Friday, February 14, 2014

Kisses and hugs on Valentine's Day (or good food is love)

Recipes: Baby limas with ham, Roasted asparagus, Strawberries with sweets 'n sour cream


It's Valentine's Day, when you show extra love to your loved ones. To me extra love means special food, and possibly food presented in a special way. Some of the best Valentine's Day "feasts" I've ever had have been those designed to be served on a picnic blanket in front of a roaring fire in our own living room, and eaten at least partially with hands instead of utensils. This feels kind of elemental to me, and earthy. And loving. And fun.

There are many good foods that can be served and eaten this way - homemade burgers and oven fries, grilled little lamb chops with roasted new potatoes, or the following menu, heart-warming beans and ham (only a spoon required) with asparagus and beautiful red organic strawberries.

I usually use black beans for this recipe (canned is fine), but this time I "only" had dried baby limas. They were fabulous! Lima beans don't take long to cook, and frozen limas would work just as well. Here are both options, with cooking instructions for dried limas first. If you're using frozen, just start mid-way where it's indicated below.

Baby Limas with Ham


To cook dried lima beans: At least 2 1/2 hours before you plan to serve them, take one cup of dried baby limas and put them in a pot with water to cover by one inch. Bring that to a boil and boil them for one minute. Then turn the heat off and let them sit at least one hour. Drain the water off the beans and put fresh water in to cover by an inch. Bring that to a boil and while you're cooking everything else, let it simmer with the top askew. By the time you put them in with the other ingredients, they will almost tender.  If you were cooking other dried beans, except for blackeyed peas, you would have to cook them longer.

If you're using frozen beans, start here...
  • 2 slices bacon, diced
  • olive oil
  • 1 medium or 1/2 large onion, chopped
  • 1/2 jalapeno pepper or other moderately hot pepper, chopped fine
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • Sea salt
  • 3 large garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 14-ounce can of chopped tomatoes
  • 1 cup water
  • A bay leaf
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 package frozen baby lima beans (unless you're using cooked dried beans)
  • 1/2 cup cooked ham, chopped into pieces
  • 1 cup brown basmati rice
 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
 
In a large ovenproof pot, fry the diced bacon until a little crisp. Take the cooked bacon out, leaving the fat behind, and put it on paper towels to drain. Add a little squirt of olive oil to the bacon fat.
 
In the fat, cook the onion, the peppers, the cumin, and a couple of good pinches of sea salt for a few minutes, until the onion is translucent.
 
Add the chopped garlic, the oregano, and the tomatoes. Cook that for a couple of minutes, mixing it well.
 
Add the water, the cooked and drained beans (or the frozen beans, slightly thawed so they're not in a block), the bay leaf, and the red pepper flakes.
 
Bring it to a boil, put the cover on, and bake it for one hour in the 350 degree oven. After an hour,  uncover it, add the ham and bake it for 30 minutes more.
 
While the beans are cooking, make the rice. Bring two cups water to a boil on the stove or in the microwave. Put 1 tablespoon of butter or olive oil in a small pot over medium heat. When the fat is hot, add the rice. Stir it so all the grains are covered, and cook until the rice smells toasty (one minute). Carefully add the water (it will boil up) and cook for a minute or two until it's bubbling well, then turn down the heat and cover the pot. Cook over low heat for 40 minutes. When it is done, let it sit with the cover on until the beans and ham are finished cooking.
 
Serve the beans in a wide soup bowl over a half-cup mound of the rice. You can top it with raw chopped onion and chopped cilantro, if you like, or with the roasted asparagus.
 

Roasted Asparagus


Buy fat asparagus if you can find it. Cut or break off the woody ends (about 2 inches off the "bottom") and carefully remove the outer skin of the lower half of each stalk with a vegetable peeler. It works best to lay the whole stalk in your palm as you peel with the other hand to keep it from breaking. This is the hardest part.

Then toss the stalks gently with a tablespoon of olive oil and a good pinch of salt. Lay them out in one layer in a shallow baking dish or cookie sheet and roast along with the beans for about 25 minutes. You can do this any time during the bean-cooking process, as the asparagus doesn't need to stay hot for serving. It's good at room temperature.

When the asparagus is cooked (it should still have some crispness, so shouldn't be completely limp), sprinkle a little balsamic vinegar over it. Serve over the beans and rice, or along the side. It's perfectly OK to pick up the stalks and eat them with your hands. It's perfectly OK to scoop up some beans with your asparagus. You know. Yum.

Strawberries with Sweets 'n Sour Cream


Valentine's Day just seems to demand sweets, but do they have to be bad for you? NO! Here's a gorgeous treat that you'll both love, and it won't add pounds or too much sugar either. What it does add is color and sensuous beauty, plus it's easy to eat with your hands. Hands were invented before forks (an Ethiopian saying, I'm told), remember that. Provide lovely cloth napkins.

Arrange whole organic washed strawberries around a beautiful plate. In the center place two small bowls, one containing organic brown sugar and the other containing sour cream.

To eat, pick a strawberry up by its stem or leaves and dip it in the sour cream. Then dip it in the brown sugar and put it in your mouth, biting off the stem/leaves. Heaven.

The Payoff
Lima beans help balance blood sugar and high levels of soluble fiber help lower cholesterol. They are heart healthy, a lovely attribute for a Valentine's Day love feast.
Asparagus is low-calorie, high in folates, which help your heart and may ward off Alzheimer's, and in potassium and antioxidants.
Strawberries are low-calorie and very high in Vitamin C, a good thing since it's still cold and flu season. Besides they're so delicious.

This entire meal is gluten-free.

Happy Valentine's Day!! Show your love!






 

 

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