Rubbishy Cookery

  This is a recipe that uses not one, but two (2!) types of canned fish! Ingredients: Missing from the above photo, but should usually be assumed: salt and pepper. Also missing and a last minute optional addition: Directions: You’ve probably heard that kale needs to be massaged with oil for salads in order to soften the tough leathery leaves. We’re going to be extra frugal and massage our kale (which is coming from the late fall backyard garden crop today, harvested in the dark cold rain) with the fishy olive oil with which our canned tuna is packaged.  Here is a picture of pre-massaged kale: Add that tuna olive oil: Get in there with both hands and massage! Then you’ll have nice tender oily kale: Nice! Meanwhile, in a little dish, squish up a clove of garlic and add some salt to let the garlic mellow and soften for a minute or two: Add an anchovy: Mash them up together: Add some squeezed fresh lemon juice and a few squirts of Worcestershire sauce: Mix it all up and add a good...

  When I was a young adult in the 1980s and 90s, there was a El Salvadoran gem of a restaurant in Guelph, Ontario called Latinos. It was one of my favourite restaurants of all time. I always had the same things and they never disappointed: an appetizer called Nachos Deliciosos, and a main dish called Enfrijoladas. We’ll talk about the delicious nachos appetizer another time.  Today is all about the enfrijoladas. At Latinos, the dish came with two folded corn tortillas filled with their brilliant black beans and cheese, fried on both sides, and served with sour cream, salsa, and hot sauce, with a side of their special rice pilaf and a little salad. Sadly, Latinos is gone. And after a period of despair and grief came the time to try to figure out how to move on with my life. Which meant trying to recreate their bean and cheese enfrijoladas on my own. When I searched for a recipe for enfrijoladas on the internet, I never came up with a satisfying recipe that seemed right. Most of...