Thursday Night at the Improv

Last night I did a bit of improvisation that ended up being really good. We had pureed black beans, "mexican rice", and scallops with green garlic and a cilantro-lime-butter sauce.

For the black beans I threw the following in the pressure cooker: 1 cup of dried beans, half a chopped onion, 2 chopped ribs of celery, about a Tbs of cumin seeds, 2 1/2 cups water, salt, pepper, and about a Tbs of cider vinegar. About 40 minutes after sealing it up, we had finished black beans that pureed nicely with the hand blender.

For the mexican rice, I sauteed some about a Tbs of cumin seeds, 1 diced onion and three miced garlic cloves in some olive oil. Then I added a few Tbs of salsa sauteed more, added 1 cup of converted rice and sauteed a bit longer, until the rice started to toast. I added 1 3/4 cups chicken stock, covered the pot and simmerd it over low heat until the rice was done.

For the scallops I sauteed three thinly sliced stalks of green ginger in a couple Tbs of butter until they started to brown, then added half a pound of bay scallops and a bit of black pepper and ground coriander. After the scallops were basically done, I added the juice of one lime, some chopped cilantro, and a bit of sugar (to balance the lime juice).

This was a resounding success! Though it sounds like there may be some flavor clashes, the sauce from the scallops made a fantastic enrichment for the bean puree, so it all came together nicely.