Should've trusted my instincts

I've been reading through a number of bean cookbooks, so when I got to Suzanne Caciola White's The Daily Bean, I thought there might be something odd about it. She starts with a heartwarming story about how her husband was told by a naturopath doctor to eat beans 3x/day to cure his diabetes. She spends only two pages discussing how to cook beans, before launching into sections on black, white, garbanzo, red, and lentil beans. I've never seen a bean cookbook that so actively discouraged use of dried beans over canned: the author claims there is no difference. I found the recipes either repetitive or simply "puree beans and put them in this standard recipe."

In my selfless devotion to my readers, I decided to try her Black Bean Curry recipe. It sounded reasonable enough - curry powder, onion, garlic, tomatoes, black beans - but the directions were poor. It said to put the onion, garlic, tomatoes, and green pepper in all at once, which would've resulted in overcooked vegetables.

There's the germ of a nice little bean dish in this recipe, but alas, the thing in my pot right now is not it. Maybe if I'd cooked the beans overnight in my crockpot with the curry powder... The resultant "curry" is almost inedible. I wonder if Ms. White has actually cooked beans, let alone this dish. Read More......

Cranberry Beans

Some cookbook I read had a bit where the author waxed rhapsodic over fresh cranberry beans, so when I saw them at Fairway, even though I had no idea what to do with them, I bought a pound. This recipe from Epicurious convinced me they'd be tasty with a basic vinaigrette. They were a joy to shell and it took <10mins to cook them, so even though it was a late weeknight, I still had a tasty nibble at a reasonable hour.

I have all the ingredients to follow the Epicurious recipe and I might do that with the other half. For tonight's nibble though, I tossed them with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, olive oil, and sherry. To me they taste like a cross between white beans and chickpeas; it doesn't matter much if it's healthy and fast, right? Read More......

Good thing dried is better for the environment too

An accomplished home cook of my acquaintance once chided me for using canned beans, commenting that the dried ones taste so much better. I duly got two books on the topic, The Bean Bible by Aliza Green and The Bean Harvest Book by Ashley Miller. I read the latter cover-to-cover before deciding to try making "Curried Chickpeas".

Soaking and cooking the chickpeas was mostly an issue of logistics - I had to plan for three stages of cooking. Miller said soaking more than 4 hours was a waste of time, Green said that chickpeas require at least 10 hours and sometimes as much as 24. d'oh! After 6 hours of soaking on my counter, I began to hear periodic pinging from the glass bowl; I suspect the chickpeas were splitting. I cooked them after 7 hours of soaking, and it took less than an hour.

As it was, it took me so long to get around to the food cooking stage, the stock had gelled. The recipe called for black mustard seeds and turmeric, onions garlic and ginger, potatoes and tomatoes, i.e. all the things I expect to put in Indian food. Unfortunately, the result is bland and there's so very much of it. It's also too watery, but with that much potato, I don't want to add more carbs.

Oh well, at least it's healthy? Read More......

Less Inauthentic Curry

I once bought some Trader Joe's curry-in-a-jar, thinking it would be a perfect solution for when my hunger didn't meet the local delivery minimums. It was awful: it didn't taste anything like actual Indian food and it was watery. I later made a second jar with less water, but it didn't save all that much energy - is it really that hard to chop an onion? - and still didn't taste particularly good.

I've heard many complaints about the inauthenticity of Cook's Illustrated recipes, but they're still better than curry-in-a-jar. Their lamb curry with figs and fenugreek isn't all that complicated - saute onions; add a large pile of the usual suspects at the same time as the lamb; cook until things start separating; add water, figs, and a jalapeno; simmer for 30-40mins and then eat. I know there's no such thing as "Indian curry" but it's the distilled essence of Indian food simplified for a busy cook. Ironically, it still turned out a bit more watery than I wanted, but the flavors are so much more intense. Since I already own all the spices, it's not that much more difficult than curry-in-a-jar. And it goes well with leftover matzah. Read More......

Lentil Soup At Last

I finally got my lentils, but I no longer had the original recipe, so I used Cook's Illustrated's "hearty lentil soup with fragrant spice" recipe. It was my first time cooking lentil soup, and lentils in general continue to be a mystery, so I want to get all the details down.

The recipe called for coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and cayenne, but I think the soup would've been better without the fragrant spices. The bacon and the lentils themselves already had so much flavor, it seems a waste to use good ingredients and then mask them.

If the recipe were from anywhere but C-I, I'd be complaining about quality control: the recipe said to cook until the vegetables are softened - multiple times. How soft can a carrot get?? One step also calls for cooking until the lentils darkened - except they were already dark and speckled. Actually, I would argue the lentils lightened in the cooking process. Also, the recipe calls for 0.5c wine, 4.5c chicken broth, and 1.5c water. I like my soups less watery than most, so I left out the last; the final result was almost too watery for me even still. With that amount of liquid, I'd've assumed something in the soup was supposed to absorb water, but of course the lentils did not.

Despite the above complaints, I'm content with this batch of soup. It's warm and the nuttiness of the lentils is deeply satisfying. Read More......

Southern cornbread for Yankees

For years, my friends have been trying to get me to use cast iron, but I've always found it too heavy. Then Julie gave me extremely detailed instructions on how to cook with cast iron (including the intricacies of bacon drippings) and I found an adorable little 6-1/2" skillet by Lodge. I've been making frittatas for the past few months with a small pan that fits in my toaster oven, so I figured I'd try the same with my cast iron skillet, to boost the iron content of my breakfast. However, Cook's Illustrated says that it's best to cook a few things before trying eggs in Lodge's cast iron skillets.

I have a thing for Southern food, so when I saw that Cook's Illustrated provides recipes for "northern" and "southern" cornbread, I had to try making the latter, just to check what I've been eating all these years - I didn't think the cornbread at Dallas BBQ was that sweet.

The recipe calls for heating oil (or preferably bacon drippings) in the skillet while mixing the rest of the ingredients. I tried it in the toaster oven, but before I'd finished mixing even the dry ingredients, I noticed popping and hissing from the toaster. I frantically turned off the power, and ran around opening windows and exhausts - and moved the skillet to the oven. It went without a hitch there, although I was nervous that I'd overfilled the pan.

Turns out I have been eating northern cornbread all these years. The first bite tasted terrible, because I wasn't expecting a dry polenta. Once I got used to it though, I could see eating it with barbecue chicken or maybe as the crust of a chicken pot pie. Not having any of those in the house, I had it with a slice of smoked cheddar. I'll definitely be making more of this. Read More......

The Problem with Lentils

When you're a hapless cook, cellphone coverage is very important. I had a recipe for sopa de lentejas that I wanted to try, and I duly noted that it required lentils, a carrot, and salt pork/slab bacon. Fairway has horrible cellphone coverage though, so I couldn't call my mother to ask whether it ought to be red lentils or French lentils. I still had red lentils at home from the last time I'd cooked with lentils, so clearly that must be what I'd use this time. WRONG! Apparently the difference is that last time, I made mujaddara, which requires the lentils to dissolve, which I don't think is the right texture for soup :(

Fortunately, I discovered this by flipping through America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook: along with the bad news, it provided a recipe for "Indian-spiced red lentils". I know many bloggers complain their ethnic recipes are inauthentic, but sometimes that isn't the point. I had the requisite coconut milk and garam masala and substituted ground ginger for grated.

I wish it was still the pale red of red lentils - it's a brownish mush after 20mins of simmering - or that I'd had a nice tomato for garnish, instead of a weeks old thing from the back of my fridge. Nonetheless it tastes far better than it looks, a bit of warmth and filling for a cold winter's morning. Read More......

My New Favorite Snack

I've discovered the greatest snack ever. Padma Lakshmi, in her Easy Exotic, calls it "Chickpeas and Spinach Tapas." I call it healthy yum.

Nuke a 10oz package of chopped frozen spinach. While it's cooking, dice a red bell pepper and rinse a 19oz can of chickpeas. In a large bowl, mix all of the above with 1tbsp fresh chives, the juice of 1-2 lemons, 1/4c to 1/3c olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Food!

What I love best is that it's so healthy! Lots of vitamin A, a disproportionate amount of calcium and iron, fiber and protein. I could eat this all day long and not think twice about it and keeping the ingredients on hand is so easy.

I love that, with the exception of the fresh chives, it's a pantry dish. When I made it last week, I didn't have chives, so I substituted dill. The lemon juice and olive oil are essentially a salad dressing, but without any of that whisking nonsense. I used 1/4c of olive oil, but that turned out to be slightly too much of a good thing; I'll try freehanding it next time, now that I know it's a dressing. Read More......