Bean there done that!

In this season of New Year's resolutions I have decided to give myself a goal that is both healthy, interesting and fun: make some type of beans every week for the year 2012. This will be 52 new kinds of beans/bean dishes. I'm embracing the entire legume family and intend to try lentils, dried beans, canned beans, green beans, you name it! Now I imagine I"ll end up repeating a few things I already have in my repertoire, but one has to start somewhere. I'm naming my goal

BEAN THERE DONE THAT

yea, you can groan now. At any rate, my food blog kind of died with the bee blog start up but I have decided to resurrect it for this project. Bean number 1 is on the stove right now, here's preview:

Name: Fava Beans
source: Whole Foods bulk bin (dried)
cost: $2.69/lb
cooking method: standard soak and boil
final dish: Egyptian style with olive oil, lemon and parsley on top.

When they're done I'll give them a full rating.

Palek Paneer

I often try to make Indian food, but it somehow never quite lives up to a restaurant. This version however is the best yet, and cause for resurrecting the food blog (now that the bee blog has gone into hibernation for the winter). Palek means spinach and Paneer is an Indian cheese so this dish is just curried spinach with cheese.

Begin with the main dish by placing a frying pan over medium high heat and adding

2tbs butter
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped fine
1 pepper chopped fine(I used a whole poblano, but adjust to your level of heat)

Sauté until the onion is translucent and then add

4 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbs fresh ginger minced (about a 2 in peice)
2 tsp ground cumin (or cumin seeds according to the Internet, but I didn't have any)
2 tsp Garahm Marsala powder ( no good substitute, and really worth buying)
1/2 tsp chili powder or to taste
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground coriander ( or some fresh cilantro, which is the same plant)

Mix the spices well and cook until the onions begin to caramelize. Then add

2-3 Tbs tomato paste

Slowly add about 1 cup water stirring constantly to get the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan. Then add

1 16oz pkg frozen chopped spinach

Add water until is seems liquid enough and put in a crockpot while you go to spin class and make the cheese. ( or whatever it is you need to do)

PANEER
(or is it Panir? What's a Sanskrit mis-translation between friends?) is an Indian cheese. I'm sure it is available in your major metropolitan south Asian grocery store. If you have some good sense or a lack of time go swing by there and pick some up. If you have no sense, plenty of time, and only the Yarmouth, ME grocery store to work with I'd suggest following the quick and easy directions for making the "simple little cheese" in the November cheese newslestter http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/pg/446-Cheese-News-2011-November.html

Ok, you can stop laughing at me for suggesting you make your own cheese now, I'm serious, go! All you need is

1 gallon whole Milk
3 Tbs salt

Add the salt to the milk and heat the whole she-bang to 190F. Either stir periodically or be ready to scrub the bottom of the pot. Then add

1 cup white vinegar

Mix it well and let it sit for 20-30 min. Then pour it through a cheesecloth lined strainer and let it drip.

If you really don't like this whole cheese idea I'd say whole milk ricotta is about the closest thing you'll find, but humor me and try making the cheese.

******** meanwhile back at the main dish************
After it has been in the crockpot a while and is all soft you'll need to blend it. Bask in your awesomeness If you have an imersion blender, otherwise try not to get green flecks everywhere. You MUST blend this. Trust me I tried just letting it cook for forever in the past and it is not the same. after blending, because I felt I had a lot of liquid and wanted some more protein I added

2 15oz cans chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) - this is optional, see how you feel

Add the Paneer last in chunks and you're ready to serve. The Internet seems to imply that if you buy Paneer it has a consistency of firm tofu and can be cut into chunks and fried. The homemade stuff was not that stiff and frying made a big burned mess, so I would just add it in large chunks. It tastes great even though it breaks up into tiny bits.

NAAN
Naan is actually well worth making if you have a pizza stone. It really doesn't work otherwise, so try substituting some flat bread from the store if you must. Tis makes a larger batch and is based on the bread-in-5-min-a-day recipie

3 cups whey (you know, that pale liquid you drained off your cheese? The one you dumped in the sink already? Oops! Use water instead)
5-6 cups flour
1 tbs yeast
1 Tbs salt

Mix it all up in a Tupperware and you're ready to go. Dough stores in fridge for up to 10 days. When you're ready to bake, take a hunk of dough, roll it out into a circle-ish and put it on the pizza stone in your preheated 425 degree oven. Bake about 6-8 min flipping in the middle.

Whew? I'm tired just typing this. Happy cooking!

Banana oatmeal almond muffins

I know, it's been forever. I've taken photos of a few things, but then keep not writing them down. The batter was good so I'm writing this down while it's fresh in my head

2 overripe bananas, mashed
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
3-4 tbs oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup dark brown sugar

Approx 2/3 cup leftover cooked steel cut oats

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 rsp baking spice or cinnamon

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1 preheat to 350
2. Mash the banaas , then add the egg, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and beat well. Add the oatmeal
3. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients until combined.
4. Add dry to wet and mix well. Add almonds
5. Spoon into muffin tins, I got about 15 normal sized muffins
6 bake 18 min or until just browned.

Cream of bean and green

I made a new kind of soup tonight. I'm calling it cream of bean with green. Soup is a pretty casual recipe type thing so feel free to approximate from here

BASE
Grease- I used bacon but try butter or olive oil if you want
1 onion chopped
2 cups cooked white beans ( about 1 can)
4 cups chicken Roth(or powder and water as specified on the jar)

GREEN
Frozen broccoli florets
Spinch, fresh frozen or otherwise
Canned artichokes

FINISHER
Cheese- I used Parmesan but cheddar would be good too
Wite wine?

Sauté the onions in the grease until soft. Add the beans and the broth and cook until soft. Puree the whole mixture using an impersion blender of by puttin gbachs into a normal blender or food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste and allow to simmer about 20 min to thicken

Add the green stuff, chopped into bit sized prices and simmer over. Medium heat kaput 10 mkinute to allow the flavors to blend

Finish with around 1/2 cup of cheese, and mix unti thoroughly melted. A dash of white wine would be a nice addition as well but I only had Red so instead I drank the wine.

Chocolate buttermilk cupcakes with coffee frosting

Absolutely delicious!


1. Whip up a batch of The Pioneer Woman's Chocolate buttermilk sheet cake. But put it in 24 cupcake tins instead.

2. Bake at 350 for 18 min

Coffee Frosting
1 stick butter
~3 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp instant coffee
2 tbs half and half (or milk)

1.Cream the butter.
2. Mix the instant coffee, vanilla, and part of the half and half in a small bowl until all the coffee is dissolved.
3. Add half the sugar and beat well. The add the coffee mixture and beat some more
4. add half and half to acheive a nice spreadable consistency. Don't be afraid to keep beating, it will only get fluffier.
5. This is the hard part. Wait until the cupcakes are cool. They need to be below 88F or the butter will melt and you'll get a gooey mess. (Gooey messes still taste good, but don't look good)

Frost and enjoy- I added a few mini chocolate chips for show.

Falafel

I needed a vegetarian dish the other day and Rob said "why don't you make falafel". I'd only ever made it with a mix, but it turns out to be super easy.

For the Falafel:
1 can garbonzo beans, drained
1/2 an onion, chopped fine
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1 tsp baking powder
6-8 Tbs flour
splash of lemon juice
oil for frying

1. Drain the beans and puree in a food processor until coarsely chopped - don't over do it! Add the spices and the onion and pulse a few more times.

2. Turn into a bowl and fold in the baking powder and flour. Refrigerate for 30 min.



Chop up toppings - pictured here:
cilantro
tomatoes
cucumber
baba ganoush
jalepanos
mushrooms sauted in better ( I mean butter)



3. Form the falafels into patties and pan fry, 5min per side until crunchy and done. Or place on a greased cookies sheet at 400 for 20 min, flipping part way through.
4. To assemble place a falafel patty in a fresh-baked pita (what do you mean you don't have any? Just take the 5-min a day bread and roll out a egg sized lump into a circle. Bake on a baking stone at 435 for 5 min/side until puffed)

Enjoy! They are good leftover as well.

Maida's Marvelous Beans

Maida won my informal facebook contest of what to do with the white beans I had soaking and I loved the result so much I wanted to share. I had to add a bit of garaham marsala and chili powder to her original idea for that sweet kick.

Maida's beans.

1 cup dry white beans
1 large onion
2 tsp cumin
1 Tbs fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garahm marsala
1 15oz can diced tomatoes
1 box frozen spinach

1. Cook the beans, soak overnight and put in the slow cooker for 8 hours.



2. saute the onion in some oil over low heat until soft. Add the garlic and saute another minute



3. Add beans, cumin, ginger, chili powder and tomatoes and cook over low heat for about 15min until well blended.



4. thaw the spinach and squeeze as much water out as possible, then add it to the bean mixture.



5. Serve over rice (Maida says) or if you have an extra 10lbs of potatoes and no rice as I did, dice the potatoes and bake on a lightly oiled sheet at 400 for 30minutes or until crisp, turning occasionally.

Chicken Pot Pie

It's winter so I needed some comfort food. Preferably comfort food that used up some of the chicken. Recipe is mostly based on The New Best Recipe Cookbook


1-1.5lbs cooked roast chicken (say the one you made like this)
3 carrots, diced
1 large onion diced
2 tsp thyme
pepper
salt
5 mushrooms
1 tsp tomato paste or powder
1/4 cup cheap white wine
2 tbs butter
1.5 cups chicken broth
1.5 cups milk
2 tbs flour
1.5 cups frozen peas
1 batch of buttermilk biscut dough OR 1 batch pie dough OR be lazy/healthy and skip the crust

First, preheat the oven to 400F the Make biscuit dough (or heck, take it from one of those tubes, whatever you like)
1. In a dutch oven heat 1 tbs of chicken fat over medium high heat. Saute the onions, celery, carrots and thyme until just soft, around 6min. While the veggies saute, cut the chicken into bit sized pieces.
2. Remove the veggies into a pan. Add the mushrooms back to the same pan. Allow the mushrooms to brown over high heat for 1-2 min, then add the wine and the tomato. This step is how it gets the nice amazing deep flavor, so don't skip it. Tomato paste is a fine sub for tomato powder - it should be the slightest hint of tomato, just enough to say "what's that?"
3. When the mushrooms are soft and wine is cooked down add the mushrooms to the bowl of veggies.
4. Now add the butter to the hot pan and let it melt. Add the flour and wisk constantly to make a roux. Allow the roux to brown for 2-3min, stirring constantly. The add the chicken broth a little at a time, wisking like crazy. Keep adding liquid and stirring until all the liquid is in. Bring it to boil and cook until thickened.
5. Remove the dutch oven from the heat and combine the the sauce with the chicken and veggies. Add the frozen peas and mix well.
If you're lazy and doing casserole. STOP. You're ready to eat.
If you're fancy-schmancy, turn the whole mixture out into a 9x13 glass baking dish. Yes, I know it makes another dish dirty. I tried it in the past and it doesn't cook as evenly and the biscuts end up too thick. Cut the biscut dough into peices and place it on top of the casserole. Bake at 400 for 20-30 min until the biscuits are brown and sauce is bubbling.

Roast Chicken

Part 1 of a series on chicken.

1 whole chicken (I had a whopper- 8lbs!)
2 Tbs butter
2 tsp rosemary
zest of 1 lemon
1 small onion
1 carrot

Summary of the directions - see "Thanksgiving"

1. Preheat the oven to 375F
2. rinse the chicken and pull out the giblets. Cut out the backbone and butterfly it.
3. rough chop the onion and carrot and place on a heavy baking sheet - place the butterflied chicken on top.
4. combine the lemon zest, rosemary, and softened butter and mix well. Dry the chicken with paper towels and spread the butter mixture over the chicken and under the skin.
5. Bake until the breast is 160 and thighs are 175. If you (theoretically) accidently melted your thermometer by leaving it in the oven last week stick a fork in the chicken to check for done-ness. It should take around 12-15min/lb

Beef with Broccoli

This started off with a recipie but diverged so much I feel I can take credit. It's a narrative with a lot of photos to be sure to read to the bottom for all the ingredients for the sauce.

take 1 lb steak (I use round steak because it's cheapest) and slice it thinly.
Coat the meat with a thin coating of flour (optional, not sure I'd repeat this again) and
allow to marinate in:

1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp tomato powder/tomato paste
1/2 tsp ground dried habenero peppers (to taste)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbs white wine.

Now prepare the vegetables!

You will need
1 lb froze broccoli florets
1 medium onion, diced
8oz mushrooms, sliced (hint - try slicing with an egg slicer!)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1. heat some oil in a wok and fry the onions over medium low heat until just golden. Remove and put them back in their bowl.
now, fry the mushrooms on medium until golden brown and put them back in their bowl.
While you're waiting for the mushrooms cover the frozen broccoli with saran wrap and microwave it for several minutes until the broccoli is warm and steamed.

After you've put the mushrooms back in their bowl, add the chopped garlic to the pan
And then the marinated beef and cook until the beef is done.
Now add back the rest of the vegetables, including the broccoli.
Allow the veggies to cook until warm and then coat with the special sauce made by combining

3 tbs oyster sauce
2 Tbs white wine
1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
2 Tbs OJ

Toss to coat and heat through and you're done! Grab your rice from the oven*, and get ready to eat!

* I think i taught you how to make rice in the oven before: It's really much easier than you think.
preheat oven to 375. Place 1.5 cups brown rice in the bottom of a 9x9 glass baking dish. add 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tbs butter, cut into pieces. Pour 2 1/3 cups boiling water over the top and cover tightly with foil. bake 1 hour. Done perfect everytime (recipe courtesy of America's Test Kitchen)

buckwheat buttermilk pancakes

This is from 'Whole grain Baking" courtesy of King Arthur Flour and my local library. Buckwheat is gluten free and while the flour didn't look yellow, the pancakes sure did.

1 cup buckwheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs sugar

2 cups buttermilk
1 egg
2 tbs oil

1. whisk together the dry ingrediants in a small bowl.

2. Add the wet and mix well. Be sure to use a larger bowl as it will bubble up and almost over the bowl!
Cook over medium heat in a well greased skillet. Flip, marvel and the fluff, and serve hot with maple syrup.

The way life, and beef stew, should be

I am finally settled enough in Maine to post something, and no sorry, it's not lobster (yet). It is an impressive feat, but I have managed to make a beef stew I like. Like the other good beef recipes it's from the Pioneer Woman. I'll copy the full version here, with, of course, a few edits and commentary.

* 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
* 1 Tablespoon Butter (oops, out of it, skipped)
* 2 pounds Stew Meat
* 1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
* 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
* 1 can Beer, 12 Ounce Can (I used a bottle of Amber lying around)
* 4 cups Beef Stock (3 cans beef broth)
* 2 cups Water (additional, If Needed) (NOT NEEDED!)
* 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
* 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
* ½ teaspoons Paprika (umm, a bit generous on this)
* ½ teaspoons Kosher Salt (omit if you forgot to buy low sodium broth)
* Freshly Ground Black Pepper
* 1-½ teaspoon Sugar
* 4 whole Carrots, Washed, Unpeeled, And Roughly Sliced
* 4 whole New Potatoes, Quartered
* Minced Parsley (optional) (yea.... I skipped this)

Preparation Instructions

Heat oil and butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Brown meat in two batches, setting aside on a plate when brown. Cut pieces in half. Set aside. (wow, did all that!)

Add diced onions to the pot. Stir and cook for two or three minutes until softened, then add garlic for another minute. Pour in beer and beef stock, then add Worcestershire, tomato paste, paprika, salt, pepper, and sugar. Add beef back into the pot. Stir to combine. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (I actually used the stove but this is begging for a crock pot if you have 6 hours)

*UPDATE: The liquid should cook down to a thicker state. If it gets too thick/reduces too much, add additional water as needed.

** Margaret update - the liquid was no where near cooking down after 1.5 hours of aerobics+shower, so I left the lid off for another hour and then proceeded

Add carrots and potatoes, then cover and cook for an additional 30 minutes. (If stew gets dry, just add a cup of hot water at a time to replenish the liquid.) Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

MARGARET TIPS - make a roux with 2 tbs butter and 1/4 cup flour browned, and then add stew juice mixing constantly, then pour this back into the stew for a thicker, more gravy like sauce.