Monthly Cooking Thread - April 2022

[Jamestown1630]

My grandmother made a wonderful navy bean soup, and my husband makes a good one, too. Beyond those - besides a very good canned black bean soup that Goya makes - I don’t have a lot of experience with beans.

But I’ve recently discovered heirloom beans, and want to broaden my bean horizons. They are supposed to be far superior to the mass-produced beans available in supermarkets, and two companies that offer many varieties are Zursun Beans in Idaho:

https://www.zursunbeans.com/

And Rancho Gordo in California:

https://www.ranchogordo.com/

I’m especially interested in the various Black Lentils offered, and the French Flageolets; and I found a couple of recipes for those:

Karen Tedesco at Family Style Food.com, has posted this Black Lentil Salad with Feta:

Black Lentil Salad with Feta and Cucumber

 Dressing:

1 cup each Italian parsley and cilantro leaves loosely packed (or 2 cups of either herb)

1 jalapeño pepper chopped (leave the seeds in if you like it spicy)

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (125 ml) olive oil or avocado oil

1 tablespoon (15 ml) red wine vinegar

Salad:

1 cup black or French-style lentils

1 teaspoon salt

2 baby Persian cucumbers, cut into small dice

1/2 red onion thinly sliced (1/2 cup)

1/2 cup fresh mint or Italian parsley leaves

1/2 cup (125 g) crumbled feta or goat cheese

Make the dressing:

Combine all ingredients in a high-speed blender or small food processor until very smooth.

Make the salad:

Bring 4 cups water to a boil with the salt. Add the lentils and cook 20-25 minutes. Taste-test: They should be tender but not mushy. Drain well and allow to cool to room temperature.

Put the cucumbers, onion and lentils in a serving bowl. Add 1/3 cup of the dressing and toss gently. Sprinkle the salad with the mint or parsley leaves and goat cheese and toss again.

Serve the salad with additional dressing spooned over, if you like.

NOTES Pick through the lentils before cooking to be sure they don't contain an errant stone or twig (lentils are all-natural and plant-based and sometimes that happens) Substitute French lentils if you can't find black ones. Refrigerate leftover dressing for up to 3 days. It's delicious on any salad or as a sauce all on its own.

https://familystylefood.com/black-lentil-salad-2/

A recipe for Flageolets in Lemon Dressing is at the Rancho Gordo site:

https://www.ranchogordo.com/blogs/recipes/flageolet-beans-with-lemon-dressing

Both of the companies mentioned above have a lot of good recipes at their sites.

These days, with prices for food – and especially meat! – rising so much, beans are a good way to stretch our budgets, and they don’t have to be boring. Even the heirloom dried beans seem reasonably priced, considering their nutrition and flavor value.

**************************************************

One thing I noticed during the whole Covid thing was my boredom with food – including many things I’ve always liked a lot and made routinely. I began looking for unusual and more flavorful things that I’d made in the past, and one of the first things that came to mind was a recipe for Indonesian Gado Gado.

Gado Gado is one of the national dishes of Indonesia, and consists of raw or slightly cooked vegetables in a peanut sauce. There are probably as many variations on it as there are households that make it - many contain hard-boiled eggs - but here is a good ‘beginner’ one, adapted from Alastair Hendy’s ‘Cooking for Friends’:

Gado Gado

¾ C. peanuts, salted or unsalted, and coarsely crushed

1 clove garlic

¼ to ½ tsp. Salt

1 or 2 small red chili peppers, seeded and chopped

6 tablespoons brown sugar *

1-1/2 tsps. granulated sugar

4 limes,

2 large green apples – or you can substitute green mangoes, or papayas, peeled and seeded

2 sprigs each of fresh mint, cilantro, and basil, torn into small pieces

Toast the peanuts in a skillet over medium heat, shaking the pan now and then, until the peanuts are lightly toaste/flecked. Remove from heat.

Crush the garlic and salt in a mortar and pestle until a paste is formed. Add the chilies and mash into the garlic paste. Add the brown sugar, and pound until everything is incorporated. Now add the crushed peanuts and pound them in, leaving some in little chunks. (Add a little lime juice if your mixture becomes too thick.) Scrape the mixture into a bowl, add the juice of 2 limes, stir to combine, and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the granulated sugar with the juice of 1 lime.until the sugar dissolves. Cut the apple or other fruit into julienne strips. Place the herbs and fruit in the bowl with the granulated sugar and lime, and set aside.

Cut the remaining lime into sections. Place portions of the salad on individual serving plates, spoon some of the peanut dressing on top, and serve with lime wedges.

* You can also use Palm Sugar, more authentic to the recipe, if available to you.

-JT

[Jamestown1630]

I’ve never been any good at gravy, but I might try the potato flakes next time.

[FamiliarFace]

I use corn starch mixed with water for my gravies. Works for me every time, better than flour.

[Jamestown1630]

Tell us how you make it, say, for a roast turkey.

My grandmother was a great cook, and I watched and remembered many things, but I never figured out gravy.

[caww]

Oh I’m a pro at gravy since I hate the canned stuff. Key is watch the temperature and slowly add thickening using wire wisk.....I pre-mix before adding unless making pan gravey. That requires high temp to brown drippings first then add flour and brown, stirring constant then water or milk.

Alos low boil the gravy for a time which will remove the flour taste.

[FamiliarFace]

I use the pan that the drippings are in if I can. I try to take out as much oil or fat as I can till there’s just a little bit left. Add water and bring the pan drippings to a boil. Get all that fond pulled together. I use a few spoonfuls of corn starch that I put into a small bowl and add water to make it look like whole milk consistency. I furiously stir in the corn starch water while the pan drippings are working their magic. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes I need a lot of salt, other times not much. Pepper gives it something that it needs. Once in a while I will add herbs, but not usually.

It is probably years of watching my Mama and Grandma make great gravy that I learned how to do it. It’s an eyeball kind of thing. I don’t have specific measurements for any of those, but if you get the corn starch and water mixture to the consistency of milk first, it usually works out ok. Sometimes I have to quickly make up another batch of the corn starch while it’s cooking to get it right. Add more hot water if you get it too thick. It usually evens out in the end.

[Jamestown1630]

So, you use flour, not cornstarch? I’ve never had a problem making various sauces with fat, flour and stock; but cornstarch seems trickier.

[Jamestown1630]

That sounds like the way my grandmother did it. It was always in the roasting pan after the bird had been taken out.

[ApplegateRanch]

For excellent, basic lima beans & ham, I use these heirlooms: Kurzer’s Calico Traveler Lima Bean

https://greatlakesstapleseeds.com/products/kurzers-calico-traveler-lima?variant=7552475725866

I got them as a bonus in a FR Garden Ping List seed trade, accidentally mislabeled as a cowpea.

Took me years of searching to finally identify what I had. They’re the only lima we’ve ever been able to reliably grow in South Dakota, and are absolutely a great “speckled butter bean”.

I also sometimes add them into the mix for my pork & beans, below. Yes, I also grow the heirloom White Greasy Cut-Shorts used in the recipe.

Clyde’s Beans Slightly modified from the published recipe I submitted to Penzey’s Spices, before Bill Penzey went woker than woke.

Clyde [ApplegateRanch] (kind of) explains: “These are neither chili beans, nor baked beans, nor really ‘traditional’ pork & beans/’cowboy’ beans. They are not meant to be a ‘fire breather,’ though they’re not supposed to be bland, either.” Now that that’s clear, dig in!

Prep. time: 10 minutes plus overnight bean
soaking
Cooking time: 4-6 hours
Serves: 8-10

2 Cups dry beans; Clyde grows his own heirloom White Greasy Cut-Short beans, but great Northern
beans or navy beans work very well. Really, a mix is best; about a 1/2 cup of the Kurzer’s works well.

Water for soaking overnight; water for cooking

2 large OR 3 small smoked ham hocks; OR an equivalent amount of ham scraps/trimmings and a ham bone

8 strips bacon, cut crosswise into 1⁄4-inch strips

salt pork 1⁄4-1⁄2 lb. lean, cubed

1 large yellow onion, diced

1⁄2 Cup unsulfured molasses

2 14.5-oz. cans OR 1 29-oz. can diced or stewed tomatoes (I like to use 1 smaller can of diced, and 1 of “Italian Style” stewed)

1⁄2 Cup packed brown sugar (dark preferred)

1⁄4 Cup lemon juice OR apple cider vinegar

2 TB. maple syrup

1⁄2 Cup ketchup OR 1 TB. tomato paste

1 tsp. WHOLE YELLOW MUSTARD SEEDS, and 1 tsp. WHOLE BROWN MUSTARD SEEDS, coarsely ground

1 tsp. EPAZOTE

1⁄2-1 tsp. FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER, to taste

Optional:
CRUSHED RED PEPPERS to taste
GRANULATED GARLIC, to taste
2-3 ribs celery, diced

Wash, drain, and rinse the beans. Place in large pot with enough water to cover them with at
least their own depth above them, and let soak overnight.

The next morning, drain and rinse the beans and place in a large non-aluminum (I use a large cast iron Dutch oven) pot, and add water, just to cover, about 8 cups.

Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to low, adding the rest of the ingredients.

Simmer slowly for 4-6 hours, (I usually put them on the woodstove) being sure to add water as needed to keep the beans in liquid at all times. Stir often enough to keep the bottom from sticking or burning.

When done, the liquid should be fairly thick, rather than runny, with the meat evenly
distributed; but not quite as thick as chili. Remove any bones before serving.

These are best served in a large soup bowl ladled over freshly baked, buttered slices of bread; a ‘heavy’ bread is best, such as whole wheat-barley bread.

Nutritional Information: Servings 10; Serving Size 1 cup (280g);
Calories 460; Calories from fat 180; Total fat 21g; Cholesterol
35mg; Sodium 650mg; Carbohydrate 56g; Dietary Fiber 8g;
Sugars 29g; Protein 14g.

[Ellendra]

If you want the health benefits of beans, but aren’t too fond of the taste, try growing “Beefy Resilient” beans. They haven’t quite reached the grocery store shelves yet, so the only way to get them is to grow them. But, they are much easier to digest than other beans, and the flavor is 100% umami. When used in savory dishes, these beans really do taste like beef. When used in sweet recipes, they provide an added depth and richness without altering the topnote flavors.

I’m working on developing a strain that can be machine-harvested. At that point it will be easier to grow in bulk for the grocery market. But for now, I’ve only seen them sold as garden seeds.

[FamiliarFace]

Yes, exactly. Use the same pan if at all possible. Don’t worry how it doesn’t fit your burner. It works. I do the same for beef, pork, and chicken gravy. If my husband uses the smoker, I ask him to put aside some of the drippings for me in foil. Then I put that in the bottom of a roasting pan until I’ve gotten the fond pulled out from it. Remove the foil after accomplishing the transfer. Good luck on your next efforts. I hope this works out for you!

[GOPJ]

I use a tablespoon of medium salsa cooked for a minute or two in 2 teaspoons of butter. Then add the soup etc... I’ll try the coffee mate thing - sounds like it would add depth. Thanks.

[Jamestown1630]

I have no place to grow anything, but I’ll keep an eye out for them. Thanks.

[caww]

That would work too - salsa.

Yes Coffee mate adds depth to tomato soup. I like it smooth and a touch thicker.

[Jamestown1630]

Thank you. We actually still have a turkey in the deep freeze - our one guest got sick and couldn’t come for Christmas, so we decided to have a Chateau Briand instead ;-)

[be-baw]

I love beans but have not made them in a long time. In fact, I only made them once...in baked beans. I occasionally buy Amish baked beans from the supermarket deli.

I might try Goya black bean soup, but I generally don’t care for canned soup.

I’ve never had a lentil dish I liked.

And beans are good for you.

[Jamestown1630]

I’m not generally crazy about canned soup. But there are three I’ve really liked.

The Goya black bean, the Progresso lentil, and a lobster bisque that used to be produced by the guy who inspired the ‘Soup Nazi’ character in Seinfeld. (I don’t think that one is produced any more.)

[caww]

Never used cornstarch for sauces - but then gravy and pickled beet sauce are the only two I make. I really am not a good cook except for the things I know work well.....

I make a ton of gravy when I slow cook a beef roast. ...using just a package of Onion soup mix for seasoning. Delicious for seasoning. ....Then I freeze the gravy, even with a few beef bites Makes for great hot roast beef sandwiches later, or Rice and gravy meal.

[Liz]

A top secret from four star restaurants is a smidgen of hot sauce ........ perks up even gourmet sauces.

[GOPJ]

I’ll try that - Miso’s so flexable... I use a small amount of mayo in my scrambled eggs with 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. Makes them fluffy and moist.

[metmom]

I don’t think I could eat the same thing every day unless I was in serious hunker down/survival mode.

You can when you have to due to serious food allergies that restrict what you can eat.

And yes, living on oatmeal is GREAT for cholesterol.