Source: Mark Bittman’s The Best Recipes in the World

Servings: 4 (as a side dish)

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

3 tablespoon lard or neutral oil, like corn or grapeseed

2 cups long-grain rice, rinsed well and drained

4 garlic cloves, peeled

5 poblano chiles

1 medium onion, peeled

1 quart vegetable/chicken stock or water

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

Method

1.Roast the poblano chiles in a broiler or over a flame, then stem them.

2. Heat the oil in a saucepan with a lid over medium heat. Add the rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, put the onion, garlic and roasted poblano chiles in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Add this mixture to the rice and cook, stirring, for another 5 minutes.

4. Add the stock and bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 30 minutes. Fluff with a fork and season with salt and pepper before serving.

Note: You could also add 1/4 cup fresh cilantro or epazote with the stock while cooking.

In an ongoing effort to reduce the amount of processed and packaged food in our lives, we have started to buy dried beans in bulk instead of canned ones. Of course it requires more effort and some planning, but I was quite thrilled with the end result when I made refried beans from scratch.

Ingredients:

Pinto beans, dried (1 cup)

Lard or rendered fat or butter if you want it to be vegetarian

Method:

Soak the pinto beans in water overnight or for approximately 8 to 10 hours. Rinse the beans, and bring them to a boil with 2 cups of water in a 2 quart saucepan. Reduce and simmer till cooked through. Of course you can add more water along the way if you feel necessary. Once the beans are done, heat the rendered fat/butter in a flat bottomed frying pan. Drain the beans (but make sure to save the water) and add to the fat. Mix thoroughly then start to mash the beans with the ladle. Keep adding water as you go along so as not to make the mixture too dry. You should end up a mushy consistency once all the beans have been mashed. The amount of water you would add depends on the consistency you like.Your made-from-scratch refried beans is ready!

Note: You could also saute in some onions (these would need to be sauteed in the fat/butter before you put in the beans) if you want to add more flavor to the beans.

Source:Adit’s Laboratory
Prep Time:30-60 Minutes
Servings:3

I modified this recipe from a Rachel Ray recipe on the Food Network website. She uses chicken, but I wanted to make the dish vegetarian and substituted fresh spinach… which admittedly may sounds strange, but it tasted really good. Also, I used a homemade taco sauce (recipe in Vino). If you don’t use that, I would suggest some other tomato based sauce, but NOT salsa. Salsa is much too acidic for this dish. Use a sauce that can hold up on its own.

UPDATE: Instead of just putting the corn tortillas in as is, I decided to just brown them each in a few drops of oil in a skillet first.  This helps keep the tortillas from falling apart and getting mushy while cooking.  Worked great, and it is something you can do while cooking the filling, so it doesn’t add more time to the recipe.

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