Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos with Sweet-Spicy Pickled Red Onions from Molly MacRae #recipe @MysteryMacRae

 

This is an easy, delicious vegan dish that’s full of flavor and has plenty of protein. Or move it up to vegetarian status by adding cheese or sour cream (or both). The original recipe calls for serving it with avocado crema. I haven’t included that recipe, here, because we decided that slices of avocado would be more satisfying (and we were sorry we’d used the only avocado for the crema and had no slices). The recipe calls these tacos, but we folded them up like burritos for neater eating. If you plan to use the pickled onions, make them first. They need to cool for an hour or so before using. The onions will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.

If you’re looking for a good vegetarian cookbook, try The Complete Plant-based Cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen. It’s super! Delicious recipes that don’t call for outlandish or hard-to-find ingredients and there are lots of pictures. Every recipe is prefaced by a paragraph about why the recipe works. Borrow it from your local library, first, to see if it’s a book you’d like to add to your collection. Or watch this space for my posts because many of them are adapted from my copy of the book (which has become loose-leaf because we use it so much).

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos with Sweet-Spicy Pickled Red Onions

(adapted from The Complete Plant-based Cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen)

Serves 4 (with leftovers)

Ingredients for the burritos

(We had inexplicably run out of onions, but had shallots and scallions, so that’s what you see in the pictures, and that’s what I used.)

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced (you’ll see in the picture that either we can’t count or we love garlic)

1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin

1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander

I teaspoon mince fresh oregano or ¼ teaspoon dried

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 pound of sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into ½-inch pieces

4 poblano chiles, stemmed, seeded, cut into ½-inch wide strips

1 large onion, halved, then slice 1/2  inch thick

1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed (or 2 cups that you’ve cooked yourself)

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 bunch scallions, sliced (in addition to the roasted onion or to help make up for missing onion)

8 10-inch flour tortillas, warmed 

What about cheese or sour cream? Sure! Go ahead and use your favorite.

 

Ingredients for the pickled onions

These zesty onions are good anywhere you use pickles.

1 red onion, halved and sliced thin through root end

1 cup red wine vinegar

⅓ cup sugar

2 jalapeno chiles, stemmed, seeded, and cut into thin rings

¼ teaspoon salt

 

Directions for the burritos

1.      Adjust oven racks to upper middle and lower-middle positions. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

2.      Whisk oil and seasons together in large bowl. Add sweet potatoes, poblanos, and onion to oil mixture and mix to coat.

3.       Spread vegetable mixture in even layer on 2 foil-lined rimmed baking sheets. Roast until tender and golden brown, about 30 minutes, stirring vegetables and rotating sheets between racks halfway through.

4.      Return vegetables to now-empty bowl. Add beans, cilantro, and scallions. Toss gently to combine.

5.      Spoon burrito mixture onto warmed tortillas and top with pickled red onions.

 

 

Directions for pickled onions

Put onion in bowl. Bring vinegar, sugar, jalapenos, and salt to a simmer over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Pour hot vinegar mixture over onion, cover, and let cool completely, about 1 hour. Drain cooled vegetables in colander. Serve.

 

 

Something poisonous is coming March 1, 2022! 

About Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries: 

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that’s left.

But a murder during Violet’s party leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse – with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

 Available for pre-order in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. And please consider asking your public library to consider ordering it. 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

  

Savory Fennel Apple Tarte Tatin - #Thanksgiving #Recipe from @MysteryMacRae

  

This savory version of tarte Tatin is a delicious vegetarian addition for your Thanksgiving feast. The dish is, traditionally, a dessert—a French upside-down apple tart made by covering the bottom of a shallow baking dish with a little butter and lots of sugar, adding apples, and covering the whole with a pastry crust. The butter and all that sugar turn into caramel while the tart bakes. The caramel becomes the topping when tart is inverted onto the serving plate.

This version also has apples, but only a passing nod to the load of sugar in the dessert. The fennel caramelizes into an amazing experience, while the apples and sage become a delicious sauce. Topping the whole with crumble goat cheese, when the tart comes out of the oven, is optional, but it’s a superb touch.

During this season, I’m thankful for family, friends, and food. My boys have cooked
beside me since they were old enough to watch from their highchairs. Here’s my youngest, Ross, helping a few years ago (34 years ago!). He helped with the Savory Tarte Tatin, too, and we wondered where the name tarte Tatin came from.

We turned to our trusty Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst (a wonderful reference book). They told us the tart was created by a pair of French sisters who lived in the Loire Valley and earned their living making it. Further research found Friends of the Tarte Tatin, a website full of pages of information, including pictures of the sisters—Stéphanie and Caroline—more history of the tart, a recipe, and a bibliography. A fun site!

Savory Fennel Apple Tarte Tatin

Adapted from The Complete Plant-Based Cookbook, by America’s Test Kitchen

 

Ingredients

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed (9 ½ by 9-inch), store-bought sheets are a great convenience

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon plus one pinch table salt, divided

2 fennel bulbs, stalks discarded (1 bulb cut into 6 wedges, 1 bulb halved, cored, and cut lengthwise into ½-inch-thick slices), look for bulbs that will be about 4 inches tall after trimming

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, halved, and sliced ½ inch thick

4 teaspoons chopped fresh sage

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar

2 ounces (½ cup) goat cheese, crumbled (optional – although it’s a terrific addition)

 

Directions

375 ℉

Adjust oven rack to middle position. Unfold pastry onto lightly floured board or counter and roll into 11-inch square. With pizza cutter of sharp knife, cut pastry into 11-inch circle. Transfer to parchment-paper lined baking sheet, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and refrigerate while preparing filling.

swirl

Swirl 2 tablespoons oil over bottom of 10-inch nonstick skillet or seasoned cast iron skillet, then sprinkle with sugar and ¼ teaspoon salt.

arrange

Arrange fennel wedges in pinwheel shape, fanning out from center of circle. Fill in gaps with sliced fennel.

cook

Cook, without stirring, over high heat until fennel turns deep golden brown, 7 to 9 minutes (if pan isn’t sizzling after 2 minutes, cook slightly longer.

Off heat, sprinkle with apple, sage, and ¼ teaspoon salt. (Forgot to take a picture at this point - oops.)

be careful - hot skillet!

Carefully transfer chilled dough to skillet, centering over filling. Being careful of hot skillet, gently fold excess dough up against skilled wall all the way around. With a paring knife, pierce dough evenly over surface 10 times.

mm-mmm, chocolate pockets

We took the scraps of puff pastry, made little pockets, and filled them each with 5 or 6 chocolate chips. We baked them on a small baking sheet while the tart baked (about 15 or 20 minutes).

bake until deep golden brown

Bake tart until crust is deep golden brown, about 45 minutes. Transfer skilled to wire rack and let cool 10 minutes.

Run knife around edge of crust to loosen. Using potholders or dish towels, carefully place serving platter on top of skillet, and, holding platter and skillet firmly together, invert tart onto platter. Transfer any fennel that sticks to the tart. Sprinkle with goat cheese. (Also forgot to take a picture with the cheese!)

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!

Something poisonous is coming March 1, 2022!

About Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop mysteries

In the latest novel in the Highland Bookshop Mystery Series, a murder at a baronial manor leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse—with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

Available for pre-order in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Or ask your public library to consider ordering it.

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

 

Southwestern Black Bean Salad with Barley from @MysteryMacRae

 

This is a nice dish for the transition from summer to autumn. You can use some of the last tomatoes and peppers from the garden, but it also has the nutty, chewy fall flavor of barley. It’s tasty, fairly quick, and the kind of dish that begs for adding your own twists. It was great just like this, but next time I might add garlic and a bit of cumin. The original recipe doesn’t call for avocados, but we had two beauties on the counter, so in they went. We serve this for a main dish but it also makes a great side.

 

 Southwestern Black Bean Salad with Barley

 

I took the picture before deciding to add another tomato and scallion

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups water

⅔ cup pearl barley, rinsed and drained

1 teaspoon salt

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 bell pepper, any color, seeded and chopped

2 small tomatoes (I threw in a 3^rd)

2 cups frozen corn, thawed (I only had 1 cup)

2 scallions, trimmed and sliced, white part only (I added a 3^rd)

2 avocados, cubed

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons dried basil

Juice of 1 lime

Salt and black pepper

4 ounces shredded pepper Jack cheese (I just shredded and didn’t measure)

 

Aren't these beautiful avocados?

To make:

In a medium saucepan, bring water to boil. Add barley and 1 teaspoon salt. Reduce heat, cover, and about simmer 30 minutes, until barley is tender. Drain well.

 

Rinse your barley before cooking

Rinse and drain black beans

In a large bowl, combine barley, beans, bell pepper, tomatoes, corn, scallions, oregano, basil, avocados, lime juice, and shredded cheese. Stir. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

  

Add corn and seasonings to beans

Add everything else, stir, and serve

Barley is good for you! Here are a couple of other salads that include barley from our Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen archives. Barley, Red Pepper, and Corn Salad from Krista Davis, and Barley and Cuban Black Bean Salad from Linda Wiken.

 

 I don’t cook with arsenic, but there’s plenty of it in Argyles and Arsenic, book 5 in my Highland Bookshop Mystery series. The book comes out March 1, 2022, and it’s available for pre-order now.

 

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that’s left.

Janet Marsh and Christine Robertson, two of the women who own Yon Bonnie Books in Inversgail, enjoy themselves at the party. Not everyone who attends has a good time, though. Wendy Erskine, director of the Inversgail museum, is found dead, and rumors swirl about food poisoning from a local food truck. Then Violet tells Constable Hobbs that a tin of rat poison is missing. And when Hobbs’ own grandmother comes under suspicion for murder, he enlists the women from Yon Bonnie Books, and the race is on to find the murderer.

But where do they begin? Are there clues in the “Shocking Stockings” exhibit at the museum? Will the antique scrapbook pasted full of trivia about arsenic and bygone poisoners offer a solution? Or does the answer lie closer to home—is one of Violet’s friends truly toxic? Poisonous games are afoot in Inversgail and the women of Yon Bonnie Books are playing to win. 

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

 

Herb Pistachio Couscous from @MysteryMacRae

This is couscous transformed. The addition of a fresh herb paste, pickled jalapeños, currants, and pistachios turns plain old couscous into a brightly-flavored dish that we serve as a main course (the measurements below are doubled from the original recipe for that purpose). It also makes a wonderful side paired with other vegetarian dishes or with meat. We adapted the recipe from The Milk Street Cookbook by Christopher Kimball who, in turn, adapted it from Yotam Ottolenghi – two of our favorite cooks.

 

Herb Pistachio Couscous

 

Ingredients:

2 cup couscous (not pearl couscous, which won’t absorb enough water for this recipe)

6 tablespoons dried currants

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Kosher salt and black pepper

1 ½ cups boiling water

¾ cup olive oil, divided

4 cups lightly packed fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems

4 cups lightly packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

¼ cup finely chopped pickled jalapeños, plus 4 teaspoons brine

4 ounces baby arugula, coarsely chopped

1 cup shelled pistachios, toasted and chopped

4 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced

 

To make:

In a large bowl, combine couscous, currants, cumin, and ½ teaspoon each of salt and black pepper. Stir in boiling water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes.

 

In a food processor, combine cilantro, parsley, remaining olive oil, jalapeño brine and ½ teaspoon salt. Process until you have a smooth paste, about 1 minute, scraping down bowl 2 or 3 times.

 

Fluff couscous with a fork, breaking up large clumps. Stir in herb paste until thoroughly combined. Fold in jalapeños, arugula, pistachios, and scallions. Season with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature.

 

 

And now, with a tip of my toque to Maya Corrigan who’s been sharing links to Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen recipes from days gone by, here are links for couscous lovers to a recipe for Kale and Couscous Salad from Edith Maxwell, and another for Roasted Squash and Spinach Salad with Walnuts, Cranberries, and Couscous from Lucy Burdette.

 

There’s no arsenic in Herb Pistachio Couscous, but there’s plenty of it in Argyles and Arsenic, book 5 in my Highland Bookshop Mystery series. The book comes out March 1, 2022, and it’s available for pre-order now.

In the latest novel in the beloved Highland Bookshop Mystery Series, a murder at a baronial manor leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse—with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

And for those who like short stories, here’s a collection of my stories, most of which first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The e-book edition of My Troubles is on sale for $1.99

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.