Seven Layer Trip

Come late January, we’ll occasionally perk our ears to talk of “super bowl this, super bowl that.” It has something to do with sports, that much we get (we’re not aware of any games) but more importantly, it’s become a glutinous food holiday for much of America, and that we can get behind! Now, our contribution — seven layers of beans, beer, market produce, molten dairy, spice, herbs and crunchy protein. It’s less a “dip” and more of a trip — as in LSD — and we’re still undecided as to whether it’s a good one or bad one. See, we started off calling this monstrousity “seven layers in heaven” but quickly nicknamed it “seven layers of hell” (if you make too much and are cursed with leftovers, you will understand).

Imagine Dante’s rings of hell built out of refried beer beans, chile-cheese Mornay sauce, roasted salsa, avocado-citrus salad, homemade creme fraiche, a bacony dust of pumpkin seeds and a veritable astro-turf of scallion and cilantro. Enjoy the descent!

Refried Beans
1/2 lbs. dried pinto beans
2-3 cups vegetable stock
1 Tbs. grapeseed oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 chipotle peppers in Adobo Sauce
½ cup pale ale
salt to taste

1. Make the beans the night before. Bring a large pot filled with the beans and stock to a boil (you need slightly less than double stock to bean ratio) then lower to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, or until beans are fork tender. Remove from heat and let sit.

2. In a smaller pot on high heat add the grapeseed oil, then the onion and garlic, stirring to keep from burning. Remove the chipotle peppers from their can, roughly chop and add (with sauce) to the pot. Follow with the beer, give a good stir and add cooked beans without stock (reserve for later). Cook this about 10 minutes, just enough for the beer to reduce a bit and remove from heat. Let cool while you make the cheese sauce.

Chile Cheese Sauce
3 Fresno chiles
2 Tbs. butter
2 Tbs. all-purpose flour
2 cups organic milk
8 oz. white cheddar (grated)
1 Tbs. Louisiana hot sauce
1 tsp. turmeric powder
salt to taste

3. Burn the chiles directly on your stove top until blackened, then place in a paper bag or tupperware for 5 minutes in order to sweat the skins off. Flake off all black bits and remove seeds, then slice into matchsticks and then turn to chop into a fine dice.

4. Put a heavy bottomed pot on medium heat, add butter and let cook until bubbly, then add flour and stir well. Once it starts to slightly brown, add milk, stir or whisk well and let continue to cook several minutes. Once you hit a rolling boil turn to a simmer and add grated cheddar in stages, stirring all the while. Add hot sauce, turmeric and salt to taste. Remove from heat and cool.

5. Puree the refried beans in a food processor or using a handheld mixer. Use some but not all of the beer liquid to blend, if still dry add a tablespoon at a time of stock until its creamy. Store both cheese sauce and beans in fridge for at least two hours, or overnight.

Magic Shroom Dust
1/2 lbs. oyster mushrooms
1 cup raw pepitas
2 tsp. grapeseed oil
1 tsp. smoked salt
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. maple syrup
canola spray

6. You can make magic mushroom dust the day before as well. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Tear the oyster mushrooms into long lengthwise shreds, so that each piece runs from mushroom cap to the woodier stem, and place in a mixing bowl.Toss the mushrooms with olive oil, smoked salt, black pepper, paprika and maple syrup. Spray a baking sheet with canola oil and lay mushrooms out evenly over it, spraying the mushrooms themselves as well. Cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until brown and crispy.

7. In a large skillet, toast the pepitas on medium-high heat, tossing every couple minutes to cook evenly. Salt to taste and remove from heat.

8. Cool both mushrooms and pepitas until room temperature. Combine and pulse in a food processor in several quick cycles. You want a crumb consistency but so fine as to be dust. Bigger chunks are OK.

9. Return to baking sheet, evenly distributed and sprayed with canola oil, return to oven for another 5-10 minutes or until dry. Store the cool, dry, crumbs in the fridge.

Salsa
2 medium hot house tomatoes
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
1/2 a lemon
1 tsp. olive oil

Avocado Salad
2 ripe Haas avocados
1/2 a mandarin–juiced and zested
1/2 a lemon–juiced and zested
1 Tbs. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Other Toppings
½ cup Creme Fraiche
3 green onions
1 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup parsley leaves

10. On game day: Remove your cheese sauce, refried beans and magic mushroom dust from fridge to warm enough to be easier to work with.

11. Make a simple pico de gallo, dicing tomatoes and jalapeno and mixing with a squeeze of lemon and olive oil. Season as desired. Set aside.

11. Slice avocados lengthwise and then width-wise, leaving one-inch long slices, do so delicately (don’t mash, this isn’t guac) and add to a mixing bowl with the juice and zests of your citruses, olive oil and salt and pepper.

12. Finely chop the green onion, cilantro and parsley.

13. Assemble by delicately stuffing either a shaped cutter (a cookie cutter, ring mold or a pie mold work well) with your desired amount of each layer going from beans, to cheese sauce, to salsa, to avocado salad, creme fraiche, mushroom dust, greens. Serve on a large plate with fresh tortilla chips.

Beverage: Sprecher’s Winter Brew (Wisc.) or Troeg’s Splinter Black (Penn.)
Soundtrack: Antarcticans “Escape Your Forever Thought”