Spicy Black Bean Cakes

As this is my first post and recipe, I felt it necessary to make something with cilantro.  Though let it be noted that while I love cilantro and the blog is titled after it, not everything I make will have cilantro in it.  So for the very few people out there that do not enjoy cilantro...don't worry you are not out of luck.  I came across this recipe while working up on the hill at OHSU library and of course instead of doing my library school homework I was looking into my other passion FOOD which leads to food blogs.  I thought this would be an awesome side dish to try and you could even make bigger cakes and have something similar to the ever so popular black bean burgers around these days.  A vegetarian's dream...or so I would think, also a nice recipe to have around because I do in fact have quite of few of those herbivores in my life and I love to cook for them as well.  As a child, I might add, I insisted that I was a carnivore so spicy black beans cakes would have never made it into my mouth...good thing people change haha.   I also want to mention that while I am new to this formatting stuff my recipes are not categorized by color yet...but just you wait I will conquer the HTML world proving that I am learning something in library school hehe
I made the green bean and radish salad along with these cakes and it was very good.  Sad to say I made the shrimp with these other two items as well. While the shrimp was good it did not go well with the cakes, so don't make the same mistake I did. Shrimp + cakes = blarg!



Adapted from serious eats.
Serves 2-3 as a side dish. Note: they look better than this picture.

Ingredients:
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 green onions (whole), sliced thinly
1/4 yellow onion, chopped finely
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped finely
1/4 cup cilantro
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped finely
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 small egg
1 tablespoon sriracha sauce (asian hot sauce)
1 tablespoon cornmeal (it is ok to be generous in order to make the mix thicken)
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salsa optional

The Process:
1. Put the black beans in a large bowl and coarsely mash them, a wooden spoon works great.  Then add the green onions, yellow onion, bell pepper, cilantro, jalapeno, garlic, and cumin.  Mix this up well and then add salt and pepper to taste.

2.  Beat the egg with a fork and add to mixture. Add the cornmeal and mix well.

3. Take out two clean plates.  Put a thin layer of cornmeal on one plate.  Take about 2 tablespoons worth of the mix in hand and roll it into a ball on the plate with cornmeal, then set the ball aside on the other clean plate and slightly flatten with palm of hand to create a cake shape. Repeat this process with the rest of the mixture. Makes about 10 cakes.

4.  Pour oil into a large skillet and set over medium heat.  Add as many of the cakes as can comfortably fit in one layer.  Cook for about 6 minutes a side.  Be careful flipping the cakes because they are delicate and can fall apart easily.  Put cakes on a plate with a paper towel to help soak up excess oil.

5. You can serve with salsa, avocados, pico de gallo, or anything your heart desires.

Picture from: http://www.limsakdakul.com/black_kidney_bean.html