Cooking journal october '25: white bean stew, flautas for the piso

I didn’t do a cooking journal in September ‘cause I didn’t feel like I cooked anything notable and I didn't feel like it.

White bean stew 

          I’ve had a really hard time getting used to eating and grocery shopping here because a lot of the things that are available in grocery stores are different than in the US. I also don’t have a food processor or blender which is limiting a lot of my recipes too. My kitchen also sucks and it’s hard for me to cook anything elaborate. Oh also it has neon green walls, floors, and cabinets, which is fun. I’ve been trying to come up with recipes that are pretty simple and don’t require a lot of steps or pots. One thing that Spanish people seem to love are canned white beans and lentils. There is a shocking amount of canned beans at all the stores. Like rows and rows. Canned beans kind of scare me. They look very unappetizing. There were only fresh beans allowed in my house growing up. 

I'd never ever eat canned black or pinto beans. But white beans seem at least acceptable. Also I needed protein and I found a lot of white bean stew recipes and I figured I shouldn't knock it until I tried it. I looked up a bunch of recipes for inspiration and then kind of just winged the rest.

I sautéed some leeks and shallots together in a pot with salt, some red chile flakes, cumin, paprika, and pepper. Once they had cooked down a little, I added a can of white beans, vegetable stock, and a little canned tomato. I let that simmer for about 25 minutes, turned off the heat, and added some baby spinach. 

I garnished with a spoonful of greek yogurt, olive oil, and parmesan cheese. I had a slice of sourdough bread from a local bakery on the side. I wish I had chili oil, that would have nice on top too. It was solidly okay! Actually, maybe it was even pretty good. I think I’m just not into canned white beans. But it did keep me fed for like 3 days so that’s cool. 

Flautas 

My roommates and I honestly don’t really hang out much with the one exception of cooking dinner together on most Sundays. We rotate who cooks each week, and you have to cook a dish from either your home country or your family’s culture. Like my roommate last week is from London, but his mom is Bulgarian, so he made us Bulgarian lamb with sweet potato fries and a feta-tomato-cucumber salad. It was so good. 

I offered to make either American breakfast with blueberry pancakes, eggs, and maybe hashbrowns, or something Mexican. The vote was for something Mexican. I think I'll either make pancakes or buttermilk biscuits next time for an American thing. There is not a lot of good or even edible Mexican food in Europe, so I felt this was an opportunity to expose them to something closer to proper Mexican cuisine. The only problem is that basically every Mexican dish I know how to make both require either a blender that I don’t have or ingredients that aren't available.

There is one exception, which is a dish I usually don’t like called tinga de pollo. It is just shredded sautéed chicken in a tomato-chipotle salsa. My brother and I hated when my mom made it growing up. But a lot of other people like it. And you don’t need a blender and can use canned chiles. There was one store near me that sold canned pureed chipotles. So it seemed like the thing to do.

I had never actually made it, I’ve just watched my mom make it. Tinga is only not nasty to me when it is paired with something crunchy. I think with a regular tortilla it’s just kind of soggy. So I wanted to either do tostadas or flautas. I was feeling extra that day and decided to fry my own flautas. Flautas are just rolled up tortillas filled with meat or potato and then pan fried in shallow oil. They’re so good, and having them homemade is usually way better than having them at most restaurants because they're best served as soon as they're cooked.  

The last time I had attempted to make these, I burnt them all to a crisp, made a huge mess in the kitchen that took an hour to clean after, and set off my fire alarm twice. So I was a little worried.

First, I boiled chicken breasts. Simple enough. Meanwhile, I preheated a large shallow pan on low heat with about a half inch layer of olive oil. Canola is probably preferable bc of its higher smoke point, but I only had olive. Btw, extra virgin olive oil is rly good and crazy cheap here. 

While I shredded the chicken, I put my roommates to work mashing avocado and chopping lettuce. Lettuce is the typical topping, but fyi I usually prefer thinly chopped cabbage. But I was working with what I had. 

I sautéed some onions in a pan, and added the shredded chicken along with cumin powder and garlic powder. I let them get to know each other for about a minute before adding the tomato pulp and chipotle paste. I let that cook for a bit and took it off the heat. 

Then came the hard part. I warmed up the tortillas on a separate pan a little to make them floppy enough to roll. Then on a plate, I filled each tortilla with some chicken, rolled it up as tight as possible into a tube, and then placed them in the pan with oil. The hard part of flautas is keeping the tortillas from unrolling on the pan. The frying process seals the tortilla shut, but if you take it off too soon or if it rolls in the pan, the meat burns and creates a whole mess and you just have to throw out the tortilla. So usually you have to keep a spoon over them to hold them down while they cook or just wedge them together very tightly. They also burn mega easily. 

It went super well! Zero issues. I made a topping station where I set out bowls of mashed avocado, lime, the chopped lettuce, yogurt thinned out with a little water which I prefer to use instead of sour cream, and feta cheese because I couldn’t find queso fresco. If I were to have at home, I usually make a raw tomatillo salsa to go along with it because it's very acidic and it cuts the grease nicely. But that is ok.

They looked super ugly but tasted really good. A common theme with Mexican food, I have to admit. Not to brag but my roommates all seemed to really like and got second and third servings. I had no leftovers. So I think it was a success!

While eating, we talked about our favorite hometown restaurants. The English one’s favorite was a Turkish restaurant, the Belgian’s was a steak frites place, and mine was my favorite Pakistani restaurant in Palo Alto. That night I realized my British roommate loves food. Which is notable because not everyone really does. Which is okay. He is pretty quiet and serious, but anytime he talks about food or cooking he absolutely lights up and can go on and on about the specific flavors of his favorite kofta or whatever.