Kitchen-Style Cabin Fever

Every February I get a serious case of cabin fever.  Februarys in Chicago will do that to a person.  I'm in the middle of such a spell right now, and it's spilled over into my cooking.

While I'm pretty good at serving my family variety, I have been known to fall into ruts.  There was my Thai noodle phase, where at least twice a week I was serving some sort of rice noodle with meat, veggies and sauce.  I realized how bad it was getting when I served Thai noodles for the third time in ten days and heard Baird say (more to himself than to me) "Oh, it's another Thai noodle night."  I got the message, and made sure to put some extra space between Thai noodle meals.

It's not quite that bad right now, but for the last couple of weeks, I've been feeling stuck in what I'll call a winter food rut.  It seems like we've been eating a lot of soups, stews, and chili, with the occasional roast chicken or beef thrown in for good measure.  Honestly, I'm tired of it.  I'm ready to walk out my back door and pick fresh herbs from my garden.  I want the bounty of the farmer's market sitting on my kitchen counter.  One could say I have a case of kitchen-style cabin fever.

In order to cure my cabin fever, I've decided to cook a new dish once a week.  Not just any new dish...an international dish I've never cooked before.  Tonight was the first meal.  I made Cuban Black Beans and Rice from Cook's Illustrated.

I learned that sofrito is a cornerstone of Latin cooking, and the specific elements in the mix differ from one Latine cuisine to the next.  A Cuban sofrito consists of onions, green peppers, garlic, cumin and oregano.

To make my beans and rice, I soaked black beans overnight.  I enriched the beans with chicken broth, salt, garlic, bell pepper, onion, and garlic and set them to simmer.  I drained the beans, saved the bean juice, and rinsed the rice.  I used my food processor to blend green peppers and onions.  I cooked lean bacon and then sauteed the herbs and veggies in the rendered bacon fat (veggies in bacon fat...there's no way this will be a bad dish!).  I stirred in the rice, beans, and the bean cooking liquid I had reserved.  I added a bit of red wine vinegar and salt.  I baked it all in my new Dutch oven.  I fluffed it with a fork, let it rest, and served it with lime wedges.

This recipe actually reminded me of Cajun dirty rice, but with less heat.  It had a complex, earthy flavor, which was just perfect for a cold, dreary, February night.

I'm already feeling better!