50/50

I tried two recipes and they both worked out well, so my headline is a little misleading. But one was so much more tastily distinctive than the other that it's the winner.

The first one up was this recipe for "spicy" black beans and rice. I'd tried it before and didn't find it at all spicy, so this time around I doubled the spices. (Except for the onions. I left those the same.) When made that way, it is nice and spicy — for my taste, anyway. If you're not into spicy food, don't try this in your kitchen.

When combined with rice, though, that dish made for very dry eating. So I'm glad I dug up this one, which Anne also made. I used cayenne pepper instead of chili pepper and only went as hot as bell pepper in that part of the recipe, but the result was excellent — beans that went in cool and crisp and then left a nice spicy aftertaste in the back of my mouth. Highly recommended. And skip the rice.

Once You Go Black ...

Perhaps not the sexiest way to start a blog, but black beans are a dish that can cover a wide spectrum of taste from bland, mushy messes to complex splendor. Alan came up with a winner with his spicy citrusy beans (I'll let him post the link to the recipe). Black beans are such earthy little nuggets, so it's natural to think about adding cumin and onion to them, but orange juice? I never thought to add a swig of o.j. to my black beans.

By gum, it's good! I halved the recipe because I didn't want to eat beans until the spring thaw. And true, my beans did not turn out as pretty as the ones that were pictured with the recipe, but they smelled and tasted great. You get a nice, citrusy burst at first and some burn after a few seconds.

• Ease: Fairly easy; more complicated than opening cans, but if you can chop an onion, you can make this dish.
• Taste: Delicious. Orange juice lightened up and livened up the beans.
  
• Time: Longer than I'd care for, to be honest. I soaked the beans for close to 24 hours, and the cooking took more than two hours. Not something that you can just whip up.
  
• Again: Probably. It's a good dish for the winter months when you want a little reminder of sunnier tastes.

(I took pictures, but I'll have to post them later.)