Law Students

football snacks

My best friend’s mom (and my best friend, for that matter) make this excellent dip called prairie fire, and I gave it a whirl tonight for the Super Bowl.

Their recipe calls for using New Orleans style red beans, because they’re from Louisiana. I, however, am from Texas, so I used refried pinto beans. Their recipe also called for provolone, but I thought cheddar would go better with my beans, so I used cheddar.

This is basically homemade bean dip with better flavor and texture. It’s addictive.

Also, this recipe is enough for two people. For a crowd, double or quadruple it. (In fact, I quartered my best friend’s recipe. This isn’t the kind of recipe that you can really screw up by being off a little bit on the measurements.)

1 cup refried beans from a can
1/2 stick butter
about 2 tablespoons sliced jalapeños from a jar
about 2 teaspoons jalapeño juice from the jar
about 1 tablespoon very finely minced onion
1 glove of garlic, pressed
about 1/2 cup shredded cheddar, or more to taste

There are two ways to do this. The first way is to toss everything in the food processor or blender first, and then heat it to melt the butter and cheese. I think there’s an easier way, but it requires a handheld or stick blender, which I have. Throw everything in a medium saucepan and cook over low heat till everything is melted. Then take your stick blender to it to break up the jalapeños (and onions, though they should be minced fine enough that the blending won’t do a lot). You could probably not blend it at all, but it’s better if every bite has a little bit of pepper instead of some bites having huge chunks of pepper. But it’s really all about preference.

Prairie fire is great served hot, but it’s pretty darn good when it’s cooled off a bit, too. I served this with another handful of shredded cheddar on top of it, and we liked that, too, since we got a little bit of cheese with every bite.

Full post as published by Divine Angst on February 01, 2009 (boomark / email).