If you’ve been reading my blog a while you might know that Austin, Texas has a special place in my heart. It’s where I experienced America for the very first time as a student; it’s where I met Dan; and it’s where Dan and I got married.
Beyond the sentimental value, Austin is pretty easy to love. It has everything I didn’t expect from Texas when I first arrived: green grass, hills, lakes, springs, waterfalls, and damn good live music everywhere you turned. My life as a student there was spent staring in awe at the everyday blue skies, getting used to always having a reddy-brown glow, and eating waaaay too much of everything. I fell in love hard.
Of all the food delights that I came to know and love, breakfast tacos are up there as a perennial fave. We used to go to this place called Juan in a Million (geddit?) where the Don Juan taco came stuffed beyond all reasonable measure with potato, egg, bacon, and cheese in a deliciously hot tortilla. It set you back all of $3 and required loose fitting clothes and a can-do attitude.
These tacos don’t really require a recipe; simply gather some or all of the ingredients listed below, roll ’em up, and dig in! They’re pretty spectacular for brunch with friends alongside a greyhound and some salty chips and hot salsa.
The other mega-spectacular thing I’m sharing with you today is these black beans. I’ve (unsurprisingly) found a lot of inspiration from The Homesick Texan cookbook, and these beans are no exception: they’re smoky and tender, with a lovely kick.
Enjoy y’all.
Breakfast Tacos
Ingredients
- 4 flour tortillas (or 8 soft corn tortillas, since they’re about half the size of the flour ones)
- 8 eggs
- Dash half-and-half, cream, or milk
- Salt and pepper
- Canola oil
- 12 rashers streaky bacon (or swap this for sausage patties or chorizo)
- Austin-style black beans, recipe below (or swap re-fried beans)
- 1 large handful grated cheese (pepper jack is great)
- Salsa
Directions
- Whisk together the eggs in a large bowl with a dash of half-and-half, cream, or milk and a pinch of salt.
- Heat a pan or iron skillet over medium-high heat, and add oil. When oil is warm, pour in eggs and scramble for about three minutes or until done to your liking. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Warm your tortillas on a clean, dry skillet. When tortilla starts to puff (about 20 seconds) turn it over and cook for another 20 seconds.
- Serve tortillas with all the fixings for people to make themselves including: black or refried beans, scrambled eggs, salsa, grated cheese, and either a slice of bacon or sausage patty.
- Fold in the bottom of the tortilla, and then roll from left to right until self-contained. Gobble, with a greyhound in hand. Serves four.
Austin-Style Black Beans
adapted from The Homesick Texan Cookbook
Ingredients
- 1 lb dried black beans
- 1 tablespoon of lard, bacon grease, or canola oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 carrot, diced
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon of cumin
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- Salt to taste
Directions
- Rinse and sort through the beans, removing any stones. Place the beans in a large pot and cover with 1 inch of water. Bring to a boil and then cook for 15 minutes. Drain the beans in a colander in the sink.
- Return the empty pot to the stove and warm the vegetable oil (or lard/bacon fat) over medium heat. Add the onions and carrots while occasionally stirring and cook until the onions are translucent and the carrots are lighter, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic to the pot and cook for a minute more.
- Return the drained beans to the pot, along with the chipotle chiles and 1/4 cup of cilantro. Cover beans with 2 inches of water, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 1 1/2 hours.
- After 1 1/2 hours, add the remaining cilantro, cumin, tomato paste, and lime juice. Taste and add salt. Cook for 30 more minutes or until beans are tender. When done, smash a few against the side of the pot with a spoon to thicken the broth. Stir the pot and serve.
Let me just lay on the line that it’s not easy to get an attractive picture of this dish. I’ve tried on about three different occasions. Hopefully you can see the beauty that I see in this bubbling, rich, cheese-crusty potato gratin.
I made this for our family’s Easter dinner at the weekend, hoping it would go well with ham. Duh – it did. Two and a half pounds of scalloped potatoes baked in a bubbling warm mix of cream, milk, and nutmeg with Gruyere cheese sprinkled on top. It’s practically ham’s best friend.
This isn’t as thick and cheesy as you might guess – the cheese certainly gets gooey but the cream sauce stays pretty thin and provides a great gravy substitute for pouring on top of your ham. The perfect bite consists of a good bit of that charred, cheesy crust and a healthy spoonful of creamy sauce.
It’s over-the-top rich and whenever I make it I eat far more than advisable. Definitely stretchy pants material.
Rich and Cheesy Potato Gratin
adapted from Martha Stewart
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
- 1 garlic clove, halved
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1.5 tsp salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 3 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (1 cup)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375F. Peel potatoes and place in a bowl of water to prevent discolouring. Rub the inside of a 9-by-12-inch oval baking dish with cut sides of garlic. Heat cream, milk, nutmeg, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat until bubbles form around edge. Season with pepper and remove from the heat.
- Meanwhile, slice potatoes 1/8 inch thick and transfer to a bowl. Pour warm cream mixture on top and mix well, using your hands to separate and coat potatoes, and transfer to prepared dish. Gently push potatoes down, and pour cream mixture from bowl over top. Sprinkle liberally with Gruyere. Bake (with a baking sheet placed on the rack below to catch drips) until the potatoes are fork tender and the top is bubbling and brown, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Crispy, salted chocolate cookies with a thick smear of Nutella sandwiched between them. I don’t mind if I do.
Do you bake? Some of you must as I’m sure you come here to look at recipes but others of you might just like pretty pictures of food (one of the biggest reasons I enjoy looking at food blogs). If you like to bake then maybe you understand me when I say that baking soothes my soul. If I have something on my mind or feel stressed out, then baking some simple cookies or quick bread lets me breathe.
Something about the familiar motions of creaming butter and sugar with a wooden spoon and sieving flour comforts me. The predictability of combining certain ingredients in a particular way and knowing what the outcome will be helps my mind wander through whatever is bothering it. It’s really a wonderful thing.
These got the thumbs up from my co-workers who got treated to them though I will say that you shouldn’t be shy with the Nutella. I was fairly conservative and but you really want a good, thick smear.
Salted Chocolate Nutella Cookies
adapted from The Faux Martha and my post on Homemade Oreo Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 tbsp Nutella
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter at room-temperature
- 1 large egg
- Coarse salt
For the filling
- Up to one 13oz jar of Nutella
Directions
- Set rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375°F.
- In a bowl sieve and whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream together butter, Nutella, and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg.
- Slowly add in the flour mixture until evenly incorporated; the dough should come together in a mass.
- Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Sprinkle a little sea salt on top of each one. Bake for 9-11 minutes; the cookies will spread significantly while baking. Set baking sheet on a rack to cool.
- Spread Nutella onto cooled cookies with a butter knife. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top, sandwiching the Nutella in the middle. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Sprinkle with more sea salt, if desired. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with Nutella. Chomp. Makes about 15 sandwich cookies (or about 30 plain cookies).
