I promise I’m not turning this blog into a collection of recipes. I’m not that domestic, and I probably swear too much to be featured in these “perfect mommy/wife just LOVES housekeeping” articles. Hell, I hate wasting time cooking and cleaning, this is why the slow cooker is such a life saver.
Late at night, when I can finally relax, I’ve been browsing recipes and ingredients for inspiration. I say “inspiration” because I think I’m pathologically unable to follow a recipe step by step. Must be my anarchic rebellious side. On a more practical level, I’d rather use ingredients that I can find easily instead of looking everywhere for a rare, expensive and mysterious item I need two tablespoons of at one point in the recipe, so I tweak it my way.
Most French dishes are cooked with butter in the North, olive oil in the South, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Many foreigners would find French cuisine rather bland because even though some herbs are used, nothing is spicy and flavours tend to be very subtle. And indeed, I knew very little about spices until I started travelling and was introduced to various cuisines of the world. Like most French, I first relied on salt and pepper—I actually bring big bag of “sel de Guérande,” hand-harvested sea salt from Brittany, that has a very delicate flavour. I’m picky about pepper too, you’ll never find me using fast-food-style powder pepper, I grind my own peppercorns.
Now I’m experimenting with cumin, curry, coriander, chili, garlic, ginger… It’s amazing how combinations of spices can turn an ordinary mix or grains and vegetables into something super yummy. So, slow cooking 101—know your spices.
I also learned to spend time prepping my vegetables carefully. Most slow cooker recipes claim that prep time takes “10 minutes top”—I beg to differ, it’s more like half an hour. But this time is well spent cutting the veggies carefully so that they cook evenly. And add another 15 minutes to prep time if you pause to take pictures of food, because it’s gorgeous…
After cooking several dishes with curry and chili, I wanted something milder, with wild rice instead of basmati. I opted for cumin and coriander, two flavours that complement each other beautifully.
Here the recipe:
Wild rice with beans and vegetables
Cooking time: 2 hours on "high"
- 1/2 cup white onion
- 1 cup bell peppers
- 1 cup Cremini mushrooms
- 1 Italian tomato
- 1 cup Chinese eggplant
- 1/2 cup bamboo shoots
- 1 cup long grain rice/ wild rice
- 1 cup black beans
- 3/4 cup vegetable broth
- 1 tbsp garlic
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp coriander
- salt and pepper to taste
(yields two bowls for a main dish)
Do your beans come from a can? Over here everybody has a pressure cooker for the beans, but I can’t remember if you can find dry beans in Canada… They are much tastier when they are cooked the same day! (Says, the girl who has been making rice and beans almost daily for the past 4 years!) 😉
I admit they come from a can… I’m going to try to cook dry beans at one point, but apparently it takes quite a while (does it?) so I’m going to have to time it right with the rice and veggies.
What’s your favourite rice and beans recipe?
Dried beans are fairly easy, but they cook better when they have been soaked for a few hour or overnight… It usually takes about 45 min to cook most variety, I only use brown rice so it’s the same cooking time, but you might have to cook them first?
I will definitely try! It’s the soaking stage I have to plan for.
How adorable is Mark! Love the faces he pulled 🙂
And it does indeed look yummy!
I’m like you, I can’t follow a recipe to the letter lol Instead I get inspired and then just make my own versions.
I found a sea salt with some herbs here, we used to have it as kids (when salt was allowed – crazy I know-), and I find it so tasty. I mean, it’s a very delicate flavor, but sooooo good on rice and beans.
And yes, I love experimenting with spices too
I made a note of trying salt with herbs, thank you!
I think I’d like your food, from what you shared so far. Ahem, ta bouffe hein, pas celle de ton enfance…! 😉
haha oui j’avais bien compris 😉
Et oui, je crois qu’on a des gouts communs de ce cote la 😉