Remember this? That irresistable combination of garlic and cumin and chickpeas that I couldn’t help but make over and over again, so much so that I felt guilty about it? Well, I met another recipe.

Not that I’m really done with the original. I still make my old flame every other week or so, only by now I’ve incorporated madras curry powder and turmeric and cardamom and fennel seeds. We still have fun times.

But the today I tried something new. How can I explain it? I guess I was a little bored. That old recipe and I had fallen into a rut, you could say. Things had become predictable. And it’s not like I went looking for something else. When I read about the chickpea salad Brandon packed for Molly of Orangette back in January, I checked it out, okay, but it’s not like I was planning to do anything about it. I mean, I’m allowed to look, aren’t I?

What I’m saying is that maybe I’m not meant to be tied down. I had urges, natural urges, and I acted on these urges. And this new chickpea salad, it’s different. Not nearly as much effort for one thing; all I did was stir in some lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and grated romano. I gave it a dusting of fresh black pepper for good measure too. And okay, I like it. A lot. We had lunch together, and come dinnertime I made it again. I had it twice today and I’m not ashamed.

So don’t look at me like some sort of recipe harlot. I never said we were exclusive.

Italicized items are favorites.

Sam: You don’t like raisins?
Joon: Not really.
Sam: Why?
Joon: They used to be fat and juicy and now they’re twisted. They had their lives stolen. Well, they taste sweet, but really they’re just humiliated grapes. I can’t say I am a big supporter of the raisin council.

- Benny & Joon

Don’t take what Joon says seriously. After all, she’s a crazy person.

Plus, raisins are delicious. They’re great in rice pudding, which is a pudding I don’t patronize enough. Somewhere, though, an idea was born: saffron-scented rice pudding studded with sweet raisins.

My pudding ended up a little more Malibu-themed than exotically spicy when I decided to throw in some rum and a can of coconut milk I found in the pantry. I didn’t bother consulting any rice pudding recipes since I knew I wanted to make it just like risotto, using the short grain Chinese rice we keep on our kitchen counter.

Of course, I ran into the same problem that I always have when I make risotto, which is a lack of patience. My first attempt was still a little crunchy, but after I was done trying to fool myself into thinking I liked the texture, I returned it to the pot and evened it out. In the end, my pudding was smooth, creamy grains of rice in rich, spicy sauce. Although the coconut was the strongest flavor, I wasn’t able to detect the saffron or rum, so well blended were they.

And the raisins. Perhaps their lives have been stolen, but only so that they could fulfill their destinies as swollen, juicy bubbles against the creamy rice backdrop. Perhaps my rice pudding is their raisin heaven.

(more…)

What are cranberry beans? Are they beans from which cranberries are grown? Are they normal beans that are named after cranberries by virtue of their blushing spray of rosy spots that fleck the raw beans and their pods? They certainly don’t taste like cranberries.

After seeing them pop up here in this recipe and there in that article, I decided to satisfy my curiousity by picking some up from the grocery store. I found it a little more difficult to find an appropriate recipe. All those casual mentions that I had noticed over the last couple months seemed to have dried up into nothingness. Most recipes called for beans in general, with cranberry beans mentioned as an option.

I decided on this exotic-sounding recipe by Engin Akin, via Food & Wine, which reassured me about the odd pairing of cinnamon and beans by calling it Turkish. I thought that meant that cinnamon would be used in a savory way, which it was, kinda. The thing is that there’s also sugar in the dish, which gives the beans a sort of sweet and savory flavor, one which I think could be better balanced.

As for the beans, they seem very similar to Great Northern beans, although fresher and firmer. The latter qualities could probably be attributed to the beans’ freshness, though, since how often does one eat beans that are neither dried nor canned? More often, is the answer, although most likely not with this recipe.

(more…)