Spicy Beef with Black Bean & Corn Salsa on Rice

This year has been quite busy with surgeries, Stockham Hollow business, school, and family life.  I usually have gobs and gobs of things to say about where the recipe came from and blab about certain food obsessions but this recipe honestly came from a short conversation I had with my Mister before he walked out the door to go somewhere last week.  It went sort of like this....

"It looks like it is going to rain out today.  I feel like making a roast or something." - Me

"I wonder how a beef roast would taste with cinnamon on it." - Mister

*I blink at him with a "WTF did you just say?" look on my face*

more pause

"Sure, yeah....I mean Latin cuisines use it all of the time.  Especially with smoky sorts of spices like cumin and also with chiles." - Me

"Tacos!" - Mister

*I threw a kitchen towel at him because when I don't know what to make for dinner and I make the mistake of asking him...his answer is "Tacos", every.SINGLE.time.*

"I'm not making tacos, dork.  You're going to be late." - Me

"Love you!...." - Mister

*door closes*

I got up to look out the patio door window and realized my pepper patch and roma patch were still producing SO much....it annoyed me.  Which seems horrible to say.  I feel like Stockham Hollow and all of the gardening and canning I have been able to do is such a blessing but I haven't been feeling so hot lately.  Been working on a new diagnosis of vascular EDS and EDS itself comes with a bunch of symptoms that just suck...add to it vascular instability and you have a circus for your health.  The sort of circus that is a nightmare...and everything is always broken lol

I walked out the back door to see what I had to bring in...tomatoes, red chiles, green chiles, Hot Hungarian Wax peppers, Anaheim peppers, green bell pepper, cukes, watermelon, squash...  We had peppers coming out of our ears!  Growing up it wasn't really a thing in Minnesota, but we loved salsa so my mother made it.  Most of the time she made it from store bought ingredients including HUGE cans of stewed unseasoned tomatoes from Sam's Club.  I am not a fan of primary bulk of ingredients being canned to begin with and I have never really been in love with tons of tomatoes on or in anything.  So I surveyed my harvest and decided on Black Bean & Corn Salsa and dinner was planned from there.

This recipe LOOKS long but it is a lot of seasonings in list form.  If it weren't for me liking my salsa cold when there are black beans...this whole recipe from start to table only takes about 35 minutes, even with all of the chopping for the salsa.

****Note about red chiles!!!  I used THREE seeded red chiles in my salsa.  My heat level was HOT.  I did that on purpose.  For medium, use 2 and for mild use 1.  Don't kill yourself lol ****

Spicy Beef with Black Bean & Corn Salsa on Rice
3 T. organic extra virgin olive oil
2 ears of corn, kernels removed from the cob
1 1/2 c. organic canned black beans, rinsed
1 large green bell pepper, stemmed, seeds removed, & chopped
5 small roma tomatoes, cored, seeded, and chopped
3 small red chiles
4 T. of fresh organic cilantro chopped
4 T. fresh organic lime juice
1/4 c. white onion chopped with a Pampered Chef hand chopper
4 garlic cloves minced
sea salt
fresh cracked pepper
1 drop of Young Living essential oil of Lime (optional)

I tossed the olive oil, lime juice, red chiles, cilantro, salt, pepper, lime essential oil, and garlic into my Magic Bullet mixer and just let 'er RIP.  I let it go on for a good minute...almost 2 so I could make sure the oil and juice were completely emulsified and wouldn't separate once they were poured over the vegetables to complete the salsa.

Pour the lime sauce mixture over the rinsed black beans, corn kernels, white onion, roma tomatoes, and green bell pepper in a medium sized glass bowl, preferably with a lid.  Then stir thoroughly with a spoon, put on the lid, and let it sit for at least 2 hours or until cooled through.  You don't HAVE to let it sit that long, but I like my salsa cold when there are black beans in it.  It is a texture thing lol

Spicy Beef
4 tsp. cumin
4 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper
1/4 tsp. organic evaporated cane juice or cane sugar
4 tsp. organic extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 lbs beef, cut into cubes (use your favorite cut of beef!)

Cube your favorite cut of beef and toss it all into a bowl.  Throw the seasoning and oil onto the pile and stir with a spoon or with rubber gloves on your hand...also tossing it into a ziploc and massaging it works.  When every cube of beef is nicely coated, set it aside for 30 minutes to a hour so the spices can work on the beef.

While the beef is roominating and the salsa is cooling, cook your rice.  I used basmati because my family and I love the nuttiness of it with the Indian spices we all favor and there are a lot of those same tones in Latin cuisine so basmati is a good pairing.  

Rice
4 c. organic beef stock
2 c. organic basmati rice
4 T. organic extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
fresh cracked pepper

Pour the stock and some sea salt and pepper into a large pot and bring it to a low boil and pour in the rice and olive oil.  Stir to make sure you get the oil on as much rice as possible.  Cook the rice per the package instructions for length of time and covered or uncovered as indicated.  I always cover mine, it keeps it from drying out.

When the rice is finished, flash fry the beef cubes in a large skillet using 4 T. of organic olive oil and vegetable oil or butter...so it can fry without creating smoke from the olive oil.  As soon as the outsides of the meat are browned, cover it and turn the eat off and leave it on the burner to finish.  This will make medium to medium well beef cubes.

Put about 1/4-1/2 c. of the cooked rice on your plate, then 6-8 cubes of beef and maybe a spoon of drippings on the beef, and add a healthy 1/4 c. of the black bean and corn salsa to the top of your meat.  There...you're ready to eat!

This turned out to be one of the most balanced dinners I have ever made as far as all of the parts working so well on their own but just....INCREDIBLE when you have a little of everything in one bite.  Perfect salt, perfect sweet, perfect texture on the meat, perfect fresh crunch to the peppers in the salsa, and the basmati rice was an excellent choice for this Latin spice profile.  

Everyone loved it as well....all of the children, my Mister, and I.  I wasn't expecting that at all but it certainly is fun to see the children reacting to the parts of it they loved the most.  This is a new family favorite and because I can totally control the heat of the salsa and the meat spice, this is a recipe I'd be comfortable with cooking and feeding to guests without a second thought.  Try this dish on your family or friends, I promise you won't regret it and they'll be thankful.....and stuffed!  Enjoy!