Black Bean Quesadilla

Black Bean Quesadillas ~ Vegetarian

The mushrooms and black beans give these quesadillas a “meaty” heartiness while still keeping them vegetarian. They’re so easy to whip up and come together in no time, making them perfect for that weeknight when you don’t really feel like spending too much time in the kitchen. The avocado crema pairs perfectly with the quesadillas and can be made the morning of. Just make sure to wrap it well in plastic wrap so that it doesn’t turn brown.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves

1 medium avocado, pitted
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons everyday olive oil
1 pound sliced cremini or button mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 can (15-ounce) black beans, drained and rinsed
4 burrito-size flour tortilla
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Directions:
In a food processor or blender, combine the sour cream, cilantro, avocado, lime zest and juice and season with salt and pepper. Process until smooth then taste and adjust seasoning accordingly. Transfer the avocado crema to a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and chill until ready to use.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it begins to shimmer. Add the mushrooms, garlic and onions, and cook, stirring often, until just beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in the beans, season with salt and pepper and cook until warmed through, about 1 minute. Transfer the vegetables to a bowl and keep warm. Wipe the skillet clean with paper towels.

Return the skillet to medium-low heat. Place one tortilla on the dry skillet and cook for about 20 seconds per side to make it pliable. Sprinkle ¼ cup cheese onto one half of the tortilla. Top with about one-quarter of the mushroom-bean mixture and then sprinkle with another ¼ cup of cheese.

Fold the tortilla over to create a half-moon and cook the quesadilla until the cheese is melted through and the tortilla is golden brown and crisp on both sides, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Transfer the quesadilla to a cutting board, tent with foil to keep warm, and repeat with the remaining tortillas, cheese and mushroom-bean mixture to make three more quesadillas.

Slice each quesadilla into quarters and transfer to a serving plate. Serve with the avocado crema on the side.

Baked Potatoes Three Ways

Baked Potatoes Three Ways

Baked Potatoes

By Sam Sifton

Twice-Baked Potatoes With Cauliflower and Cheese

By Sam Sifton

Baked Potatoes With Crab, Jalapeño and Mint

By Sam Sifton

The nights are coming faster now, and dead leaves rustle across grass and sidewalk. “Look at that moon,” Thornton Wilder wrote in “Our Town.” “Potato weather, for sure.”

Baked-potato weather, for sure. Slide a rack of russets into a hot oven for 45 minutes while you sort mail or pay bills, check email or help someone with homework. Set up a fixings bar of butter and bacon and Cheddar, chives and sour cream. The reward is one of the great, undervalued actors in all dinner theater: Mr. Split-Top himself, dressed in finery.

A recipe for basic baked potatoes follows. The key instructions are to pierce the jackets of the potatoes in a number of places to allow them to exhale steam as they cook; to lightly grease their exteriors with oil, so that they crisp; and to salt them a little, just because.

Be patient as they cook, and feel absolutely no pressure to accompany them with anything but toppings. If bacon and Cheddar do not appeal, you can try a combination of thyme, chervil and chives. The hedge-fund set may prefer a heaping tablespoon of caviar.

Dressed to your tastes, a baked potato makes a nice accompaniment to a slice of prime rib or a steak, even a roasted chicken. It is also quite nice served with a tart salad.

But a baked potato can be a meal too. This is particularly the case when you start making additions to the starch — cauliflower and cheese in the case of the second recipe, and crab meat, jalapeño and mint (cheese, too!) in the case of the third.

For the cauliflower version, abide by the teachings of the great British home cook and writer Nigel Slater, and cook the florets in milk scented with bay leaves as you bake the tubers. You’ll be rewarded with a sweet pairing for the starchy potato flesh, beautifully countered by the salty nuttiness of Parmesan at the end. For the crab, be very gentle with the meat, tossing it lightly with lemon, mint and jalapeño. The idea is to have a topping to the mashed potatoes that is pillowlike in its delicacy.

These potatoes are sometimes called twice-baked. That is a misnomer, but still an excellent name. They’re baked, then disassembled, then heated through with a cheese hat that melts across their surface. The amount of time added to the overall process is neither negligible nor problematic. The result is a simple, elegant one-plate dinner, an old-school pleasure best consumed with friends.

Be patient as they cook, and feel absolutely no pressure to accompany them with anything but toppings. If bacon and Cheddar do not appeal, you can try a combination of thyme, chervil and chives,