Sometimes it doesn't require specifically cooking beans for a dish to create a great bean dish. You can use any kind of beans for this. Canned blackbeans, for example, would work great. I used leftover pinto beans.
2 flour tortillas
1 sweet potato
beans, your choice
salsa or hot sauce
cheese
I cooked the sweet potato by cubing it and boiling it because it was faster than roasting, then I drained and mashed them. However you want would work fine for this dish. Simply stack up the ingredients on a tortilla and pop in the oven until crisp.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Week 3: White Bean Chicken soup
I did a basic soup with some white beans for my week 3 meal. I got the white beans from a local farmer at the Farmer's market in Falmouth this past summer. I don't have exact cost info for them but they were typical plain white beans and I'm sure any variation would work.
Chicken carcass (or broth and chicken meat)
2-3 chopped carrots
2-3 chopped stalks of celery
1 onion
thyme
1 16oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup barley
1. Cook the chicken carcass into broth and then shred the chicken bits off it (or skip this if you are using premade.
2. soak the beans in boiling water for a hour
3.saute the veggies in a frying pan with a little bit of oil until they are soft.
4. place all ingredients in a crockpot on low for about 4 hours.
Serve and enjoy
Note the barley makes it very thick, so consider using less if you want more soup/less stew-like feeling.
Chicken carcass (or broth and chicken meat)
2-3 chopped carrots
2-3 chopped stalks of celery
1 onion
thyme
1 16oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup barley
1. Cook the chicken carcass into broth and then shred the chicken bits off it (or skip this if you are using premade.
2. soak the beans in boiling water for a hour
3.saute the veggies in a frying pan with a little bit of oil until they are soft.
4. place all ingredients in a crockpot on low for about 4 hours.
Serve and enjoy
Note the barley makes it very thick, so consider using less if you want more soup/less stew-like feeling.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Week 2: Classic Maine Baked Beans
2 down, 50 to go! I had to make this classic when it got cold in the middle of the week (not a big surprise for January, I know). Having a pot of beans on just warms the whole house. I had been researching a variety of baked bean recipes, all claiming to be the best, and realized they all amounted to about the same thing. Sure were good! Here it is, partially from the back of the package of Maine (c) dry beans I bought at Hannaford. (grown nearby in Fryeburg at Green Thumb Farms!)
2 cups Maine Yellow eye beans
4 strips bacon
1/2c molasses
2 tsp dry mustard
1 small onion, minced
dash of salt
1. Soak the beans either overnight or quick soak by bringing up to boiling and allow to sit for an hour.
2. rinse with fresh water and bring to a boil in a heavy bottomed pot. Say a bean pot. Or enamel coated cast iron (I love my enamel coated cast iron!!). Boil until the skins split when you blow on them (They really do! took about an hour).
3. Leave just enough water to cover the beans and add the remaining ingredients. Now if you are a true bean person bake them in a woodstove for 6hrs. Or leave them in the crockpot for 6 hours. Or cook them down on low heat, watching carefully to make sure they don't burn until you can't stand it anymore and you have to go to work and you eat some. Let the rest sit in the crockpot. Beans get better with age. The flavors meld. These were much better leftover the next day.
Bean Stats:
Name: Yellow eye bean
Source: State of Maine brand, Hannaford
Cost: $5.69/ 2lbs
cooking method: soak, boil, and bake
final dish: Classic Maine baked beans.
I promise I will take a photo next week, now what would be a good lookin' bean to photograph?
2 cups Maine Yellow eye beans
4 strips bacon
1/2c molasses
2 tsp dry mustard
1 small onion, minced
dash of salt
1. Soak the beans either overnight or quick soak by bringing up to boiling and allow to sit for an hour.
2. rinse with fresh water and bring to a boil in a heavy bottomed pot. Say a bean pot. Or enamel coated cast iron (I love my enamel coated cast iron!!). Boil until the skins split when you blow on them (They really do! took about an hour).
3. Leave just enough water to cover the beans and add the remaining ingredients. Now if you are a true bean person bake them in a woodstove for 6hrs. Or leave them in the crockpot for 6 hours. Or cook them down on low heat, watching carefully to make sure they don't burn until you can't stand it anymore and you have to go to work and you eat some. Let the rest sit in the crockpot. Beans get better with age. The flavors meld. These were much better leftover the next day.
Bean Stats:
Name: Yellow eye bean
Source: State of Maine brand, Hannaford
Cost: $5.69/ 2lbs
cooking method: soak, boil, and bake
final dish: Classic Maine baked beans.
I promise I will take a photo next week, now what would be a good lookin' bean to photograph?
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Week 1:Fava beans- middle eastern pita lunch
The Fava beans cooked up quite nicely. Despite being a bit greenish dry then turned a dark brown when cooked. I also found the large size made them cook a bit unevenly. Some of them were already mush by the time others were soft. I kept them plain and then came up with this delicious lunch
Middle Eastern Fava pitas
1 pita
1/2 cup of cooked Fava beans
1/2 tsp cumin
Juice of half a lemon
2 tbs parsley
2 tbs chopped red onion
Cheese (optional)
Cooked Italian sausage crumbles (optional)
Mix the cumin and lemon juice into the beans and spread on a pita. Top with a generous portion of parsley, chopped onion and cheese or sausage as desired. (I happened to have some leftover sausage and I found just a crumbled added a lot of flavor.) delicious!
Middle Eastern Fava pitas
1 pita
1/2 cup of cooked Fava beans
1/2 tsp cumin
Juice of half a lemon
2 tbs parsley
2 tbs chopped red onion
Cheese (optional)
Cooked Italian sausage crumbles (optional)
Mix the cumin and lemon juice into the beans and spread on a pita. Top with a generous portion of parsley, chopped onion and cheese or sausage as desired. (I happened to have some leftover sausage and I found just a crumbled added a lot of flavor.) delicious!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
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!
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!
Friday, May 6, 2011
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.
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.
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