2 hours ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:Sure is a lot of bacon in those photos. Good thing--both the dog and I love bacon.
And mighty fine bacon it is, too!
We had the jalapeno poppers last night. Most were what Miiller's calls "gator toes": jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese, then wrapped with bacon. The rest were what they call "brisket poppers": brisket AND cream cheese inside the jalapeno, then wrapped with bacon. I cooked them in the oven along with, and after, a rice dish I'd read about in the New York Times.
The rice dish is Ali Slagle's Baked Rice with White Beans, Leeks and Lemons. (For those who don't have a subscription, here's a gift-article link.) Ms. Slagle seems to dream up very flexible recipes, and it's a good thing. I flexed this one to bits and still have learned a good method.
I had leeks, looking a bit worse the wear, from a neighbor at home. They needed to be used before they went even farther south.
My cooked white beans had already gone south. I might have had canned white beans, but we both agreed that we needed vegetables. I used corn from the freezer. I had no almonds, so substituted walnuts. I ran out of lemon, and used lime. I used chicken broth instead of water, per the suggestion of another subscriber. Finally, I used the last of my basmati rice and came up short, so supplemented with the long-grain white rice I'd picked up at Miiller's. (I know: this substitution list reads like one of those wild comments where someone changes everything and then says the recipe was terrible. 😄 Stay tuned!)
The method is pretty easy, and this is what I'm going to take away: baking instead of cooking on the stovetop may be the way to go. First, roast the sliced leeks, citrus zest, nuts and red pepper flakes (I augmented with hot paprika) in olive oil at 400F in a baking pan until the leeks are soft and golden. Then scatter the rice over the roasted layers, scatter the beans (corn, in this case) atop that, pour in boiling water (broth here). Cover tightly, put in oven until the rice is tender, about 25 minutes. I think it took longer in my oven. When the rice is done, pull the dish out and let it rest, covered, for 5 minutes. Then fluff the rice and stir in grated parmesan. Garnish with more parmesan. There's supposed to be more garnish -- herbs of some sort, say -- but I didn't have any. The finished, garnished rice dish as I cooked it last night:
While that was going on, I roasted the poppers in a dish atop the baking dish. Once the rice was out I cranked the heat up higher -- 450 or 480F -- to get that bacon crisp.
Dinner, complete with a closeup of the rice and a cross-section of a brisket popper:
Delicious!
My darling admitted later that he'd flinched internally when I said we were having rice. He usually finds rice to be bland. This had enough spicy heat that he thought it excellent. I'll have to remember to step up the spicy heat, the way I did last night, when I make this. And I will be making it -- at least, using the method -- again.
