Breakfast Burrito Sauce

Some successful dishes are based on reading a recipe, being inspired by an idea you wouldn't have thought of, and perhaps having a new experience. Alternatively, others are based on a random flash of a thought that illuminates a hole in your food world and makes you crave an inexplicable food experience, or even emotion, and trying to create a recipe to fill that void.

This recipe is in the later category, as a couple of weeks ago I became obsessed with the idea of making a sweet but also spicy breakfast burrito sauce. I was thinking of making a homemade breakfast burrito sauce, and all of a sudden had a very specific image come to mind of a sauce that would combine different elements from a breakfast plate (picture maple syrup mingling with the huevos racheros). I ended up starting with a smokey tomate-chipotle sauce, and adding in maple syrup, cinnamon, and fruit preserves to try achieve this savory-sweet goal.

This recipe included an ingredient that I've been curious about, but haven't used before, canned chiles chipotles en adobo. They're basically a very smokey-tasking canned chile. The flavor is definitely kind of strong, so I would use them sparingly, but I liked the flavor.

I was really happy with how this sauce turned out; this is mostly a spicy sauce, but the sweet and fruity flavors come through, making it a more complex addition than the typical sauce to whatever you put it on. Honestly, I envisioned this as a breakfast burrito sauce, but I mostly ate it with fried eggs and cheese on toast. And it was pretty amazing, especially after sitting for a few days. I think pretty much how I pictured.

Breakfast Burrito Sauce

Adapted from Rick Bayless's Essential Quick-Cooked Tomato-Chipotle Sauce

Makes about 2 cups

3 canned chiles chipotles en adobo

4-5 garlic cloves

1 1/2 lbs (4-5 medium) tomatoes 

1/2 t salt

1 T olive oil

2 T apricot preserves

1 T maple syrup

1/4 t ground cinnamon

1. On a heavy, ungreased skillet over medium heat, roast the unpeeled garlic, turning occasionally, until blackened in spots and soft, about 15 minutes. Cool, slip off the papery skins, and roughly chop. 

2. Lay the tomatoes on a baking sheet and place about 4 inches below the top of the oven with the stove set to the broiler mode. When they blister, blacken and soften on one side, about 6 minutes, turn them over and roast on the other side. Cool, then peel, collecting all the juices with the tomatoes. 

3. Scrape the tomatoes and their juices into a food processor and add the canned chiles and garlic. Pulse the food processor until the mixture is nearly a puree. 

4. Heat the oil in a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat. When hot enough to make a drop of the puree sizzle, add the mixture from the food processor, as well as the apricot preserves, maple syrup, and cinnamon, and stir for 5 minutes as it sears and concentrates to an earthy, thickish sauce. Lastly, add the salt. 

Keeps for at least a week in the refrigerator.

Black Bean Pumpkin Soup

It's been really cold in DC the last couple of days, and so I had a craving to make a huge pot of soup. This soup turned out really well - it's comforting and filling, and the addition of the feta adds a very crucial salty component. I also thought that this recipe was interesting because it's a recipe with pumpkin, but that doesn't have the typical spices that usually go with it, like cinnamon or nutmeg.

(By the way, I'm going to take a break from monthly theme idea that I've been doing so far this year. I have a little writer's block with idea, and also, it's fall, one the best food times of the year, so there is no shortage of recipes to try.)

And a reminder from a prior post (the most blog's most viewed/found from Google post!): the more bean recipes you like, the better, since beans are such an efficient source of energy compared to meat.  

Note: I ended up roasting pie pumpkins instead of using canned pumpkin as the recipe says. I roasted two pie pumpkins (different than carving pumpkins) by the following method: cut pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds; either leave pumpkin cut in half, or cut in smaller pieces to decrease baking time, and lay pumpkin pieces in a large baking dish along with 1/4 inch of water; bake at 350 F for 45-60 minutes, until tender (check with a fork as baking time will depend on pumpkin size). I pureed the cooked pumpkin in a food processor. 

Black Bean Pumpkin Soup
from Gourmet

Makes about 9 cups

Three 15 1/2 ounce cans black beans (about 4 1/2 cups), rinsed and drained
1 cup drained canned tomatoes, chopped
1 1/4 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup minced shallot
4 garlic cloves minced
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 T olive oil
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
2 16-ounce cans pumpkin puree (or about 3 cups of roasted pureed pumpkin)
3 to 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Garnish: crumbled feta cheese

1. Coarsely puree beans and tomatoes in a food processor.
2. In a large soup kettle, saute the onion, shallot, garlic, cumin, salt, and pepper in the olive oil over moderate heat. Stir until the onion is softened and beginning to brown. Stir in bean and tomato puree. Then stir in broth and pumpkin, and simmer for about 25 minutes, until think enough to coat the back of a spoon.
3. Stir in vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with feta cheese.