Inexplicably delicious and blissfully simple.  It can’t get any better than that.  Oh, wait: my kids were fighting over bites from my bowl the next day.

This is a great basic recipe -perfect on it’s own, but it is also great for improvising if you’re into that.  You could go very Latino with this dish, adding cilantro stems or epazote to the beans while they cook, frying chopped tomato with the onions for the tiganissi, or topping the dish with avocado.  Or you could use black-eyed peas and chard and flavor it with lemon (skip the honey), as in my original inspiration for this dish (Cypriot Black-eyed Peas and Swiss Chard from World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey.)  The basic formula is cooked beans and greens with a splash of something sour, topped with fried onions and garlic in oil.

black beans and kale with tiganissi

Tiganissi is a type of garnish I’ve found in recipes from Cyprus, in which onions and other vegetables are quickly fried in plenty of oil and poured over a dish, resulting in unbelievable amounts of flavor.

for the beans and kale:
1 1/4 cup black beans, uncooked
1 bunch kale, stems removed, leaves chopped into small pieces
salt, to taste
1/4 cup lime juice, or to taste
small spoonful honey (or agave for vegans)

for the tiganissi:
1/4 cup olive oil
pinch of red pepper flakes or 1 jalapeno, minced
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced

cooked rice, to serve

Put the beans in a large heavy pot, cover with several inches of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the beans are almost cooked through, about 2 hours, but start checking sooner.  Add the kale and salt, to taste. Simmer until both the beans and kale are tender. Add the lime juice and honey to taste, as well as more salt if needed.

Heat the oil for the tiganissi in a medium frying pan over fairly high heat. Add the red pepper flakes or jalapeno, and stir for about 5 seconds. Add the onion and garlic. The temperature of the oil is important. You want the onions to turn brown around the edges. If the temperature is too cool, the onions will caramelize evenly, which is not what you want for this dish. The cooking should not take very long. Pour the tiganissi over the beans, and serve mixed with rice.

Around the world, there is a great divide between local restaurant cuisine and local home cooking.  And maybe I’m biased because I’ve never been able to afford three star Michelin restaurants, but I’m a home-cooking girl.  Sure there are great affordable restaurants everywhere, but they have their limits.  At the end of every day, wherever I am, I really just want a home-cooked meal.  If I can’t have it, I’ll settle for a plate at a restaurant with varying degrees of satisfaction.

So if I tell you that I didn’t fall in love with Spanish food after living in Spain 6 months maybe you can forgive me, because I never got a home-cooked Spanish meal.  I had some unforgettable fare, to be sure: my first Spanish tortilla, fried eggplant, tapas at a crowded bar, bocadillos with jamón Serrano or chorizo and churros with thick hot chocolate.  But honestly, the best Spanish food I’ve had has come from my kitchen these past couple of weeks.  Mostly because of Penelope Casas’ extraordinary book La Cocina de Mamá: The Great Home Cooking of Spain.  I’ve already remade every recipe I’ve tried, and can’t get enough.

So here’s a paella recipe from the book, like nothing I tried while in Spain.  My adaptations of using a short-grain brown rice instead of white Bomba rice and a cast-iron pan instead of a traditional paella pan make it slightly less authentic, but it’s everyday home cooking and it’s delicious.

Isabel’s vegetable paella

adapted from La Cocina de Mamá: The Great Home Cooking of Spain by Penelope Casas

I honestly prefer brown rice here, just be sure to use a short-grain variety.  And a quick tip that I’ve used here: to substitute brown rice for white rice, bring a generous pot of water to a boil, add brown rice and cook for 10 minutes, then drain.  Use as directed for white rice in nearly any recipe.

2 carrots
2 small celery stalks, or the heart with leaves
1/2 medium onion
4 oz. shitake mushrooms cleaned, stems only (reserve caps for the paella)
1 clove of garlic
4 cups water
1/8 teaspoon saffron
salt, to taste

Roughly chop the vegetables, and put in a saucepan with the water.  Bring to a simmer, cover and cook 20-30 minutes.  Remove the vegetables and discard.  Add salt to taste.  Add the saffron, cover and turn the heat down very low, or off completely.

1 1/4 cup short-grain brown rice
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup frozen lima beans, thawed
1 medium carrot (3 oz.) scrubbed and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
reserved shitake mushroom caps, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 lb. green beens, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (about 35 beans or 1 heaping cup chopped)
2 red bell peppers, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
6 oz. zuchhini, choppeed into 1/2 inch cubes (1 1/3 cup)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chopped whole canned plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon pimentón de la Vera- sweet smoked Spanish paprika

In a large saucepan, bring a generous amount of water to a boil. Add the rice and cook, continuing to boil for 10 minutes.  Remove any scum that comes to the top. Drain. Let continue to drain in a colander until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 400 (gas) or 450 (electric).  Heat the oil in a large 12-14 inch cast iron pan over fairly high heat (just one less than the highest setting).  Add all the vegetables except the garlic and tomato.  Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly until the vegetables pick up some nice color and are crisp-tender.  Add the garlic and cook 2 minutes more, still stirring.  Add the tomato and paprika, and continue cooking for a minute more.  Taste for salt.

Add 3 cups of the broth and the rice, reduce the heat and simmer about 10 minutes, until the rice is getting relatively soft.  If needed, add the remaining broth.  There should be enough to finish cooking the rice.

Transfer to the oven, and cook about 10(gas) to 15(electric) minutes more, until nearly al dente.  Remove from the oven, cover with foil and let sit 5-10 minutes until the rice is cooked.  Return the pan to the stovetop and cook undisturbed over high heat for about 3 minutes until a crust (the socarrat) has formed on the bottom .

Once or twice, not so long ago we had an empty refrigerator and an empty wallet and I made this dish with carrot top greens.  It satisfied.  Carrot tops! And you know, times are tough.  This recipe is very forgiving.  Try them here if you need to.    Otherwise choose a thick-leafed green like kale, kohlrabi leaves, chard, beet tops, or collards and be thankful.

This very simple pasta relies on contrasting textures and a couple of bold flavors to give you a lot for your effort and dollar.  It’s has lightly creamy pasta, with a garlicky breadcrumb topping.  If you’ve ever been wary of leafy greens, this is the place to start.  The texture is outstanding -crisp on the edges, tender in the middle.

You might not have a jar of preserved lemons sitting around, but this recipe itself is reason enough to prepare one.  And if you do so,  I’ll give you a few more reasons in a month or so when they are cured and ready to use.   Until then, substitute the juice of 1 fresh lemon. Chopped fresh whole lemons won’t work.

pasta with preserved lemons, fried greens and breadcrumbs

serves 3-4

1 large bunch of greens or equivalent mixed greens, such as kale, chard, kohlrabi leaves, collards, beetroot tops
1/2 cup of olive oil, or more as needed
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
8 oz. cream cheese or mascarpone
1/4 preserved lemon, chopped
1 lb. pasta

Julienne the greens a little fatter than normal.  Heat the oil in a frying pan over fairly high heat.  Add the greens in batches and cook until tender and crispy.  Remove from the pan.  Add or pour out the olive oil if necessary to result in about 2 tablespoons of oil in the pan.  Turn down the heat to medium-low and cook the garlic and red pepper flakes until the garlic starts to soften.  Add the breadcrumbs and cook stirring until the oil is absorbed and the breadcrumbs turn golden brown.  Set aside.

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water that has been generously salted.  While the pasta is cooking, whisk the cream cheese until smooth and softened (if you have a stand mixer, use that).  When the pasta is almost done cooking, add a little pasta water to the cream cheese and continue whisking and adding pasta water until thinned to a sauce consistency.  Stir in the preserved lemon.

When the pasta has cooked, drain and return to the pan.  Toss thoroughly with the cream cheese mixture until evenly coated.  Top with the bread crumbs and greens and toss gently.  Serve immediately.

While I was in Ghana at 16 years of age, I was served many sandwiches filled with an African brand of Spam. Luckily(?) for those three weeks, I had packed 5 BOXES of breakfast bars in my suitcase.

During the last week, my traveling companions and I convinced our hosts to prepare a traditional Ghanaian meal. Ten years later, I was pregnant and craving something like corn, but sour. After a couple of days I realized I wanted that traditional meal in Africa: fish and kenkey (fermented white corn) served on a banana leaf with tomatoes and onions. Thinking I was out of luck, I let my craving go. But then a couple of weeks ago, I visited Baobab African Grocery in Indianapolis, where I found the fermented corn flour to make Kenkey, along with fonio.

Making kenkey from the pre-fermented flour couldn’t be easier. This was the quickest and most satisfying meal I’ve made in a long time. That said, it has a certain exotic taste that may take a few bites to get used to. And the kenkey really must be served with the fish, tomatoes and onion, dipping it in the juices as you go. Oh my, please dig in. This is comfort food at it’s most comforting.

Ghanain kenkey with fish, tomatoes, onion and lime
Serves 3-4

kenkey
2 cups kenkey flour
5 1/2 cups water
several pinches of salt

Mix ingredients together in a bowl and wisk until smooth. Pour in a saucpan and cook over medium-high heat. The kenkey will need to thicken considerablly, to the consistency of very thick mashed potatoes. You’ll need to stir it constantly toward the end. This takes about 15 minutes, but look more at the progress than the clock. It may seem inconcievable at this point that you could form them into balls. Don’t worry. Add more salt to taste and turn off the heat. Prepare the fish. When the kenkey has cooled a little, form into rounds a little bigger than golf balls, using wet hands if necessary.

fish
1 lb. tilapia fillets or other white fish
flour to coat fish (for GF use chickpea flour)
salt and pepper
oil
2 onions, sliced, not too thinly
2 tomatoes, chopped
2-3 limes

Heat the oil in a cast iron pan over fairly high heat- the thinner the fillets, the higher the heat. You want the exterior to brown by the time the fish is cooked through. Rinse and pat the fish dry. Season the flour with salt and pepper, and dredge the fish in the flour mixture. Fry the fish in batches until golden brown and still very tender. The fish is done just before it flakes, not after.
When the last piece of fish in done, remove from the pan. Add more oil and/or turn down the head to medium high if neccesary. Add the onions. When they have wilted, add the tomatoes and cook until the onions are still a bit crunchy, but translucent and the tomatoes are juicy. Add the fish back to the pan to re-warm and squeeze the juice of one lime over the whole dish. Cut the other lime(s) into wedges and use to garnish. Serve the fish with the kenkey, using the kenkey to sop up the juices.

This dish may not look like much, but it delivers.  With each bite it endears itself more, until you’ll wonder how you ever lived without fonio, a tiny whole grain from Africa.  I was skeptical of this simple recipe.  But the fonio and peanuts blended together to a nutty toothsome texture.  The eggplant went silky smooth and melded with slices of okra and the broth is tart and suprisingly flavorful.  There’s supposed to be some spice to this dish, but I left out so my kids (ok, and I) could eat it.

You might have a hard time finding fonio, but it’s worth a look.  I couldn’t find anyplace online to buy it, so I thought I was out of luck, but my in-laws took me to a Mexican restaurant which happened to be next door to Baobab African Grocery in Indianapolis.  Sure enough, they had it, along with kenkey flour, which you’ll hear about soon.  I couldn’t stop talking about it on the way home, to the point where my enthusiasm began to be met with awkward silence.

When you find fonio, try Pierre Thiam’s Sesame Fonio too, or check out his cookbook Yolele!: Recipes from the Heart of Senegal.  It’s the best cookbook I’ve seen that focuses on a Sub-Saharan African cuisine.  Not to mention the photography by Adam Bartos, which alone makes for a worthy purchase.

Steamed Fonio and Crushed Peanuts with Spicy Eggplant (Djouka de Fonio)
Reprinted with permission from Yolele!: Recipes from the Heart of Senegal by Pierre Thiam
Published by Lake Isle Press

1 cup raw shelled peanuts
1 cup fonio
1 tablespoon salt dissolved in 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup finely sliced okra
1/2 cup water
2 large eggplants, cut into 3-inch chunks
1 habanero pepper
2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 large onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced
Salt, to taste
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon white vinegar

SERVES 4

1.  Finely crush the peanuts using a food processor.
2.  Place the fonio in the top of a steamer lined with cheesecloth.  (MM NOTE: I lined the top of a rice cooker and added a little cooking time to the end).  Set over simmering water, cover, and steam the fonio 10 minutes.  Drizzle with salted water, using a fork to fluff.  Steam 5 more minutes.  With the fonio still in the basket, top with the ground peanuts and return to steam for another 10 minutes, until well moistened.
3.  Meanwhile, in a small pot, bring 1/2 cup water to a simmer and cook okra, 15 to 20 minutes.  Combine okra with fonio mixture.  Set aside, covered, to keep warm.
4.  Place the eggplants and habanero pepper in a small pot with just enough water to cover and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until the eggplants are soft, 15 minutes.
5.  Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add the onions, garlic, salt and pepper.  Cook until the onions are soft, 5 minutes.  Add the eggplant and habanero along with their cooking liquid.  Stir in the vinegar.
6.  Serve the fonio on a platter with the eggplant mixture on top.  For a less-spicy version, omit the habanero.

I’ve thrown away fresh artichokes on three different occasions.  There.  I said it.  Don’t tell my grandma Norine.   And the first time I was served a whole one at a restaurant, I very nearly cried.  Ask Romeo.  It’s just that they are so intimidating.

The last three times (all this spring) I bought artichokes, I’m relieved to say, I put them to good use in this pasta dish, which tastes exactly what I want every pasta dish to taste like.  It’s got peas and slow roasted tomatoes bursting with sweetness.  There’s a garlicky white wine sauce with a splash of lemon and little flecks of fresh parsley.  But the fresh artichokes…  they brown so beautifully in the olive oil, unlike frozen or jarred.  So you’ve got to conquer fresh artichokes.

Sometimes you just need to dig in.  Get a lemon or two.  Fill a bowl with water and add some lemon juice.  Start snapping off the leaves, rubbing with lemon as you go.  Keep going until the leaves are yellow.  Your halfway there.  Chop off the top just above the ridge.  With a paring knife, trim the rough part where the leaves were snapped off.  Slice the whole thing in half lengthwise (including the stem.)  Spoon out the fuzzy choke.  Trim the stem until just the tender part is left.  Plonk in the bowl of water.  You’re done.  Unless you’re still trying to figure out where to chop the top off, in which case you should check out Becks & Posh’s guide, which is much better than mine.

Although the artichokes are the highlight of this dish, very often the slow roasted tomatoes get eaten right out of the oven, 1/4 of them gone before they even get tossed in the pan.  So you might want to make extra.

Artichokes, Peas and Slow Roasted Tomatoes with Pasta

serves 3-4

Make sure to start the tomatoes the day or night before, as they take 10-12 hours to cook.

adapted from World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey

1 lb. tomatoes (with salt, sugar and olive oil to slow roast)

4 large artichokes

6 T olive oil

4 garlic cloves, lightly crushed and peeled, but left whole

salt

1/2 cup water

3 T dry white wine

6 T finely chopped fresh Italian parsley (just use the leaves, washing and drying them before chopping)

1 T fresh lemon juice

freshly ground black pepper

1 lb. whole wheat shells or penne pasta

Preheat the oven to 175 or as low as it will go.  Cut the tomatoes in half and place closely together on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle with a couple pinches of salt and sugar.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Bake for for about 10-12 hours.  I often stick them in the oven before I go to bed and take them out in the morning.  The tomatoes should be a shriveled, but still a little juicy.  Chop into 1 inch pieces and set aside.

Prepare the artichokes until you are left with just the hearts.  Slice thinly, and pat dry with a paper towel while you are heating the oil in a large frying pan over med-high heat.  Add the garlic cloves and artichoke hearts and stir until golden brown, adjusting the heat as necessary to make sure they pick up nice coloring.  Sprinkle with salt, and add water, wine and peas.  Bring to a simmer and cook until peas are tender.   Uncover and add parsley, lemon juice, pepper, and salt to taste.  Turn heat down and cook gently for a 2 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, stir and turn off the heat.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Salt generously.  Add the whole wheat pasta, and cook until still firm, but no longer grainy.  Drain, return to pan, and toss with the artichokes, peas and tomatoes.   Check for seasoning and serve at once.