Archives for January 2008
More liquid love…black bean soup
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but it’s been pretty damn cold here in Wisconsin. Top it off with a day of moderate snowfall and you’ve got an extreme Monday…it seemed to go on forever. Since I was out and about this afternoon I stopped by La Mestiza, a great little Mexican joint, and picked up some pork tamales to have for dinner. I’ve never tried to make tamales…they seem related to the dumpling family, don’t they? What with being a flavorful meat surrounded by masa and then wrapped in a corn husk…. I’m wary of dumplings, as you may remember, so I think I’ll continue to let the trained professionals fulfill this need.
But remember, it’s cold here…today our high was 9…that’s it, 9. Right now it’s 8, feels like 1. Woohoo folks this is warmer than yesterday!!! Yes, I’m aware how sad that is. But I digress…last week I posted that scrumptious buttermilk soup…and it was sooooo good, especially with those little pillowy oyster crackers and lots of black pepper. It was more like a tangy vegetable chowder and I loved it. But we were all talking about soup and I think it was dear reader JEP who mentioned black bean soup. Well, that was it…I couldn’t get black bean soup out of my mind.
So I came home today and before I did anything else, before I got out of my work clothes and into my blue jeans, before I booted up lappy or checked to see if my new camera had arrived, before laundry, even before I warmed up my poor, cold feet…I made black bean soup. Prep time is maybe 5-10 minutes, and then it cooks, and bubbles, and simmers for a couple of hours…then 2/3 of it gets pureed in the blender with 4 cloves of garlic, it gets one last seasoning dose, and it’s soup time baby!!! I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when the boys didn’t like it…more for me!!! Notice the dollop of yogurt gracing the soup…I love how that creamy coolness sidles into a bite of the spicy hot soup…it’s superb and a satisfying accompaniment to a porky tamale…a great dinner, no muss, no fuss, and I even had time to make Bakers Chocolate One-bowl Brownies…my favorite. Lucky you…you get the recipe.
Black Bean Soup
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1 large onion, peeled and diced
2 to 3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon smoked Spanish paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
salt
1 pound bag of black beans, rinsed and picked over
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
cheats: 1 tablespoon chicken boullion, generous dash of Maggi Seasoning, lime juice
Put a heavy pot on a medium flame, toss the onions in with some olive oil and saute them for 3 minutes or so. Add some salt, the chili powder, paprika, and the cumin. Stir it about and let it heat up for a few minutes. Add the beans and add enough water to cover the beans. Put a lid on the pot and let it come to a boil.
Turn the flame down until you have a medium simmer. Cook like this, with the lid on the pot, for 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours. Occasionally stir it. After the time elapses taste the beans for seasoning and to see if the beans are tender. If they’re not turn the heat back up to a boil and cook them for 10 minutes or so like that. Make sure you have enough liquid with the beans.
Once they are tender transfer 2/3 of the beans to a blender and puree them with 4 whole cloves of garlic. Pour this puree back into the pot, taste for seasoning and add some of the cheats if necessary to boost the flavor.
Serve with a dollop of yogurt.
More tongue
Check out my post over at Accidental Hedonist, it’s about beef tongue. That sandwich is a classic combination of beef and cheese. As I researched beef tongue I discovered that it’s used in cuisines all over the world, including asian cuisine. This sandwich wrap was supposed to be a riff on the classic Thai Vietnamese (duh!) sandwich, Banh Mi. But I was wretchedly lazy…too lazy to pickle the carrots, shred the daikon, or even go down to the freezer for a baguette. In the end it was just meh. I’m not a wrap person and about once a year I give it a try and I’m never impressed…they lack texture…there’s no crunch, no chewy bread. Its like a pitiful, tough, burrito. But then I was too lazy to make a good sandwich so I have no one to blame but myself.
The good thing about the wrap was that it was part of my nose-to-tail eating experience, it was not our typical fare, and it is always good to be an adventurous eater. As a girl I went to the sale barn with my grandfather a few times and they had a lunch counter that served calf brain sandwiches, tongue sandwiches, and the the like. My reaction then, typical for a child, was “you’re gonna eat that? Eewwww!”. Now I’d be happy to dig in, eager to give the offal a try. I admit I’m not planning on eating tongue often, it is heavily marbled with fat, especially near the end that connects to the head. But the tip is very lean, the flavor is beefy, the texture is different but not bad.It was really easy to prepare and I liked it, so did GH. Another plus…I can chase the boys around the house with it and make them scream like girly-girls!!!! Ha Ha!
Leena over at Leena Eats is getting her Masters in Gastronomy at the University of Adelaide in South Australia, she’s from Chicago…so obviously she knows good food. I love Leena because she has a deeply special relationship with bacon and a cool blog. As part of her masters work Leena is conducting a survey that explores how consumers use U.S. print food journalism and food blogs, and briefly touches on a few ethical issues in the world of food blogs. Please note this survey is only for people who live in the U.S. and is open until January 28th. Take a few minutes to help out a fellow foodie by completing her survey.
Here at the geek house we’ve switched out all our incandescent light bulbs with curly compact fluorescent bulbs. I even swapped out my incandescent spots in the kitchen and replaced them with CFL spots that are supposed to provide a natural light. I’m also trying to hunt down a new camera since my Kodak v530 is held together with duct tape and is pretty unreliable lately (flakey battery and flakey processor). All this change makes me cranky.
Buttermilk veggie soup
January is such a long month. Snow is constantly falling from the sky, it’s cold and crunchy outside, and hot, dry, and stuffy, inside, and I have a slight case of the sniffles…nothing big, but really, I’m sure I’ll feel much better if I just sleep through the rest of the month. I’ve been serving the men Chicago-style Italian beef sandwiches in honor of GH’s birthday but I’ve been eating soup or falafel. Yes, I still have at least one falafel a week and frankly I may have another tomorrow.
This soup is creamy and lush with a fresh grating of nutmeg on top. But instead of using cream or 1/2 & 1/2 I went zippy and used buttermilk and it is perfect. No annoying perclampsia in the back of the throat from too much cream (you know what I mean, right?) and a light, tart, zing that lifts it above the ho-hums of a cold January. The green vegetables came from the hoarding I did over the summer. The green beans, celery, and zucchini did freeze up fabulously without any blanching and cooked up superbly. The carrots and potatoes are just about the last of the fresh local produce, but they too add their part. There’s also a carton of chicken stock, an onion, and some Penzeys Parisien Bonnes Herbes (a blend of chives, dill weed, French basil, French tarragon, chervil and white pepper). Quick and easy couldn’t be more welcome right now…that way it doesn’t interfere with serious activities…like sleep.
What do you crave during this cold, long, dark month?
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