Jamaican me hungry! For burgers!

This post has been a long time coming. I made these Jamaican bean and rice burgers with a friend last month and they turned out deliciously wonderful. I took photos and recorded the whole process...and it took me a month to post it all up here. But hey, better late than never. And re-hashing the recipe has made me jones for these tasty, and vegan, burgers again.

The recipe was found by my friend who has been on the look-out for alternative and healthy recipes to try. And if you want to try new food, cooking and eating, I'm your gal!

There seems to be a lot of ingredients at first but they're simple enough and there's not much fuss to assembling the patties. And warning: the amounts called for in this recipe makes a lot of burgers...more than the 6 noted (unless you make jumbo ones).

You'll need:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 1/4 cups chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 hot pepper (the original recipe recommends habanero pepper!), chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 1/4 cups cooked black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 1/4 cups cooked long-grain white rice (this can be left-over or made just before)
  
• 2 1/2 cups dry bread crumbs
• 6 hamburger buns, split

We followed most of the recipe to the letter except for one thing. My friend's father happens to have a connection to a local gardener who just harvested a pile of various hot peppers. And he's a hot pepper freak so we used a whole bunch (more than the one which the recipe recommends) and it made the burger a little spicy but mostly tasty and flavourful.


What you do with all the ingredients is add them to a frying pan in layers according to how long they take to cook through. First, saute the onions and garlic. Then add the peppers and you can add the seasonings too just to they don't taste so raw (this is called 'blooming').

Then you transfer all the ingredients to a big bowl and add everything else; toss together and then mix with your hands once the mixture is cool enough to handle. Smooshing the beans and everything else together with your fingers is not only a satisfying feeling, but it serves as a great way to bind everything together. The mixture can be a bit loose so be gentle...you can add a bit of water or an egg if you feel it's too loose.

You can form patties now and return each to the frying pan (or BBQ) to fry for a few minutes on each side. Then put the finished patties on your buns and top with whatever burger toppings you'd like!


This recipe surprised me because I expected the rice and breadcrumbs to make the burgers mealy or grainy. Instead, the burgers are soft and were very tasty. And filling!! The Jamaican flavourings were not overwhelming and I'd be tempted to increase the amounts of all the flavourings next time I prepare this dish.

We ate our big burgers with sweet potato fries and asparagus.

Spaghetti rules

Simple spaghetti with a tomato meat sauce.

when I'm feeling sooky or sad or just tired there's nothing better than a plain old fashioned meal of spaghetti. I don't really have a recipe for this dish because I've been making it as long as I can remember cooking.

I vary it a little each time depending on what I have on hand. But there are some characteristics that HAVE to stay the same each time:
1) The dish must have a lot of garlic
2) The sauce must be made from scratch. By that I mean that the tomato sauce should start as actual tomatoes. Canned or fresh...it doesn't matter but they have to be real tomatoes that I can cook down, simmer, and turn into a sauce.
3) The pasta has to be cooked al dente (or "to the tooth"). I'm not one to make pasta from scratch (though I'd love to have some if you're offering) but I will not compromise on the "doneness" of my pasta. I like it to have a little bite and it cannot be mushy.
4) Sorry veggies but for a truly comforting spaghetti dish, I need some kind of meat for me to really enjoy it. I'll blame my upbringing for this one. I grew up eating lots of meat-based dishes and, though I really love veggies and a lot of meat-substitute products, there's no substitute for the heartiness or texture ground beef, turkey, chicken or pork gives to a dish of homemade spaghetti.
5) Give it time. The sauce should be simmered for a little while to let all the flavours mingle and marry. Ever notice how lots of chilis or pasta dishes taste better as leftovers the next day? That's because the sauce has had time to develop and settle. I'm not one of those people who will say you should simmer your spaghetti sauce all day. But you will notice a huge difference if you let it simmer for about an hour before digging in.

So if you need some comfort food put on a pot of pasta and start throwing some fresh ingredients into a pan for simmering. Before you know it you'll have a warming dish that's good for your belly and soul.

Adventures in entertaining

Everyone has the need (or want) to entertain once in a while. Holidays, birthdays, housewarmings, congratulations, etc. They're all excuses for celebrations complete with food, drink and good company. While I have been known to go a little out of control with my food and drink preparation, I have learned some useful tricks and techniques over the years that have made entertaining enjoyable and easier than ever. First, I try to have one or two signature dishes. Then the rest of the spread can be easy cheese/fruit/meat platters, veggie or fruit trays, ready-made frozen apps or even chips and dip. Have one drink you can offer guests (and make sure there's a non-alcoholic option) but more often than not people will bring their own libations so don't sweat it. Focus your energy on taking pride in your work, setting a nice grouping of finger foods and then forget about it. When guests stat arriving you need to relax and enjoy their company. The middle of your party is no time to be worrying over un-made dishes, stuff in the oven or if a pot is boiling over on the stove!

I threw a bash this past weekend and here are some things I threw together for the occasion. Complete with my recipe for my go-to party dish: guacamole!

There are a million different ways to make guacamole and I've been known to just throw together some avocados, tomato and lime juice and call it a day. But if I'm really serious, here's how I do it:

3 avocados
1 tomato
1/2 lime (juiced)
1 clove garlic (minced)
1/4 onion (minced)
1/4 cup cilantro
1 jalapeno pepper (minced)
pinch salt & pepper

Combine everything in a medium/large bowl and mash avocados with a fork until the mixture is still slightly chunky but well combined. Then transfer the mixture into your serving dish. To save the guacamole for the party, put plastic wrap over the mixture and press it into the top of the guacamole so it touches all the surface. This will prevent the mixture from browning. Refrigerate until it's time to party. Serve with chips or veggies. Yumm-0!


Cheese and crackers is easy peasy but pleases lots of people. This was simple brie and pepper goat's cheese. Below: a spread on a table makes it easy for people to mingle and dash back and forth for treats. Besides what I talked about here, I also made bacon-wrapped asparagus (yes, it is an excellent idea!) and did a couple veggie platters and candy bowls in strategic places around the apartment.




One of my signature dishes and an essential sweet treat in a sea of salty, savory appetizers. Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes get easier to make every time and are are a great conversations starter! Happy entertaining!

Out with the old...

So I finally got a new range! The one that came with our house was a 24" apartment-sized model with coils and a tiny one-rack oven that frequently set off the smoke detectors. I'm not cooking with gas yet but the new model is just fine. Well, more than fine! It's a normal size, stainless steel, smooth top, heats up quickly and, best of all, it's nice and clean. So as a send-off to my faithful, yet small and old, stove, I made one last meal on it. I tried to think of a few small dishes that didn't take too much time, heat or effort from the ailing and aged appliance (plus I think I'd already given up on ever using the oven again). The answer came in the form of some of our easy favorites and required all the small burners so I could say a proper farewell to the appliance.

First up there was brussel sprouts in bacon and garlic. This is an adapted Nigella recipe but has worked well for me forever and takes little time or effort. Basically you cut up some bacon and fry it until crispy. Peel some brussel sprouts or finely chop them into slivers and add them to the bacon in the pan along with a clove of finely minced garlic. Let the sprouts wilt and get covered in bacon fat. Take the whole lot out and keep warm in a pan to the side. Don't wipe out or wash the pan because the risidual bacon fat will be put to good use soon. Admittedly this isn't as healthy as eating just brussel sprouts but then again its not as unhealthy as just eating bacon - and we were celebrating after all.

The second dish was even simpler. Take some mushrooms (I used cremini) and slice them up. Heat some butter, onion slivers and a sprig of rosemary in a pan. Fry the mushrooms in the butter mixture until tender and slightly shrunken.

The third dish is the main attraction and the easiest of all: scallops. Heat up the pan in which you fried the bacon and sprouts. Then gently salt and pepper the scallops and sear them on one side for one or two minutes. Turn them over and sear on the other side. Scallops are quick to cook and taste great with very little seasoning. Then plate all three dishes up and you've got a great meal. Easy peasy and worthy of a last meal for a dying stove.

Stay tuned for the new adventures from my newest toy!

Chili surprise

The surprise is that I didn't know I was making chili until it was done! It started out as a spaghetti-like idea. I had ground beef and tomatoes...that's all I knew for sure.

I started with olive oil in a pan, chopped some garlic and added that to slowly saute while I took a look in our fridge and pantry. We had carrots, green peppers, and cremini mushrooms. I chopped all those up and added them to the pan to sizzle. The mixture was starting to look more like a ragu than regular spaghetti sauce. Then in went the meat. More sizzle until it browned. Then I added a couple chopped tomatoes and a can of chickpeas that were hiding in the cupboard. I also added some chili powder, ground cumin, salt and pepper, partly out of instinct and partly out of that's what was within reach of the stove while I stirred. Then all it needed was a good simmer until all the flavours melded together and the veggies were soft. Voila, chili!

All you need with this is a good piece of garlic bread and a spoon!

This is what I'm having for supper tonight...yum!