Receta Paseo Black Beans...
My sister called me in the middle of the night a while back and told me to turn on my TV...Food Network was doing a show on a little shanty of a place called Paseo in the Fremont area of Seattle...well, given my mental acuity late at night I tried in vain to find the show...THEN the hour time difference dawned on me...my sister got a great laugh out of that - and she also got a hankering for some Cuban food which gnawed at her like a dog with a bone until she flew into town last week and insisted our first stop be Paseo.
Paseo has been a favorite of ours for a couple of years now - ever since the Fashionista discovered it by following her nose and I've made many attempts to duplicate their sandwiches over the years - coming pretty close but not yet nailing it. We must drive over the bridge once a month just for one of their Cuban sandwiches...which taste better than you can imagine when eaten on the beach at Shilshole. And that's where I took my sister...first braving the Kiddy Parade in Wallingford and the Salmon Parade (click on picture above to enlarge) in Ballard...it's the start of Seafair (the big summer festival that culminates with the Blue Angels and hydro-plane races) so every little community will be having parades and street fairs each week, snarling traffic, until it's over. Mind you, I'm not complaining...I love parades! (I missed the naked Solstice parade again this year - can you even imagine how funny that must be?!?) Traffic was terrible but once we got to the beach we parked ourselves in the shade, ate our delicious sandwiches, with sides of Black Beans, and had ourselves a great time people watching.
Before heading back across the pond we stopped at Trophy Cupcakes, it's a mandatory stop if driving through Wallingford. My sister walked next door to a hair salon and decided to get her hair cut just like that. While I waited for her I stood in front of the window watching the street fair below...then noticed a couple of old "hippies," for lack of a better word, who caught my eye - two rather large men dancing in the street...as I snapped away another man walks over, reaches into his pocket, looks around and acting very suspiciously, pulls out thin, white, cigarette looking things...money is exchanged and the dancing hippies danced off into the crowd. So I witnessed my first drug deal! The last pic above right is of the Space Needle from our car on I-5...notice there is not ONE cloud in the sky - it was a beautiful day - a rare treat in the Northwest!
Paseo Black Beans are runny, liquidy, like a soup with the most amazing flavor. In fact, calling them Black Beans is misleading because there is no way you can eat them with a fork! If you have to use a spoon then it's soup! Now, my sister's only talent (she may have others but I've yet to see them) is to be able to decipher ingredients in dishes...so I put her enviable skill to the test and she told me Paseo Black Beans definitely have the following ingredients: cumin, bay leaf, salt, pepper, pimientos, onions, tomatoes, garlic, butter and the coop-de-group...Rosie's Sweetened Lime Juice! Watching her taste and do her magic is like watching an old computer whirl and whiz until it finally spits out a tiny piece of paper with the results! So this is my version (along with my savant sister's help) of Paseo's Black Beans. My beans are a bit thicker, but the flavors are there...cumin, lime, garlic...if you're a fan of the real thing, I think you'll like these. (You'll notice two different pots of beans in the pics shown, that's because I've made these beans TWICE in the last two days...practice makes perfect! One other note, I would guess Paseo starts with dry beans, soaking them overnight in spiced water, but I have neither the time nor inclination to do that, so I used canned beans.)
Paseo Black Beans/Soup - Pots and Pins
- 3 cans (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can (14.5 oz. diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large white onion, diced
- 1 jar (4 oz.) diced pimientos, undrained
- 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons cumin
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup Rosie's Sweetened Lime Juice (available in the drink section of the grocery store)
- 1 can (14.5 oz.) vegetable broth
In a Dutch oven over medium high-heat, saute onions in butter until tender and slightly carmelized, about 8 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in pimiento and garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in cumin, bay leaves, pepper, salt and lime juice, mixing well to combine. Stir in 2 cans beans and tomatoes and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover with a lid and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove bay leaves and discard. Using an immersion blender (or use a regular blender by transferring small batches at a time) blend beans until smooth. Stir in last can of beans, increase heat to medium-high and cook for one minute or until heated through. Serves 6.