Screw It! We're Doing Beanie Weinies Java Style for Dinner

The weather affects my mood.  My normally bubbling cheerfulness gruff forbearance, becomes downright grim when winter stretches through spring. The first week in June and Sacramento hasn't even seen the 90s.  We had a week of cold rain and tornadoes--in June, in northern California.  June usually finds me struggling to be heard over the roar of the rattling air conditioner in my classroom.  Monday the radiators were gurgling with steam.  Anyone tries to be perky around me these days--I'll gut them, make them eat their own livers. 

After putting together all the dishes for my 24 x 24 entry last week, I was looking for something less taxing.  Normally, I would be grilling in June.  The weather has put me in such a funk that I decided to go old school, cooking some baked beans with some homemade beef dogs.  I made the hot dogs earlier and had to find a way to use them up.  They were good dogs, smoky with a good snap, but how many hot dogs can a person eat?

Beanie weinies--a favorite of my brother-in-law, PapaBob--is a traditional American comfort food.  Baked beans with bacon (or salt pork) and hot dogs in a sweet sauce are a great dish for a cold, wet winter day.  So it's June; I don't care anymore. The days are dark and the rain is puddling in the streets. 

Baked beans call for cornbread. Cathy, over at Gastronomy, had a posting featuring some cornbread muffins recently. They got me salivating.  I had some corn to use up, so I decided to make up my own batch.  They didn't turn out quite as cheesy as I'd like, but they were very good.  Even with the miserable weather I managed to improve my mood. 

 

Soon we'll be in the 100s.  Good.  Great.  Bring on the heat.  As good as the beanie weinies and cornbread muffins were, I'd  prefer not to have an excuse to eat them until November.  It's time for margaritas and grilled meats.

Javanese Beanie Weanies

printable recipe

1 lb. small white beans, soaked overnight in 10 cups water

1 onion, peeled and diced

1/2 lb. bacon, cut in 1/2 inch pieces

1/4 cup kecap manis

1 cup coffee

1 cup pineapple juice

100 grams gula merah or dark brown sugar

3/4 cup tomato ketchup

2 tsp mustard

6 to 8 hot dogs, sliced in 1 inch pieces

In a 6 quart pot, fry the bacon until it is maybe half way cooked.  Add the onion and cook until softened.  Drain the beans, reserving the water.  Stir in soaked beans and the remaining ingredients except for the hot dogs.  Add reserved water to cover by about 1/2 an inch.  Cover the pot with foil and bake in 300º F oven for 5 to 6 hours, stirring every 90 minutes or so.  

Add sliced hot dogs and cook for another 30 to 45 minutes.  If beans are too liquid, remove the foil.  If too dry, add more of the reserved water, stir well and cook longer.  Serve with rice or cornbread.

The cornbread muffins recipe is adapted from Dorie Greenspan's which I found at  Serious Eats.

Corny Cornbread Muffins with Bacon, Jalapeño and Cheese

printable recipe

1 cup yellow corn meal

1 cup all purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2  tsp baking soda

kernels from 2 ears of corn, or 1 cup of frozen kernels

4 slices of bacon, cooked until crisp, crumbled

4 jalapeño peppers, seeded and diced

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

6 TBS sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

3 TBS bacon grease

3 TBS vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400º F.  Grease or spray 12 muffin standard muffin pan with no-stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients.  In a large measuring cup mix the liquid ingredients together, beating the egg and egg yolk to mix thoroughly.  Add corn, cheese and bacon to the flour mixture.  Pour in liquid mixture and stir to make a thick batter.  Ladle or pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan.  Bake in middle of the preheated oven for 15--18 minutes until done.  Cool muffins on a wire rack.

Perkedel Jagung--Indonesian Corn Fritters

I was thinking the other day that I should have posted about perkedel jagung this summer, when corn was in season. Although it can be made with frozen corn, it's at its best when the kernels are shaved from the cob. I was very pleased then when I went to the local farmers market and found one grower still had corn. I was skeptical that corn this late in the season would be any good, but at four ears for $1.50 I figured I'd give it a try. It was the sweetest corn I have ever tasted, a little too sweet for my taste, but certainly more flavorful than any frozen corn could ever hope to be.

Perkedel jagung are a common side when fixing nasi tumpeng, a celebratory meal featuring a cone of nasi kuning and a variety of dishes to accompany it. Relatively easy to make, good perkedel jagung are all about the corn. There's a little flour added to the spices and egg to bind the fritters, but mostly they're just corn. I prefer to include shrimp, but they taste fine without. Although in Indonesia they are a part of a larger meal, they are perfect cocktail fare. If you wish to have these with drinks, you could serve with Thai sweet chili sauce, some nuoc cham, or a mixture of sriracha and mayonnaise. I prefer them plain, still warm from the pan. When making a batch of these, keep the fried perkedel warm in a low oven while frying the rest.



Perkedel Jagung

3 cups of corn kernels, preferably shaved from fresh ears of corn
3--4 TBS flour
1 tsp coriander, ground
salt, to taste
1 to 2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 red chilies, thinly sliced
2 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
6 ounces peeled, deveined shrimp, coarsely chopped (optional, but recommended)

oil for frying

Mix corn, flour, eggs, and spices together. Stir in shrimp if using. Mixture should just hold together.

Heat large frying pan and add 1/3 cup of oil. Drop corn mixture by large tablespoon and fry on both sides until brown and cooked. Alternately, you can deep fry. Drain on paper towels and serve warm.

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Thai Me Up Chicken Corn Cellophane Noodle Salad

I somehow stumbled across the Paper Chef challenge yesterday and thought I'd give it a go. Apparently modeled after the Ironchef series of TV fame, the idea is each cook must prepare a recipe from four ingredients selected by the previous Paper Chef winner. The ingredients are revealed the first full weekend of the month and the challenge must be submitted by noon the following Tuesday. It turned out that I had the four ingredients required for this month's challenge, so I thought I'd see what I could do. This month's ingredients were corn, chicken, almonds, and fish sauce. This combination suggested to me a Thai or Vietnamese style salad although I also considered fried rice. Cellophane noodles are frequently used in Thai salads and have the wonderful quality of absorbing and distributing the dressing to each bite of the salad. This salad could be served as lettuce wraps or, as I have done, simply on top of several leaves of romaine lettuce.


Chicken and Corn Cellophane Noodle Salad

4 chicken thighs, skinned, boned, and cut into 1/2 inch dice
2 red peppers, roasted, peeled, and cut into 1/2 inch dice
2 ears of corn, shaved, about 2 cups of kernels
6 to 8 green onions, cut into 1/2 inch lengths
1/2 cup slivered dry roasted almonds
6 kaffir lime leaves, finely julienned
1 2 ounce bundle of cellophane noodles soaked in hot water until soft, drained, then cut in 2 inch lengths
3 TBS oil

1 TBS kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
1 TBS fish sauce (I prefer 3 Crabs, a Vietnamese brand)
2 cloves of garlic, minced

Marinate chicken in kecap manis, fish sauce and garlic for several hours or overnight.
Stir fry chicken in hot wok with 2 tablespoons of oil until just cooked. Remove chicken to a clean bowl. Add another tablespoon of oil to wok, then green onions. Fry about 20 seconds, then add red peppers and corn. Cook for two to three minutes over high flame, stirring constantly. Add chicken back to the vegetables and stir to mix thoroughly. Turn off heat and stir in almonds and lime leaf slivers. Fold in cellophane noodles, then pour dressing over and mix well. Serve several tablespoons full on individual iceberg lettuce leaves or on top of a plate lined with romaine lettuce.

Dressing

2 TBS Thai sweet chili sauce
1 TBS fish sauce
juice of 1/2 a lime
1 1/2 tsp finely minced ginger
2 TBS water
sugar to taste

Mix ingredients together in a jar and shake well.

Thanks to Kristina of Former Chef for hosting this month's challenge.