Black Bean Salad

I went out to the local Mexican restaurant last night and had some of their delicious beans and rice. It reminded me of how much I enjoy a good black bean! I feel incredibly virtuous when I eat beans. They're low in fat, rich in protein, full of complex carbohydrates, and there's lots of lovely fiber! Anything with that much natural color in it has got to be good for you! They're the perfect little package of goodness!

I decided to whip up a little black bean salad to go with our carnitas tonight! 

We want to make up a little dressing for our salad first.

I decided a little heat was in order. I had no fresh chilies around so I relied on the good old standard red pepper flakes. Just a little to wake up the taste buds.

You've gotta have a little acid in a dressing. I am staying authentic to Latin cuisine and using a lime.

I squoze the heck out of 1/4 of a lime. Squoze is a fancy technical cooking term I use often . . .

Garlic? Yes, thank you, I will!

You want it minced really finely. Use a press or mince it up with a knife. You could even grate it on a Microplane!

Now for a little salt. Just a generous sprinkling on over the garlic. You can always add a little more later.

Now I take a fork and stir it all up together. If you minced your garlic with a knife the salt will actually help smoosh it a little. Smooshing garlic in salt and acid amplifies it's flavor! Who doesn't want their garlic amplified? (Smoosh is another one of my cooking terms, I hope you're not turned off by all these technical words . . .)

Now for a little olive oil. Use the extra virgin if you've got it! Its fruitiness can actually come through in a nice cold salad like this. 

I want to pump up the Latin flavor so a little cumin is in order. I'm going to use the ground today.

Oh it smells so good! Sort of like a good pot of chili!

A little ground up coriander seed!

Coriander seed is what grows into cilantro! It's flavor is sort of citrusy. All I know is that if you put it in meat it tastes good! Yummy! I got mine at the Indian food store. Indian cuisine uses a lot of the same spices as Latin ones! So if you're ready to cook up some Mexican food you could also whip up an Indian dish too.

Dump it in and mix it all up! Your dressing is DONE. Well, except, you could stick your finger in it and see if it's salty enough for you. My canned beans already have some salt in them so I'm holding back a little.

Now for some beans. I like to use canned beans for salads. They are tender but retain their shape. Shape is important in a salad. We're not serving refried beans here!

Rinse them off. I'm using two cans of beans today because I want leftovers for lunch. Bean salad is the lunch of champions!

After the beans are drained and rinsed you put them in the bowl with the dressing.

Now a good salad has all the flavors in it. We've got sour from the lime juice, bitter from the garlic and spices, umami from the beans. We added some preliminary salt to the dressing and it's part of the beans processing. What are we missing? A touch of sweetness!

This beautiful red pepper will provide color and sweetness! How about some non-traditional sweetness?

A little Spanish onion has sweetness to me! Sweet and heat at the same time. A sweet Vidalia onion would be a lovely addition here too.

Now for a little chopped cilantro to round things out! I like it's color and it's herbaceous aroma!

Add all the happy players to the bowl and stir them up! You want to get the dressing all over everything.

Now that's a party in a bowl! Give it a taste and add more salt or lime juice as necessary. You can throw it on the table right now or put it in the refrigerator and let the flavors mingle. When I refrigerate it I taste it every 30 minutes or so just to check on it. You know . . . to make sure it's still delicious . . . maybe I should of made three cans?

Oh Black Bean Salad! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways!

Your beans are soft and creamy!
Your dressing is silky and flavorful!
Your lime is sour and refreshing!
Your vegetables are crisp and sweet!

It's a side dish! It's a lunch! It's a salsa for chips!  It's multifunctional! Whatever you do, make this for people you love! It's good for them.

Black Bean Salad

For the dressing
juice from 1/4 of a lime
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

For the salad
2 cans black beans
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup diced red onion
1/3 cup chopped cilantro leaves

Stir together the dressing ingredients in the bottom of the serving bowl. Add salad component and toss gently until well mixed. Chill until serving time.

Mmmmmmmm, Margarita!

It was my birthday last week . . .

There were also three snow days last week . . .

My husband was sick last week . . .

So you can forgive me if it drove me to drink!

Well it didn't really drive me to drinking. I like to drink anyway and my dear friend said "Hey! It's your birthday, your life sucks, let's go have lunch!" Every girl needs a friend like that. I love you Donna. 

So we went to lunch. We ate mexican food and drank delicious margaritas. Beautiful, lime filled margaritas.  Another girlfriend said I needed a margarita cake for my birthday.  It got me thinking . . . yes, yes, I do need a margarita flavored cake for my birthday! 

So I give you . . .

Margarita cake!

Mmmmm, a green plate would of been pretty. A few lime garnishes would of been pretty too. But decorating ain't my thing.  But this cake is!

You start with . . .

. . . a lime! I know, it's shocking isn't it? Imagine starting a margarita cake with a lime! Who would of thunk it?  My grocery store has been selling these HUGE limes lately so I really only needed one.

The Microplane Grater may be the most significant kitchen tool invented since the food processor. If you don't have one GO GET ONE!

In the mean time you can also get your zest using this old fashioned method.  Peel thin strips of the zest off the lime and then . . .

. . . chop it up finely with a chef's knife.

You're going to want all of the zest from your humongous lime. If you're not a big fan of lime use a smaller one! But if you're not a huge fan of lime . . . why are you making a margarita cake? Really, you need to ask yourself this.

Now juice your lime! I got over a 1/4 cup of lime juice from one lime. I TOLD you it was HUMONGOUS! You'll want to reserve a tablespoon of that fresh lime juice for the glaze. So put that off to the side and put the remaining juice in a liquid measuring cup.

We need a 1/2 cup of liquid so I just added water to my lime juice. But I seriously missed out here. I could of added orange juice! All good margaritas have a bit of orange in them.  My bartender father would have been so disappointed in me.  It was perfectly lovely with plain old water though so I'll just move on . . .

You want to put a couple cups of flour in a bowl.

A half cup of sugar . . .

A little baking powder and salt . . .

I didn't get a picture of the salt . . . you see I somehow, someway, forgot to add salt to my cake.

I FORGOT to add SALT to a MARGARITA cake.

Have mercy! I never make baked goods without salt. Heck I never make anything without salt.  I even add a pinch to fruit smoothies! I blame the children. They were running around me in circles at this point.  I remember it was something like "Mommy's making cake! Mommy's making cake! You're stupid! NO, you're stupid! MEEEEOOOOW!" The cat doesn't like it when they run in circles, it makes him dizzy.

Anyway . . .

Stir those dry ingredients together!

Add the zest and stir it up.  As a side note, if I had had a small shrively lime for this recipe I would of wanted to maximize the lime. I would of rubbed the sugar and lime zest together by themselves for awhile. The sugar would grind out all those lovely lime oils.  But since I had an ENORMOUS lime I was a little fearful of the amount of lime I had.

Now for some of the wet ingredients

I added my 1/2 cup of lime juice and water.

An egg . . .

and a little vegetable oil.  Of course, I imagine that some melted butter would work just FINE. When isn't butter a fine and lovely thing?

Stir it up! You're not really looking for a smooth batter. This is more of a quick bread type thing.  You don't want to be seeing dry chunks when you're done but if you see a few when you're putting it in the pan the world is probably not going to end.

Spray a round cake pan. This is a 9 incher. An 8 inch round would be fine. Even an 8 inch square pan would do the job. I bet it would even make a lovely dozen cupcakes! Let's stay flexible here!

Put your batter in the pan of your choice and stuff it in your preheated 375 deg F oven! For 30-35 minutes.

Let's work on the GLAZE! You want around a cup of powdered sugar! I used a liquid measuring cup because I was feeling rebellious. I had a poor quality birthday week remember?

Add a teaspoon of good tequila! May I recommend that if you don't keep a giant $40 bottle of tequila as a pantry staple you might purchase one of those tiny bottles from the liquor store? They usually have them behind the counter. It's a real boon for those of you who just occasionally cook with liquor.

Oh and a lovely teaspoon of Triple Sec. This is the most delicious Triple Sec out there in my opinion! It also has a proof level near Grand Mariner.  But it cost me $7 instead of $40 so just go buy yourself a whole bottle of it! It tastes like oranges! You can put it in mulled wine, cakes, cookies, ice creams, fruit dishes, flambes, tea, chocolate, oatmeal . . . well maybe not your oatmeal . . . unless you eat oatmeal for dessert  . . . at night. It's an all purpose ingredient!  Otherwise you can spend $3 for a itsy bitsy tiny bottle of Grand Marinier. Or be boring and use 1/2 teaspoon or orange extract. Or be cheap and use orange juice. Sniff, sniff, but you're missing out on that boozy aroma that makes it a MARGARITA cake!

I'll get off my Triple Sec soap box now. I have very strong feelings about liquor you see.

Back to the glaze!

Remember your reserved lime juice? Add that in too!

Stir it up until it's smooth. Now my glaze didn't become smooth and drippy until I added an extra teaspoon of water to it. You do want it to be slightly thick. Notice that the glaze isn't streaming into the cup. That drip only "drips" for about 3 inches. You want your glaze to melt into the cake.  So just add enough water to make it smooth--no lumps allowed in the glaze. 

Cake is done! Just do that whole toothpick thing. You know, you stick the toothpick in and nothing sticks to it?

I decided I wanted to prick the top of my cake. It was looking too smooth and impermeable! So I just pricked the surface a little. To encourage it to crack and accept the glaze.

Drizzle the glaze on the HOT cake.

Now spread it out! You want a nice smooth layer of glaze all over this cake!

Mmmmmm! CAKE! This cake tastes like the most beautiful margarita you can imagine! If you like the whole sweet and sour profile this one has it!  This is a cake for fans of lemon bars, lemon curd, and margaritas. 

My 10 year old daughter thought this was the tastiest thing EVER!

Should I be worried?


Margarita Cake
serves 6-8 people

For the cake

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
zest of one lime
1 egg, slightly beaten
juice of 1 lime, 1 Tbsp reserved for the glaze
water
1/3 cup vegetable oil

For the glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 teaspoon tequila
1 teaspoon triple sec or other orange liquer
water as needed

Preheat oven to 375 deg F. Spray 9 inch round cake pan with vegetable cooking spray.

Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix in the lime zest.  Add enough water to lime juice to total 1/2 cup liquid. Stir lime water, egg, and oil into dry ingredients.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out dry.

Mix together glaze ingredients and spread on hot cake.