Tutorial: How to Make Tia Virginia's Frijoles, Arroz Y Tortillas

 Tutorial: How to Make Tia Virginia's Frijoles, Arroz Y Tortillas

I was lucky enough to  learn how to make delicious rice, beans and tortillas from my friend's Aunt, Tia Virginia.


Beans
Estimated cook time for this quantity 2.5 hours (smaller quantities will cook faster)

• 2 pounds dried pink beans rinsed well - pink beans cook faster than others, you do not have to soak them, but they would cook faster if you did.
• 16 c water
• ½ c canola oil
• 4 cloves of garlic whole
• 1 ½ tbsp salt 

Place beans in an 8.5 quart pan after rinsing well. Add water, oil, garlic and salt. Start on high heat. Cover pot, when it starts to boil, turn the heat down, you want the beans to keep up with the Jones' (want to keep them bubbling.) It took this quantity about 30 minutes to come to a boil. After about 2 hours, check beans, they will be cooked, but there will be some liquid left, you can take them out and eat as is or mash them up. That's the story of the beans.

Beans on the stove

After cooking but before mashing

Rice

• 5 cloves garlic
• ½ onion - peeled, cut into large chunks
• 1 - 14.5 ounce jar Delmonte sliced tomatoes (You could also used canned)
• 2 c water
• 1 ½ tbsp salt
• 4 c rice
• 1 c oil

16 ounces chicken broth (homemade is best, but you could use canned (low sodium) or bullion cubes. If you use bullion cubes, omit salt in the rest of the recipe otherwise it will be too salty) Place first 5 ingredients in blender (garlic through salt) and pulverize to chop the ingredients up very small.

Heat oil in large sauté pan on the stove until hot. Add rice in order to brown it. Watch carefully and stir it often so that it doesn't burn. After rice is golden brown, pour blender mixture in. Be careful, it will steam and bubble up. Then add chicken broth stir very well. Taste for seasoning. Bring mixture back to a boil, drop heat to a simmer, cover and cook about 30 minutes.

Optional - during the last few minutes you can add some mixed vegetables into the center of the pot, let it finish cooking, and mix them in at the end

Blender mixture

Browning the Rice



Rice during browning process

After adding broth and blender mixture

 
Click here to watch the liquid being added

the rice cooking

finished product

Tortillas

This batch makes approximately 50 tortillas - depending on thickness and size 5 pounds all purpose flour
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp double acting baking powder (Clabber Girl)
1 cup canola oil
5 c water

Put flour in large bowl. Sprinkle baking powder and salt over the top of the flour. Gently mix baking powder and salt into the flour with your fingers. Drizzle oil over the mixture and start to mix in with your hands using a squeezing motion with your fingers. It will start to resemble loose crumbs.

Make a well in the center of the flour and pour some of the water into the middle. Using a circlular motion around the bowl, mix well, using a squeezing motion when you get back towards the middle. Keep mixing and adding more water ad needed. When the flour starts to form a cohesive ball, start kneading the dough ball by folding it over on itself and pressing down.

The dough needs to be a little moist, not totally dry. Pull lumps of dough off, and using your fingers shape it into a ball then start rolling it out, from the center first, then rolling the edges, and turning the tortilla after every roll.

In the meantime you need to heat up skillet (preferably nonstick) on the stove until it is superhot. Place tortilla on hot skillet, when center starts to have bubble blisters, flip over. Use a weight to ensure good contact of the other side of the tortilla with the hot pan. It only takes about 30 seconds to a minute to cook the tortilla if your pan is very hot.


Tia Virginia - our teacher with her perfect tortilla

Make sure its All Purpose Flour

Mixing the salt and baking powder into the flour 
V

Video of it being mixed at this step 

Mixing the oil in

After adding some waterPouring water inVideo

After more mixing and adding water - Video

The dough starts coming together - Video

 

More mixing - Video

Dough BallDoughball video

Close up of dough

Shaping the dough,  Video 

Rolling out the tortillas

Suzette rolling

Learning how to roll

Cooking the tortillas

Tortillas - small batch, approximately 10 tortillas - 1/5 of the original recipe

1 pound all purpose flour
5/8 teaspoon salt
5/8 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup water

Slow cooker hoisin beef stew

1/2 cup beef broth
1 bottle hoisin sauce
1 tsp hot sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch piece fresh ginger, grated
1 1/2 pounds stew beef
2 onions cut in large dice
1 c baby carrots
2 ribs celery cut into 3/4 chunkc

The night before, whisk together the broth, hoisin, hot sauce, garlic and ginger. Add the beef, onions, carrots adn celery. Toss to coat well. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, transer meat mixture to slow cooer. cover and cook on a low setting 6-8 hours or high setting 3 hours. Service with rice and with sauteed snow peas.

Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa

2 tsps grated lime zest
2 tbsp. lime juice
2 tbsp butter - melted
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp sugar
1 cup quinoa
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 medium tomatoes, diced
4 scallions chopped
1/4 c cilantro chopped



Whisk together lime zest and juice, butter, oil, sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper in a large bowl. Wash quinoa in 3 changes of cold water in a bowl, draining in a sieve each time. Cook quinoa in a medium pot of boiling salted water (1 tbsp salt for 2 quarts water) uncovered, until almost tender, about 10 minutes. Drain in sieve, then set sieve in same pot with 1 inch of simmering water (water should not touch bottom of sieve) Cover quinoa with a folded kitchen towel, then cover sieve with a lid, and steam over medium heat until tender, fluffy and dry, about 10 minutes (LISAS NOTE: cooking the quinoa in the steamer, is kind of a pain, I checked online, and other people just continued to cook it in the pot until it was tender, and skipped the steamer step) Add cooked quinoa to dressing and toss until dressing is absorbed, then stir in remaining ingredients adn salt and pepper to taste.

Honey Wheat Rolls

From the Bread Machine Magic Book of Helpful Hints - this is a good book, it has recipes for batches in small, medium, and large

These were very good and would make nice rolls for a big dinner.

Makes 12 rolls

1/2 cup water
1 egg

1 1/2 tablespoons honey

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tbsp butter

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 c whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

Place dough ingredients in machine start on dough setting. When done, remove dough, gently roll out on lightly floured countertop into a rope. Grease one 12 cup muffin tin. Divide dough into 12 pieces adn put in tins. Cover and let rise 20-30 mins until double in size. Bake 400 for 12 minutes until brown.

Mexican-Style Rice Casserole with Corn, Sour Cream and Cheese

Mexican-Style Rice Casserole with Corn, Sour Cream and Cheese
From Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian

Serves 6

Notes - You can use fresh corn taken off the cob in season and toss it in the pan with the green chiles and onion. If you cannot get poblano chiles, roast oen green pepper instead and then throw in 1-2 chopped fresh hot green chiles as well. This way you get the texture and heat.

2 tbsp canola oil
1 medium onion peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 poblano chiles, roasted peeled, seeded and diced
2 cups sour cream
6 tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro
6 cups cooked rice (from 2 cups raw rice)
1 2/4 cups corn kernels, fresh, thawed frozen, or canned
1 1/2 lightly packed cups grated cheddar cheese

Put the oil in a large saute pan or other wide pan and set over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the onion and garlic. Stir and saute until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes, turning th eheat down if necesary. Add the roasted diced poblanos adn stir another minute. Let everything cool off. Combine the sour cream, 1/2 tsp salt and the cilantro. Stir to mix and set aside.

Stir the rice adn corn into the poblano mixture, then add the sour cream and blend it in. Finally blend in the grated cheese. Put this mixture into a 3 quart casserole dish and cover it. You can refrigerate for up to 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 350. Bake for 45 minutes or until heated through.
I used low fat sour cream and it was fine. I also sprinkled a little more cheese on top.

Soup recipes

Mediterranean Chickpea, Lentil and rice soup with basil
from New England Soup Factory Cookbook

Makes 10 - 12 servings

1 pound dried chickpeas (Lisa's note - I usually cut the recipe in half, and use one can and skip in the recipe to the part where you add the lentils)
4 tbsp olive oil
1 spanish onion, peeled diced very small
3 ribs celery, sliced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced into disks
3 cloves garlic, minced
12 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 can (20 oz.) diced tomatoes
2 cups tomato juice
1 tsp dried marjoram
2 bay leaves
1/3 c dried lentils
1/3 c basmati rice
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 c chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Place chickpeas in a deep bowl and add water to cover by 2 inches. Place in refrigerator to soak overnight. Drain before using.
in a large stockpot heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic. Saute for 10 mins. Add the chickpeas, stock, tomatoes, tomato juice, marjoram adn bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, cover the pot and simmer for 1 1/4 hours. Add lentils and rice. Simmer covered, for additional 35 mins. Adding 2-3 cups of additional water or stock if liquid is reduced too much. Remove and discard bay leaves. Season with vinegar, basil, salt and pepper and olive oil. Stir well before serving.

Lisa's note - if you aren't going to eat the whole pot, add the balsamic (a little splash) to each bowl. If you add it to the pot, and reheat the leftovers the taste of it changes and its not as good. I've omitted the fresh basil and olive oil at the end and the soup is still tasty.


Italian Vegetable Soup with Rice
from New England Soup Factory Cookbook
Makes 10 - 12 servings (I usually cut the recipe in half and its fine)

3 tbsp olive oil
1 spanish onion, peeled diced
2 ribs of celery, sliced
6 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans (16 ounces each) diced tomatoes
1 can (28 ounces) ground or crushed tomatoes
12 cups vegetable or chicken stock
4 cups tomato juice
1 can (16 ounces) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can (16 ounces) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 bay leaves
2 medium zucchini, diced
2 medium summer squash, diced
1/3 c uncooke white rice
1/2 c frozen peas
1/2 bunch fresh basil leaves, torn into smaller pieces
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, onion, celery, carrots and garlic. Saute for 5-6 mins. stirring frequently. Add the diced tomatos, ground tomatoes, kidney beans, chickpeas and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 30 mins. Add zucchini, summer squash and rice. Return to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer and additional 15 mins. Add the peas, basil, balsamic salt and pepper and cook until throoughly heated. Remove bay leaves before serving
Lisa's note - if you aren't going to eat the whole pot, add the balsamic (a little splash) to each bowl. If you add it to the pot, and reheat the leftovers the taste of it changes and its not as good.

Garlic Knots

For bread machine

3/4 c warm water
1 tsp salt
2 cups bread flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp Yeast

Topping

3 tbsp butter - melted
Garlic powder - to taste

Place ingredients in bread machine according to manufacturers' directions. Program for Dough and Press start and let cycle through.

When machine is done, let dough rise again for 30 mins. Then remove dough and cut into 10 pieces. Roll each piece into a snake, form into a knot. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchemnt paper, cover and let rest for 30 mins.
Preheat oven to 350. Mix together topping mixture, brush on top. Bake for 20 mins or until nicely browned.