This recipe for a Mexican Crumble arrived in my Inbox a few days ago and my immediate thought was that it was way to complicated and long-winded to take to RSG for my Thursday morning slot. "We have to streamline the recipe", I replied immediately.
Luckily, I have decided to change things slightly and in future all blogs featured on RSG will come and cook the recipes here in my kitchen........maybe my devious plan to oversee all recipes, mmmm!
The blog featured this week is Food-monger and it belongs to the very sassy and talented Kristy Snell. I met her briefly at the Foodblogger's Indaba earlier this year, but it was an absolute pleasure to meet her properly here in the comfort of my own kitchen and with food being our mutual passion we soon got down to some serious cooking.


Kristy Snell started her food career in London where she worked as a chef at the Bermondsey Kitchen. The following year she found herself working in the Isle of Man at the Mount Murray Hotel. After her UK two-year working visa expired, she returned to South Africa and following another passion of hers studied English, Journalism and Film at the University of Cape Town. After four years she graduated with a Honors in Film theory. After varsity she went into advertising and it was the dissatisfaction of her job that lead her to return to food. This is when she developed her food blog www.food-monger.com .


There are so many recipes for Mexican Bean casseroles, soups or stews on the Internet and even here in my kitchen Mexican food features often, but Kristie came up with this master plan to cover her bean stew in a cheese and herb crumble.  This plan of hers worked beautifully and it transformed a simple bean stew to something really moreish and delicious ......good enough to make it to a radio show!

Mexican Bean Crumble

Filling:
250g bacon, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 chopped chili
2 cloves garlic - finely chopped
fresh thyme or 1 tsp cumin for a more Mexican flavor
olive oil
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cans beans - 4-in-1 works well
salt and pepper to taste

Crumble Topping:
1 cup flour
5 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
salt / pepper
½ cup Cotija or Parmesan cheese
fresh thyme
1 tablespoon cold water

Serve with a dollop of sour cream, grated cheddar and coriander

Method:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
In a saucepan, fry bacon until slightly brown. Remove bacon and keep the oil. Add onion, pepper and thyme and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and pasta and cook for about 5 minutes. Add salt, sugar and pepper to taste and simmer for 3-5minutes. Remove from the heat.
Drain the beans. Add the beans to the tomato mixture and stir in the bacon. Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary.
In a bowl, mix the flour, butter, salt, pepper, thyme and cheese and rub the mixture until you have crumbs. It should. Sprinkle water over mixture and mix with a fork.
Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the bean mixture and cook for about 45-50 minutes or until crumb topping is golden brown. Garnish with fresh coriander, sour cream and grated cheddar.

Time is running out for the Monthly Mingle, which is hosted by yours truly here at My Easy Cooking Head Quarters. Do join in the fun and since  "Apple Affection" is the theme for this month, the possibilities are endless.