In celebration of having an almost fully functioning kitchen again, I've been doing a little cooking experimentation. Here are some highlights.

Polenta with Black Beans and Peppers

The inspiration for this dish was a meal that Daniel and I had a week or two ago at Aqui, a "Cal-Mex" restaurant over in Willow Glen. They served polenta as a side with several dishes, which I thought was a brilliant idea, since the corn flavor pairs perfectly with Mexican food. I like polenta a lot, so I thought I'd try my hand at a Mexican themed polenta dish myself.

The ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked polenta


• a few ounces of queso blanco/queso fresco, or other fresh Mexican cheese, diced. (If you can't find queso blanco, you could probably substitute fresh mozzarella or a mild feta for a similar effect. Or just leave out the cheese.)


• 2 small onions, chopped into rings or strips.


• 2 red bell peppers, sliced into strips.


• 1 can black beans


• oregano, sage, rosemary.
  

The recipe:

1. Cook polenta according to package directions
.

2. While polenta is cooking, saute onions and peppers until onions are translucent and peppers are soft. Season with oregano and rosemary to taste.


3. When polenta is finished cooking, remove from heat and stir in queso fresco, and oregano, sage, rosemary, salt and pepper to taste. The cheese will soften a little - if you stir long enough it will probably blend evenly into the polenta, but I like to leave little lumps of molten cheese scattered here and there. Let polenta sit covered for ~5 minutes while you finish the rest of the preparations.


4. Drain black beans, place in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave until hot. (Normally, I heat up black beans in a saucepan with a little sauteed garlic, but I botched the timing on this recipe and opted for a quick fix.)

To serve: Spoon some polenta onto a plate or shallow dish, top with black beans and pepper/onion mixture. Serves 3-4.

It was yummy! I think there's a lot of potential for variation in this dish: one could use a different combination of spices, or throw in some tomatoes or salsa, or sautee some chicken or steak with the peppers if one wanted a non-veggie meal.

Then on to slightly less successful experiments...

The Quest for the Perfect Cup of Coffee

My new neighborhood has a couple of noticeable deficiencies relative to my old one in Berkeley. One of the most immediately noticeable is the lack of coffeeshops. There's a relatively convenient Starbucks, and that's it, as far as I can tell.

I actually like Starbucks coffee fairly well, but I've decided for a variety of reasons that it's time to get back in the habit of brewing my morning coffee, when I want a morning coffee, at home.

Naomi had a recent post which reminded me how fantastically good coffee made with a French press can be. I used to make a pretty mean cup of French press coffee when I was in college, but I got out of practice after moving to Berkeley, and my recent attempts have been uninspiring. I read some of the articles Naomi linked to on how to brew good French press coffee, and this morning I ground up some beans and brewed a cup.

And it was okay. Hmmm. I think maybe I ground the beans a shade too coarse. (The time before last that I made French press coffee, I used too fine a grind and ended up squirting hot water and coffee grounds all over myself. Great start to the day, I tell ya.)

I should probably get Starbucks to grind the beans for me, or invest in a good burr grinder, if I want a consistent grind. The first is not optimal from the point of freshness, the second is likely to be somewhat costly. Haven't decided.

Meanwhile, I discovered over the weekend that my cheapie old Krups espresso machine is busted - the cap on the boiler doesn't seal tightly enough, and more steam escapes out the top than gets through the grounds. I'm debating whether I should replace it with a better machine.

Maybe I'll get one of those stovetop espresso maker thingies. Those allegedly make good coffee, and don't cost an arm and a leg.

Probably the first order of business is more experimentation with the French press. I will report on the results.

Or maybe I'll just switch to tea for a while.