Domestic Tuesday - Crispy Black Bean Cakes

The list of things I miss about living in San Francisco is short, and mainly consists of food and drinks, and people I miss eating and drinking with:

• Happy hour at Hog Island with Becky for dollar oysters and two dollar beers
• Rosamunde with Chad for weisswurst sausage w/ chili (oh my god, their chili) and taking them "to go next door" to Toronado and ordering a beer I'd never heard of (and also sneaking next door to the pizza place to steal a plastic knife)
• My dear, sweet Zeitgeist for pints of Racer 5 while jealously eyeing everyone else's bloody mary's (I loathe tomato juice), and imbibing in their "I don't want to know where this meat comes from" delicious burgers

My favorite breakfast in the city, actually most people's favorite breakfast in the city as evidence by the hours-long line every weekend, was at Dottie's True Blue Cafe on Jones. Anything you ordered was sure to be to-die-for, and made the long wait so worth it. My favorite thing on the menu was the black bean cakes and eggs, and I would break down and order it every time, even though pancakes or french toast would be what I had been in the mood for...they were just that good.

So when I found a recipe for crispy black bean cakes in an issue of Food and Wine magazine that sounded very much like the ones I knew and loved from Dottie's, I knew I had to give it a try. But instead of making these for breakfast, I decided instead to make smaller cakes, and turn it into an appetizer for the season finale of Lost pot luck. I tweaked the recipe a little, and they were a huge hit.

I've already sung the praises of my new food processor, and this recipe was MADE for this fine piece of machinery. It's not necessary, of course, but with it, this is seriously one of the easiest things I've ever made.

Ya know my eyeball's penchant for getting all hurty and stingy whenever an onion so much as gets a paper cut in my general vicinity? Well the food processor takes care of that (almost completely). Yay!

They should bottle this scent and sell it as cologne. Yum.

One can is from the 99 Cents Only store, the other is from my local ethnic food store. Deal with it.

Rinse the beans off to avoid over saltiness and add one can to the food processor and puree.

If your cat is weird like mine and will eat anything (seriously, he LOVES artichokes) feed him a couple beans.

Add the other can of whole beans to the pureed garlic/onion/bean mix and stir.

This is where I added my own crap. The green chili's just happened to be hanging out in my fridge, leftover from a cornbread I had made, and they went really well in this dish. I also added a few shakes of hot sauce (Tapitio, in this case) which I highly recommend.

This is either the nasty part, if you're like me and hate using your bare fingers when cooking (food under my nails = PUKE), or the fun part, if you're a total freak. I made golf ball size balls (heh...balls) out of the mix and flattened them out just a bit. Then you coat them in the flour, dip them in the egg, followed by a coat of the breadcrumbs...then you wash your hands cause your fingers are coated in egg, flour and bread crumbs and it feel reeeeally gross.

Next, throw em in some sizzling vegetable oil, flipping them when they brown on one side.

Seriously, these are fucking goooood. Top with guacamole and sour cream, or whatever the hell you want (hummus? mango salsa? something else that I can't think of right now?)


My Lost Pot Luck friends adored these little fuckers. Ben, the hardest man alive to please, voted them even-better than Jonah's yummy ahi tuna.


The ahi was pretty damn good, too.

I may have bribed him, though.

Naw, they were really that good.

Recipe:
Cripsy Black Bean Cakes
Adapted from Food and Wine Magazine

Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for frying
1 small onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 large garlic clove, minced
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
few dashes hot sauce
Two 15-ounce cans black beans, drained
Two tablespoons diced green chili
1 1/4 cups plain dry bread crumbs
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, beaten

Directions
-In a medium skillet, heat the 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Add the onion and garlic and cook over moderate heat just until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the cumin and cayenne and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Scrape the onion mixture into the bowl of a food processor. Add 1 1/2 cups of the beans and pulse until the mixture is finely chopped but not smooth. Scrape the mixture into a medium bowl. Mix in the remaining whole beans and 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs, the hot sauce, and the green chili, and season with salt and pepper. Form the mixture into desired size.
-Put the flour, beaten eggs and the remaining 3/4 cup of bread crumbs into 3 shallow bowls. Dust each black bean cake with the flour, tapping off the excess. Dip the cakes in the egg and then in the bread crumbs, pressing so that the bread crumbs adhere.
-In a very large skillet, heat 1/8 inch of oil until shimmering. Add the cakes and fry over moderate heat until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels.