellow onion)
2        garlic cloves, minced
1 1/4  cup ketchup
1/3     cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/3     cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
1        tablespoon chili powder
1        teaspoon dry mustard
1        teaspoon Liquid Smoke
1/2     cup white wine vinegar
         freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Invade a 2-quart casserole dish with the beans. You'll want to use an earthenware or glass dish, no metal! Earthenware is preferable as it will hold the heat without burning or allowing the edges to burn. This is important because you'll be opening the oven door frequently to stir the beans and to add the vinegar.

2) Fry the sliced bacon in a skillet over medium heat. The goal is to get the bacon nearly crisp and to render as much of the fat as possible. So no trimming the bacon (as if, am I right? Who's with me? <insert cricket sound>). Using a slotted spoon, scoop the bacon from the skillet and disperse it over the beans.

3) Next, fry the onion in the bacon fat (that's what I'm talking about), stirring until the onion is soft but not brown, I'd say 8 - 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute. Pour the onion and any remaining fat into the casserole dish and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir well.

4) Put the covered dish in the oven. Plan to let it cook for 2 hours. After about 30 minutes, it will start to bubble and a crust will begin to form. At this point, you'll start stirring the beans every 15 minutes, making sure to scrape the sides. I know, I didn't warn you about the stirring, but trust me, it's worth it.

5) At about the hour and a half mark, add the 1/2 cup of white wine vinegar. If you love the tang like I love the tang then you're good. If you like your tang to be a bit more subtle, cut back to 1/4 cup.

My brother-in-law, who claims he is not a picky eater but just knows what he likes, tasted these and gave them a big thumbs up. In my book, it doesn't get much better than that.

***Warning***

When you add the vinegar it might start to look soupy, but don't fret. Let it cook the remaining time then, take it from the oven and let it stand for at least another 15 minutes before serving. This will allow it to thicken up and get that perfect consistency.

Some Advice

A couple of years ago, we had a great local butchery. Their meat was top notch and they truly knew their stuff. Unfortunately, they fell to hard economic times. Since then, I've kind of forgotten about the butcher in my local grocery store. Too often I come across the prepackaged national brands and forget about my local meat cutter in the corner.

I was standing in front of a refrigerated case boasting a plethora of bacon varieties when my butcher happened by and said, "You know where the best bacon is?" I pointed to his corner and said, "over there?"

"Yep. It costs the same as that stuff, (pointing to what was in my hand) and it's thicker and tastier. In fact, if you don't like it better, then I'll give you a pack of that (he would not even deign to speak it's name) for free."

So I did. And he was right.

White Wine Barley Risotto with Fennel OR Shall I or Shallot Not?

Whenever I watch Chopped or Iron Chef America on the Food Network, I often see chefs trying to pull together a risotto. They think this will impress the judges because in their minds, to pull off a great risotto under the imposed time restraints is akin to delivering twins in the back seat of a Manhattan taxi cab. And true enough, if the chef does pull it off, the judges usually comment on the degree of difficulty in creating said dish.

I'm going the other direction with this batch--this is slow cooked risotto. One of the requirements and challenges to cooking a great risotto is the constant stirring. Normally risotto is takes 20-25 minutes. My version will take about 4 hours and there's nearly no stirring involved.

Alcohol Element

This dish calls for white wine. When substituting for white wine, you have a number of options: you can use the old stand by of chick broth or stock, but since we're already using that in the dish, you may opt for ginger ale, white wine vinegar, or if you want to get really crazy, white grape juice diluted with white wine vinegar. I tend to like the zip vinegar adds so I went with white wine vinegar.

Risotto

Just so there's no confusion, let me first define risotto: rice cooked in meat stock and seasoned in any of various ways (as with butter and cheese or with wine and saffron). My riff on risotto is I'm cooking barely instead of rice (for a more robust and earthier flavor--plus you can't be barely for rich dietary fiber) and using white wine vinegar instead of white wine. Normally I would go with a predetermined white cooking wine, but this is Elder in the Kitchen after all.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons            fennel seeds
1                             large or 2 small fennel bulbs
                               (cored and finely diced, plus 2 tablespoons chopped fronds)
1 cup                      pearl barley (or short-grain brown rice)
1                             small carrot (finely chopped)
1                             large shallot (finely chopped)
2 cloves                  garlic (minced)
4 cups                     reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 1/8 cups              water (divided)
1/3 cup                   white wine vinegar
2 cups                    frozen French-cut green beans
1/2 cup                  grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup                  pitted oi-cured black olives (coarsely chopped)
1 tablespoon          freshly grated lemon zest
                              Freshly ground pepper (to taste)

Let's take a moment to recognize the shallot:

Look for them nestled in between the garlic cloves and the onions.
Looks like the former, flavor like the latter.

For some reason, when you say shallot, an image of a small white onion with green shafts comes to mind. These are not shallots. A shallot is cloved like garlic, but bigger--kind of like comparing a golf ball to baseball, and it's purple. The flavor is all onion though. It only took about ten seconds for this baby to bring tears to my eyes.

Directions Part I

1) Use cooking spray to coat a slow cooker (at least 4-quart, there's going to be a fair bit of liquid in this).

2) To bring out the fennel flavor, crush the fennel seeds. You can use the broad side of a knife or the under side of a sauce pan.

3) Combine the fennel seeds, diced fennel, barley, carrot, shallot, and garlic in the slow cooker.

4) Introduce the white wine vinegar, 1 cup of water, and broth, stirring it all to a lovely heterogeneous melange.

5) Cover and cook until the barley is tender, but chewy, and the risotto itself has a thick creamy consistency. For my slow cooker this took a little over 4 hours on high.

Because you want Aaron Sanchez to look on your baby delivery skills with admiration.

I spent 30 minutes getting the dish to this point.


Directions Part II

1) When the risotto is done, but prior to serving, cook the green beans per the package directions and drain.

2) Turn off the slow cooker and stir in the green beans. Also mix in the olives, lemon zest, Parmesan, and pepper.

3) If the risotto has begun to dry out, heat up the remaining 1/2 cup of water and stir it in as well.

4) We know the judges are always grading on presentation, so be sure to serve your risotto with a sprinkle of chopped fennel fronds.

Stout-Free Chicken Stew or Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs Are a Myth

I was beginning to think boneless skinless chicken thighs were a myth.

When I first went to the grocery store to get the needed ingredients for this dish, I went on a Friday evening. Turns out, Friday evenings are not the best night to shop. I went to three grocery stores that night looking for the mythical boneless skinless variety. I found bone-in skin-on chicken thighs at each place, prompting me to wonder if the words boneless and skinless were directions instead of adjectives.

The first store said they were out but should be getting a delivery the next morning at 08:00 and told me to give them a call. I figured they didn’t have the market on chicken parts so I tried the other two places to find they too only had the DIY version.

On Saturday morning, I returned to the first the store and my hopes soared as I saw a man and a woman stocking the shelves with various plastic wrapped chicken parts. I scanned the shelves only to find further evidence of the myth. I was left with only one option, to dampen my testosterone and summon some estrogen—I had to ask for directions.

I found a guy in a long white coat unloading packages from boxes marked Jenni-O and figured he was either a scientist conducting rogue E. coli experiments or a butcher. He directed me to an open freezer where I could find the mythical poultry. He said, “Boneless skinless tenderloins, then thighs, then breasts.”

When I approached the freezer, I quickly spotted the former and the latter, but no thighs. I checked again, thinking I missed them, while at the same time forcing down rising panic that I would need to return to the scientist/butcher and ask AGAIN.

Fortunately, my parenting skills kicked. You know how when your child hollers from the bedroom, “I can’t find my such-and-such!”

And you yell around your toothbrush, “Did you check in _____________?”

“Yeah, I looked everywhere.”

Forcing you to stop brushing and go to said child’s room, literally foaming at the mouth, and move a few things until the mystical sought after item magically appears?

That’s what I did. I maneuvered a few breasts and loins until I unearthed the boneless skinless chicken thighs.

If your odyssey to obtain the chicken for this dish is less challenging than mine, then you’ve already surmounted the most difficult part.

Stout-free Chicken Stew

This chicken stew recipe was originally made with Guinness stout. A stout is a heavy-bodied brew that is darker and sweeter than porter. It has a higher percentage of hops and uses roasted malt. In my version, I’m using beef stock.

Alcohol Element

If your recipe calls for beer or ale: substitute ginger ale, grape juice, or chicken broth for light beers. For heavier beers, use a chicken, mushroom, or beef stock. I’m a fun guy so I’m partial to mushroom stock, but since I’m using 8 oz. of Cremini mushrooms, I didn’t want the mushroom to overpower the dish, and thus, I went with beef stock.

Chicken

Thighs are a darker meat, (they get all that extra blood flow) so they can handle extended cooking time without risk of drying out or becoming tough. This makes them perfect for the slow cooker. I’ll include some hearty vegetables and bacon. The bacon gives it an added touch of the savory and, hey, it’s bacon (that’s all the reason one really needs).

Ingredients

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ cup all-purpose flour (yes, a separate additional ½ cup of flour)
1 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper (plus more to taste)
2 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (trimmed)
4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil (divided)
4 pieces bacon (chopped)
1 14 ounce can beef stock
1 pound whole baby carrots
8 ounces cremini or button mushrooms (halved if large)
2 cups chopped onion
4 cloves garlic (minced)
1 ½ teaspoons dried thyme
1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 cups frozen baby peas (thawed)

     

You'll want to use either of these mushrooms, but for an earthy more robust flavor go with the Cremini on the left.

Directions

1) Take the 6 tablespoons of flour, the teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon of pepper and mix thoroughly in a shallow bowl. Coat the chicken thoroughly with the flour mixture and place on a plate.

2) Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a large skillet to medium-high, place half of the chicken in the pan and cook until well browned, 3-4 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and place in a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker. Reduce the heat, add 2 more teaspoons of oil and repeat with the remaining chicken. Layer the bottom of the cooker with your chicken.

3) Cook the chopped bacon in the same pan, stirring often, for about 2 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup of flour over the bacon and cook for an additional 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the beef stock, and stir it in with the bacon. Pour the mixture over the chicken.

4) Add the mushrooms, carrots, thyme, garlic, and onion in an even layer over the chicken. Add the chicken broth over the top of it all. Cover and cook 4 hours on high or 7-8 hours on low. The chicken should be fall off the bone tender, if we had used bones.

5) Mix in the peas, cover and cook an additional 7-10 minutes (we don’t want any cold peas). Season with the remaining ½ teaspoon of salt and maybe an additional ½ teaspoon of pepper (to taste).
This should adequately make 8 servings and prep time is anywhere from 45 – 90 minutes depending on your culinary acumen (my prep time skewed long).

The result is a mild earthy flavored stew where the mushrooms, beef stock, and bacon complement one another. I even got my 11-year-old to eat the mushrooms!