Global Cuisine

This is one of my favorite winter casseroles based on a recipe from The Best Make-Ahead Recipe Cookbook. You can make it in one large 9x13 pan or prepare two 8x8 square pans, and bake one and freeze one for another time. To freeze, wrap casserole in plastic wrap and then cover tightly with foil and freeze for up to 3 months.

To serve, unwrap casserole and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, then cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 375F. Remove foil and continue to bake about 50-60 minutes longer, until cornbread is golden and filling is bubbly.
 
It helps to have everything prepped – onions chopped, beans drained, garlic minced, tomato cans opened. Once you begin, the recipe comes together quickly. Don’t start the cornbread until the filling is done and in the pan.

I think Mexican food is one of my all time favorites.  Growing up in Southern California, the availability of "good" Mexican food was not hard to find, it was everywhere.  I have so many old favorite places that served everything from Tex-Mex cuisine to more authentic regional Mexican cooking.  I do miss those places.  Badly.

This particular dish is a take on Huevos Rancheros (Ranch Eggs), a classic Mexican breakfast dish usually consisting of fried eggs served on top of corn tortillas with a chili-based salsa and avocado.  It's an awesome way to start the day!

But I have to say this salad also has many of my favorite ingredients...black beans, green salsa, chips and cheese.  The tomatillo or green salsa gives so much flavor.  I have always preferred a green salsa over red anyway.  The broiling of the chips also gives them that extra-toasty crunch which is just makes it all worth the trouble.

I was recently asked by Heinz 57 Sauce and the folks at Good Bite what my favorite “flavor twist” was. They wanted to know what simple addition could be made to meals that would take them from simple to special. The answer was easy – Smoked Paprika.

Smoked Paprika, Pimenton de la Vera or Pimenton Ahumada comes from Eastern Spain. The red peppers are gently dried with smoke, usually from oak, before being processed into paprika. You can find it at fancy food markets, on-line and even in the spice rack at the supermarket. In fact, a McCormick rep told Bon Appetit Food Editor Sarah Tenaglia, that their jars of smoked paprika were one of their hottest sellers. So, I guess I’m not the only one who likes to add zip to dishes with Smoked Paprika.

The Spanish varieties, available in little tins, come in dulce – sweet or mild, and picante – hot. If you like things spicy, go for the picante, but a little cayenne pepper can be added to the dulce for the same effect. The tin pictured was a gift from my friend Pierre, who just returned from a trip to Spain.

Before I tell you this story, I have to tell you how I met Bobby in the first place. I was in Century City with a friend of mine and we ran into this group of Persian guys. It was all very high school and they were all very hung over. I wasn’t really paying much attention until one of them, within two minutes of having been introduced to me, starting feeling up my arm. I mean, really, feeling up my arm—you know, the underneath part of the upper arm that so many women (and some men) are sensitive about? Yea. To make matters worse, every time I tried to pull away he’d respond by saying, “Give me that filet.” “Excuse me?!?” “You ate a lot of hoomoos as a kid, didn’t you?” “Are you saying I’m fat?!” “Don’t insult the filet this way.”

I didn’t see Bobby again for a few months and had pretty much forgotten about the whole exchange when I was at a birthday party at the new-ish Trader Vic’s and all of a sudden, from across the pool, I hear, “Filet . . . Can it be you?” Needless to say, Bobby and I became fast friends, although he does still try to feel up my arm occasionally.