Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Vegan Mexican Feast from Chef InYou

I love Mexican cuisine  and am always entusiastic to try different spicy and excellent dishes.While in US, we used to frequent Baja Fresh Mexican Grill and I still miss it. Ofcourse we stuck to the vegetarian menu there  and though limited certain good choices available.I have never been to Chipotle and when I saw the Chipotle style Cilantro Lime rice I wanted to prepare it.And I did make it along with DK's Vegan Frijoles Refritos and Pico de Gallo. An awesome feast and here it is.







Cilantro Lime Rice:

Ingredients:

Long Grain Rice /Basmati: 1 cup rinsed lightly in cold water
Oil: 1-2 tsp or butter for non vegan versions
Sugar: a pinch (optional)
Limes: 1 big or 1-2 small
Salt: as per taste

Cilantro: chopped: 3 tbsp+

Preparation:
Rinse rice in cold water and optionally soak in water for atleast 10 minutes.This prevents the rice from getting mushy.
Heat oil in a heavy pan and add the drained rice and optionally sugar.Stir well until the rice gets coated with oil/butter.Add in the lime juice and salt and enough water needed to cook the rice.

Cook the rice until all the water has been absorbed and your preferred consistency has reached.Stir it well and mix in chopped cilantro.Do the taste check and adjust the salt,cilantro and lime juice.Remove from heat,give it a nice fluff and let it sit for a few minutes with the lid on.

Serve with refried beans or Frijoles Refritos.



Refried Beans:
I am fascinated by refried beans and the term refried used to intrigue me at first.Then I tried refried beans from another blog for an event and loved it.So while trying out the cilantro lime rice,I also tried DK's Vegan refried beans as well.I had used red kidney beans instead of pinto beans though

Ingredients:
Red Kidney beans: 1/2 cup

Oil: 1tbsp +
BayLeaf: 1/2 tsp + or 1 bayleaf
Red onion: 1 medium size finely chopped
Garlic:1-2 cloves finely chopped/minced
Jalapeno chillies/Green Chillies: 1-2 chopped/slit as needed

Tomato:1 medium size chopped

Salt: as per taste

Preparation:
Presoak and cook the beans until tender or almost mushy.We will be mashing up the beans so its better we cook them till mushy.I cook them in a pressure cooker and stovetop works out to 40 minutes or more.

Heat oil in a heavy pan,add in bayleaf,chopped onion,garlic crushed/minced and slit chillies alongwith little salt and saute until the onions turn soft.

Add in chopped tomatoes and saute until soft .Add in the cooked beans after keeping aside the water in which they were cooked.mix well and with a ladle or potato masher,mash the entire mix together to the required or fine consistency.Adjust salt and serve with Cilantro Lime Rice and salsa


Pico de Gallo: 
I suppose DK had made  pico de gallo the authentic way which is much longer than the one I tried here. I wanted to try it when she posted the recipe and this obviously was great with the rice and beans. 

Ingredients:
Tomatoes: 1-2 big or 2 + cups chopped

Red onions: 1 medium finely chopped
Garlic: 1 small clove finely chopped/minced/crushed
Jalapeno/Green chillies:1 finely chopped or slit
Cilantro: few tbsps finely chopped

Salt: as per taste
Sugar: a pinch
Lime juice: few tbsp or 1 small lime

Preparation:
Chop tomatoes and place them in a colander placed on top of a bowl.Let it sit for about 45 minutes and the juice that will be collected in the bowl can be discarded or used for something else.

After about 20 minutes,add in finely chopped onions,minced garlic,chopped chillies and cilantro and give it a light toss for the flavours to mix well.

After the required waiting time of 45 minutes,shake the colander to drain off the juice if any and then put the contents of the colander to a bowl.

Add in salt,sugar and lime juice and toss everything and serve as a filling for tacos or a side salad with cilantro lime rice and refried beans.

                                            
Do enjoy the simple feast which is hearty and filling and a plate obviously goes to Priya who is hosting   T & T : Chef In You, an event by Lakshmi




4 Comments:

Pavithra Elangovan said...

wow thats really awesome feast i must say... I love mexican food...
Me too posted the mexican dish...

Bergamot said...

lovely array of dishes

Priya Suresh said...

Awesome spread, thanks for sending to T&T.

AJ said...

Looks delicious!! I made vegetarian refried beans too!! Check out my recipe.

Thanks for visiting my Blog

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