Archive for Side Dishes
Bacon-Devilized Succotash
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This is a dish I can’t eat without Sylvester the cat’s voice in my head – “sufferin’ succotash”. All those years as a kid, watching Warner Bros cartoons, I had no idea what succotash was. When I discovered succotash, it was good – but, with chunks of bacon added it’s devilishly great!
History: Succotash comes from the Narragansett Indian “msickquatash” (try saying “sufferin’ msickquatash” and you’ll see why settlers changed the name). Mainly, it was boiled corn and beans. This cheap dish was popular during the Great Depression, but rather bland. Adding bacon takes it to a whole new level (everything’s better with bacon).
Ingredients (Serves 4)
6 oz (170g) slab bacon
1 onion, chopped
1 15oz can corn, rinsed & drained
1 15oz can red kidney beans, rinsed & drained
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp salt
1. Cut the bacon slab into ¼” (5mm) thick pieces.
2. In a frying pan over medium-low heat, stir fry the bacon for 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned and grease has rendered out of the fat.
3. If you have very lean bacon and there is not much grease in the pan, add 1 tbsp of butter. Add the onion and stir fry 5 minutes.
4. Add the corn, kidney beans, pepper, and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes – until the corn and beans are heated.
This succotash tastes terrific both hot or cold. Eat it directly from the pan, or have it cold the next day.
Thick-Cut Oven Fried Potatoes
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In The Devil’s Kitchen, we’ve never been big fans of skinny, deep-fried French fries. But, give us a thick-cut fry with the skin on, and we’re happy. Plunk a batch of these devilish delights into a piece of newspaper, and we’re blissfully sitting on a park bench and noshing.
Rather than going through the hassles of deep frying (and, what do you do with all that oil in the fryer?) try oven frying. It’s quick and easy. It gives you a golden fried potato which is incredibly fluffy and delicious inside. It’s even (dare we say?) healthy.
Ingredients (Serves 2-3)
20-22 oz (4 med large or 570-620g) potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1. Pre-heat oven to 450F (230c).
2. Scrub the potatoes and slice in half lengthwise. Then, cut into strips ½” (12mm) thick.
3. In a large bowl, toss the potato slices in the olive oil until well coated.
4. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the potatoes. Again, toss well.
5. Arrange the potato slices on a baking tray.
6. Bake for 30 min, until turning golden. Flip potatoes and return to the oven.
7. Bake for 5-10 more minutes.
Serve your tasty treats on a plate beside a juicy burger, with fish, with chicken, or … just by themselves on newspaper, to eat on a park beach or in the back yard.
Black Bean Mexican Rice
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Mexican rice – simply known as arroz (rice) in Mexico – can have a number of different ingredients added to the rice. In The Devil’s Kitchen, we cook up an easy-to-make and very satisfying Mexican rice with black beans, colourful red bell peppers, and chili powder.
This makes a great accompaniment to tacos, fajitas, and other tortilla-based delectables.
Ingredients (Serves 3-4)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 15oz can black beans, rinsed & drained
1 tbsp chili powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups cooked rice
1. In Dutch oven or other deep pot, heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion and saute for 10-12 minutes, until tender and slightly golden.
2. Add red pepper and garlic. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add beans, chili powder, salt, and rice. Mix well and cook for 5-10 minutes, until beans and rice are heated.
Crisp And Crunchy Skillet Cornbread
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A good cornbread should be heavy on the cornmeal and very light on the flour. This one is heavy on coarse ground cornmeal for lots of extra crunch and texture. Baking it in a hot cast iron skillet adds an extra layer of crispiness.
Ingredients (1 cornbread in 10” frying pan – 25cm)
¼ cup butter
1 ½ cups cornmeal (coarse ground)
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup milk
1. Preheat over to 425F (220c).
2. In 10” cast iron frying pan, over medium-low heat, melt the butter.
3. In large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
4. Mix in the eggs, milk, and the melted butter. Pour the melted butter out of the skillet. Leave the excess butter (the little that is coating the frying pan’s bottom) in the pan, and leave the frying pan on the heat while you quickly mix the cornbread batter.
5. Pour the cornbread mixture into the hot frying pan, increase to medium heat, and cook for 3-4 minutes.
6. Place the frying pan in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, until golden-brown on top.
Cut the cornbread into wedges and serve hot with butter. This cornbread goes great with stews and chilis. Actually, it goes great with any dish that has sauce or gravy. Or you can even do as we often do In The Devil’s Kitchen, and just devour the whole mass of crunchiness directly from the frying pan with slatherings of butter (and, when we’re feeling especially devilish, a few shots of Tabasco Habanero sauce).
Bacon And Egg Fried Rice
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With thick chunks of bacon browned into deliciousness and large flecks of golden scrambled egg throughout, this devilish dish can be a side dish for four or a main dish for two. In fact, it’s so tantalizingly delicious that any main dish served with it may feel outstaged.
My advice? Fry up this mixture of wicked goodness and serve it as is, with a light salad on the side. Makes a perfect lunch for two.
Ingredients (Serves 2-4)
5 oz (150g) bacon (slab or sliced)
2 tbsp butter
1 green onion, sliced into small rounds
4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1 ½ cups cooked brown rice (or white)
Large dash pepper
2 eggs, beaten
1. If you can, get a piece of slab bacon. If none is available, look for the thickest cut sliced bacon. Cut into pieces about ¼ – ½ inch wide.
2. In a large frying pan, heat 1 ½ tbsp of the butter over medium to medium-low heat. Add the bacon and fry for 5-6 minutes, stirring frequently until the bacon pieces are lightly browned.
3. Add the green onion and stir fry for 1 minute.
4. Add the shiitake mushrooms and stir fry for 2 minutes, until slightly browned.
5. Add the rice and pepper, and combine well, getting the rice evenly coated with the butter/bacon fat in the frying pan. Heat the rice for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. While the rice is frying, heat the remaining ½ tbsp butter over medium-low heat in a small frying pan. Add the beaten eggs and cook, stirring frequently, until you have soft scrambled eggs. Turn the heat up to medium and fry (without further stirring or scrambling) for ½ minute until the outside is slightly golden.
7. Use a wooden spatula to break the egg into small pieces.
8. Mix the egg into the rice mixture.
This dish is delicious straight from the frying pan. In fact, In The Devil’s Kitchen, we often just eat it with spoons direct from the cast iron pan.
