Refried Beans

Meaty Refried beans 

Now what is Comfort food? Most of the time comfort food is associated with nostalgia and childhood. Sometimes we create our own nostalgia and then that simply becomes a comforting dish. I have always had this fascination for cuisines from all over the world and how one can find a thin thread holding all the cuisines which are a world apart from each other. The re-fried beans is one such dish which is what I call food that comforts me. While they can be made in different ways I like mine Beany and meaty . While I have never seen Pinto beans in my life after reading many a blogs of real people and their real-life stories I figured out in India I could use the "Chitra Rajma" to create my re-fried beans. With inspiration from a recipe which belonged to someone's great-grandmother I made my own re-fried beans and it has become a staple comfort food for me. I served it with hoemamde Salsa roja , cheese sauce and nachos and that was one of the best parties ever.

Now coming to my meaty beans, in a tropical country such as India eating too much of red meat is not one of the wisest decisions and due to many a dietary restrictions Pork meat is a meat which is not available easily and even if available it is not always hygienic. So one has to carefully choose one's shop. Thankfully in Calcutta we have a very hygienic cold storage started by a Hungarian gentleman some 60 to 70 years ago. Over the years his family dispersed and he ultimately left his right hand man as the owner of this wonderful cold storage. Till date they stuck to the Hungarian gentleman's recipes and produces delicious sausages, hams and other cold cuts along with some meat.

For this particular recipe I have used their bacon and what they call "Hungarian sausages" which is a dried garlicky sausage delicious to the very core.

So here comes the recipe

Serves 4 to 6 servings

1.5 cups chitra rajma
5 bacons  chopped in little bits
4 dried sausages chopped (It is better to use one with garlic flavour)
7 to 8 garlic cloves (Indian medium sized. These are about 1/4th the size of the usual large cloves available outside India)
2 medium sized red onions
Salt and pepper as per taste


Soak the beans overnight with 4 times the amount of water. Drain them and then cook them with triple the amount of water and salt the next day till its well cooked. You will be left with the boiled beans and water. reserve this water.

Grease your pan (just brush with a bit of oil) and fry your bacon (when frying bacon it anyways leaves behind a lot of fatty liquid) and sausage and keep aside along with some bacon grease and saute the minced garlic till the aroma of garlic fills your kitchen and then saute the onions to a translucent stage. Add the beans and the water bring to a roaring boil and then taste to check if more salt is required since some salt is added while boiling the beans and add salt as per taste and 1 heaped tsp freshly ground black pepper and simmer for  15 minutes or so. Cool this and blend it away using a bit of the water with which you have cooked the beans. I used more than 3/4th of the water to make a smooth blend. Now simply heat  the reserved bacon grease and add your blend beans along with the fried bacon bits and crumble 3/4th  the amount of sausage and mix well. After 2 minutes transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with the remaining sausage pieces. This is one fatty comfort that anyone who loves meat cannot resists. My friends couldn't resist helping themselves again and again to this mashed meaty delight. They scooped this with their nachos but this mashed delight served as a filling with some sauteed bell pepper and homemade cheesy sauce and  homemade flat-bread is a real treat as well.

Bacon sausage ham Rice

Bacon sausage ham Rice 

Some days are just for a quick fix comfort food. You need a quick meal which is loaded with your favourite things. So I had fresh bacon, ham, dried sausages , fresh celery and some rice. Ah you must already be knowing where I am headed

Serves 1

Half a cup of long grained rice
1 bacon with the fat
2 slices of ham
2 thin dried sausage
1/2 tsp chili flakes
Pinch of salt
1 cup water
1 stalk of celery
Olive oil for brushing
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp finely chopped spring onion

Chop the bacon, ham and sausages. Mince the garlic and chop the celery stalk into very small pieces and finely chop the leaves. Just brush a wok or pan with olive oil and add the little bits of bacon and lower heat cover and wait for 2 minutes. Then you'l have some fat bubbling away and add the minced garlic and saute and then add the celery stalk and the ham and sausage , chili flakes  and then the celery leaves and spring onion and saute for 3 minutes and leave it aside on a bowl. Now add the rice in the wok and add the water and bring it to a boil and add the salt. Be careful with adding salt because bacon and ham will have salt in them when you shall later mix the rice with the meat. Now lower heat and cover and cook for 8 minutes to 10 minutes till the rice grains look separated and then switch off gas and leave for 5 minutes and then mix the rice with the meat and serve.

Meaty Beans

Meaty Beans 

My long lost comfort food in a far away country. Well lest just say as close to my comfort food as possible. So the more I read the more I am amazed by the beautiful culinary connection that binds together this "wide wide wide as the ocean" world.

I really dislike how the average media disrespects the culinary deliciousness of most cuisines. So India automatically means the land of curries, America means the land of burgers and the cliches are overwhelmingly sad. Look a bit deep and you will be amazed what each cuisine has to offer and once in a while its connection with another country far far away will delight and amaze you.

So it is only recently  that I did read about the famous 'Southern Red Bean and rice" of Southern America. My first thought was amazement at the connection that it has with India's own Rajma Chawal. Well of course the Indian one is spicy and robust , the Southern variety less spicy  meaty and comfortingly  juicy from all that meat. And then I looked back without realization and found myself fondly remembering those dinners that my 'Baba' (Father , how amazing that the Afgans call their fathers baba as well) would cook. You see he would make this fantastic dish with red kidney beans and mutton (goat's meat) or chicken and those were fantastic, of course he did use tomatoes and as a rule of our family very little spice compared to most Indian palates. Then I made the mistake of talking about ti in school and boy oh boy was I teased mercilessly. You see the land of the five rivers were "rajma" (red kidney bean)  originated cannot think of this meaty business and here I was filled with reminiscence of the past. The moment I read about it I knew I had to make it . Over the years I trained my palate to appreciate all kinds of food spicy, non-spicy and well can actually enjoy all of them.

A quick glance through recipes made me realize I had to make the creole seasoning but well did not have oregano and thyme at hand and so followed "deepsouthdish's" recipe which called for no local seasoning. Made a few changes such as using only a bit of dry sausages we get down here in Calcutta. Omitted the bacon and sued chicken stock. Well I love bacon but I hate tyres round the waist wink wink. Left out the celery since "Baba" does not like the taste, sprinkled some on mine. Used yellow bell pepper instead of green one but the result was a comforting meal and the need to soon make the creole and cajun seasoning and using bacon for next time's preparation. You can always omit sausages and use  chicken in case of dietary restrictions.

So this is how I made it

1 cup red kidney beans "Rajma" soaked overnight and cooked in 3 cups of water in a pressure cooker
1 medium onion
1 tsp homemade garlic chili paste it was hot so you can always reduce the amount
Half an yellow bell pepper diced finely
1/2 a tsp dried basil leaves
About 350ml of chicken stock
200gm or it could have been 170gm of spicy pork sausage , feel free to change it as per dietary restrictions
Oil to brush pan
2 medium sized bay leaves
1 tsp celery leaves chopped finely

So begin a day ahead. Soak your beans at night with triple the amount of water and in the morning cook it in a pressure cooker till well cooked. If using for dinner you can soak early in the morning and cook at night.
Now brush the pan with oil and saute sausages chopped from before . Take them out add the finely sliced onion and diced bell pepper, cover and lower heat. This cooks it faster and requires no extra oil. since I used dried sausage it did not produce too much oil. when onions are well sauteed add the garlic chili paste , basil and 2 bay leaves. Add the beans drained of it's  water and chicken stock and bring to boil and then cover and lower heat add the sausages in the last 15 minutes of cooking or well you can also keep them from the start . In the meantime cook your rice. I used Basmati rice which takes about 15 minutes of cooking. The beans are cooked all along with the rice. Make a bed of rice add the beans and enjoy a hearty delicious meal. Since my father is not too fond of celery I used freshly chopped celery for my dinner and omitted its use while preparation.

Healthy as per need Cauliflower Delight with sausage

So here is the funny thing about healthy food items. Many an item can be as healthy or as rich but say not so healthy as you make it. Today's choice the lovely cauliflowers. While I sigh while paying Rs20 per small cauliflower head , which should be well not more than Rs7 this is a Winter's delight that I just cannot avoid.

So there can be so many recipes with this lovely vegetable will make cauliflower lovers such as myself squeak with delight. So bake it with a cheesy cheese sauce and you have a delightfully creamy, rich , well not very healthy dinner. Try a roasted cauliflower dip and it is delightful.

Healthy can also change as per course , time, country , size etc . So here is what I did, used two small heads , so say 1 medium head, got a bit of inspiration from Martha Stewart and dinner was served in less than 20 minutes.

So since I was serving it as a main course I added 70gm of beautiful fresh sausage, fresh from Kalman's,their  famous Hungarian sausages with lots of black pepper and garlic and served it with some grilled red bell pepper.

To keep things healthy I brought water to a boil with a pinch of salt and added the cauliflower florets and boiled for 4 minutes. Sauteed the chopped Hungarian sausages and added 5 small garlic cloves and 1 small onion. Drained the cauliflower and added that and then used a mix of flavours and once coated well dinner was served. Durign this time popped in a few strips of red bell pepper in the grill and grilled till soft and flavoured.

Had I served this as a side, I would have omitted  the sausages and followed Martha by marinating for 10 hours and serving it with a juicy tender grilled chicken breast.

So all you need is:

2 small cauliflower heads
70g of spicy sausages
1 small onion
5 to 6 garlic cloves sliced very finely
Salt as per taste
Half a tsp of chili flakes
1 tablespoonful of freshly chopped parsley
1.2 tablespoonful of red wine vinegar. You can always change the amount as per your killing for sharp taste
1 heaped tsp homemade mustard sauce , (it is very thick)

1 red bell pepper striped

So start by gathering things. Chop the cauliflower in florets (make a little cut at the end and this helps cook it faster) and cook in boiling water (with a pinch of salt) for 4 minutes. Whisk red wine vinegar , mustard and chili flakes and keep aside. Drain and keep aside. Chop the parsley and sausages, finely chop garlic and onions and most of the parsley .  Brush the pan with oil and saute the sausages. After a minute add the garlic and onion. Once they are well cooked but not browned add the cauliflowers. Coat with the whisked dressing and let it get well coated. Add salt if necessary. Serve with parsley as garnish.

While your cauliflower is cooking pop in the bell peppers for grilling with olive oil , salt and chili flakes. Once grilled as per liking serve with the cauliflower. Healthy dinner, healthy you.