Boulangerie Beans with Leeks and Potatoes, Bittman style

If you have some pinto or canellini beans on hand, an inkling for roasted potatoes and a few hours to spare, I suggest you try this Bittman recipe. It's one of SM's favorites and although it takes a long time in the oven, it's worth making it as the prep time is quite minimal. 

According to Bittman, the origin of this traditional French dish goes back to traditional bakeries, where the beans were cooked in the bread oven all day long.

This time I added some sauteed leeks for extra flavor (and refinement).

Ingredients:

Your favorite spices ( I used Chulula sauce,  thyme, black pepper and paprika)

3 cups cooked beans, drained, but still moist ( always use beans cooked from scratch / not canned)

3 medium russet or other high-starch baking potatoes, peeled ( I used some red fingerling potatoes as I  did not have other kinds )

1 cup vegetable stock (water is just fine too)

3 tablespoons butter (I usually put less)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325ºF.  Season the beans and spread the beans in a baking dish and set aside.

Top the beans with the sauteed leeks....

Thinly slice the potatoes into circles (I use my trusty mandoline that I purchased in El Dorado when I use visiting Plodova Salata and Zloiad Kaprizov).  Lay the potatoes in overlapping rows to cover the beans.  Pour the stock over the top, dot with pieces of butter, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and your favorite spices

Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.  Remove the foil and continue baking until the top is browned and glazed, another 45 minutes or so.  Serve immediately, or let rest for up to an hour and serve at room temperature.

LEEK + POTATOES = SOUP

I had some leek leftovers and wanted a soup! Something lite and warm. The recipes I checked called for much more leeks that I had, so I decided to add more veggies and see what will come out of it. Soup was very good!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of chopped leeks, the dark green part included
2 carrots
1 stalk celery
1 red bell pepper
8 midsized potatoes
3 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. olive oil
salt, black pepper, dill, Cayenne to taste

STEP 1

Put the olive oil and the butter in a pot. When heated, add the leeks, increase the heat and cook for about 8 min, stirring occasionally. Add the carrots, celery and bell pepper, and cook another 8-10 min.

STEP2

Add evenly cut potatoes, cook for 3-4 min, add salt, black pepper, dill, Cayenne (optional). Cover with hot water - about 6 cups. Reduce heat and cook until potatoes are soft - about 20 min. I use Zepter and when the thermometer riches the red zone I turn off the heat and live the soup for 1 hour. You can do the same with dutch oven, but the regular pot is just fine.

Next time I will make a cream soup out of this recipe and serve it with croutons.

Crispy rice and leeks + fried egg = quick and tasty Saturday dinner

This easy meal was inspired by an article in NY Times, by Mark Bittman.
Marulka and SM came by on Saturday evening and we cooked this dish with the fellow chef Marulka. It was fun :)
We made few changes to the original recipe, instead of white rice we used a soup mix, containing brown rice, bulgur, lentils and peas. You can buy similar mixes at Trader Joe's or Middle Eastern markets, such as International Food Bazaar.
We replaced the ginger ( no ginger in the house ) with onions and we baked the rice instead of frying it.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of soup mix
• 4 stalks of leeks
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp onions, or ginger
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

As Marulka pointed out to me, the idea in this recipe is to use a day old steamed rice, to be able to get it crisp, when you fry it. To achieve this effect, we boiled the soup mix with 2 cups of water, and then dried it at 350F oven for 10 minutes.

We sauteed the leeks. And then mixed the leeks with grains.

We baked the mix for 10 more minutes in 400F oven.

In a separate pan we browned the onions and the garlic, fried 4 sunny-side-up eggs, and assembled the dish, a nice mound of grains with the egg on top, sprinkled with the crispy garlic and onions.

We seasoned with soy sauce, hot sauce "Sriracha" and few drops of sesame oil. Delish :)

SOMETHING OLD-FASHIONED

This is something that I remember from long, long ago, but never done it myself:

baniza - cheese pastry - with leeks. (see pic. below)

Ingredients:

3 stalks of leeks - the tender part

4 eggs

3-4 tbsp yogurt

4 oz. butter - melted

1 cup crushed feta cheese
1 pack pastry sheets (fillo dough)

STEP 1
Wash, chop tender part of the leeks, crush with hands

STEP 2
Add 4 eggs, yogurt, feta; mix well

STEP 3
Place a pastry sheet on work surface and brush with melted butter; place another sheet on top and brush again; sprinkle about 3 tbsp. of the mix and roll. Repeat until all products are used.

STEP 4
Bake for 1 hour at 350F . When done, sprinkle with 1 tbsp. cold water, cover with foil and kitchen towel and wait at least 1/2 hour before cutting. Serve with yogurt or tea.

If you need to reheat use oven (not micro) for crunchiness:)


WHAT I WILL DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME:
- I will chop the leeks finely
- I will saute it with 1tbsp. olive oil and 1 tbsp. water
- I will add some sorrel from my garden