This weekend, I ended up doing an insane amount of cooking. I was throwing Mr.S a poker party and doing all the food for that, as well as attending a Japanese sweets get together at my buddy, Misa's. I wanted to make a Japanese cotton cheesecake for Misa's party but didn't have time to try out recipes before Saturday. My cotton cheesecake was an epic fail. It didn't rise at all, it was flat as a pancake and hard as a hockey puck. There was no way I was bringing it to the party. Luckily there was enough treats (and then some) to go around. Misa made some delicious anmitsu. Anmitsu is a Japanese dessert consisting of small cubes of agar agar jelly (kanten), sweet azuki bean paste (anko), soft mochi (gyūhi), a variety of fruits, ice cream, and sometimes boiled peas. It’s usually served with a black sugar syrup called "kuromitsu" that you pour over the jelly. It's very refreshing and not overly sweet. Miki made my favorite childhood dessert, Japanese strawberry shortcake. It's a moist and airy, layered sponge cake with a fresh strawberry and whipped cream filling, plus whipped cream frosting. I'm not big on sweets but I love this cake!
For Mr. S' poker party, I made:
Korean Ground Beef tacos with fixin's
Frijoles Borrachos
Cilantro-Lime Rice
Sweet and Sour Mini-Meatballs
Corn-Jalapeno Casserole
Apricot Torte
Mr. S insisted also on having a giant, industrial-size, bubbling vat of Que Bueno. Gross!
Anyhow, the Frijoles Borrachos (Drunken Beans) I made came out perfect. Beer, bacon and beans- how can you go wrong? I used a recipe from a blog called
Gimme Some Oven but made it in a Crockpot instead. You can find the original recipe here :
Gimme Some Oven's Drunken Beans
Frijoles Borrachos
Ingredients
4 pieces (uncooked) thick bacon, diced 1 small white onion, finely diced 1 jalapeno, (stemmed, seeded and diced ) 4-5 garlic cloves, minced 1 (12-ounce) bottle Negra Modelo beer4 (15-ounce) cans pinto beans, rinsed and drained 1 Tablespoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro Queso Fresco as a topping (optional)
Instructions
1. Fry up your bacon pieces in a small pan. Remove the bacon pieces with a slotted spoon and set aside.
2. Using the leftover bacon grease, sauté your onion and jalapeno until the onion becomes translucent. Add in your garlic and sauté until it becomes fragrant.
3. Dump everything you just cooked into your Crockpot. Add back in the bacon. Pour in your beer and add in your spices. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes then on low for 2-3 hours.
4. Before serving, toss in 1 tablespoon of lime juice and a handful of chopped cilantro and you're good to go.
