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 always have to make the Lipton Soup Mix Onion Dip when my brother comes, because he likes it with potato chips. So we always have it around.

I don’t think I’ve ever used it for actual soup :-)

Lipton’s has all kinds of recipes for using their ‘Recipe Secrets’ products:

https://www.liptonkitchens.com/recipe-category/all-recipes/

[metmom]

I found it at a Mennonite store in CNY named Sauders. I asked and they said they would sell me a whole tub full so I got it much cheaper that way.

Natural food stores may carry it, too.

[mylife]

It does look good, and pretty easy

[MomwithHope]

That sounds delicious. I used to make my own refried beans but only used pinto.

[ptsal]

Bkmk Asian salad

[leaning conservative]

Great thread as usual! 2 years ago I made ina garten’s (barefoot contests) make ahead gravy base. It is amazingly delicious, easy, makes a lot & the red onion adds a very meaty flavor. When you finish roasting, I’ve made it with both roasted turkey & roasted chicken drippings, you just add the drippings into your ready made base & heat. It is foolproof & I always have extra which I decant into glass jars & freeze.

A thing I learned making it a 3rd time: instead of removing the onions I let them melt down into the base & the gravy was even richer & more delicious. This recipe is foolproof & on line.

[leaning conservative]

Contessa, NOT contests

[PUGACHEV]

Wegmans sells a 96 oz. can of whole, pealed, San Marzano tomatoes for about $10. Add some garlic, red pepper, oregano, a little thyme, some sugar, black pepper, some salt, a cup of really good olive oil, like Mr Papou’s, two cans of tomato paste, and lots of basil, and you have a huge amount of really, really good tomato sauce.

[Jamestown1630]

This one?

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/make-ahead-turkey-gravy-with-onions-and-sage-5486134

[Jamestown1630]

Before he died, my Italian father-in-law made sauce from his own tomatoes every year - it was a huge family production, and everyone went home with a dozen or more big jars to last the year.

We don’t have that anymore, and I’ve been wanting to try one on the stove with canned tomatoes. Thanks!

[leaning conservative]

Yes! Sorry, don’t know how to link.

* I only used one garlic clove. To me gravy should not be garlicky....just my opinion.

* I also use dried rubbed sage.

Thanks for posting ; )

[PUGACHEV]

I find that San Marzano pealed whole tomatoes are best, and it makes a big difference what brand you use. So far as I’ve found, Wegman’s brand 96 oz. San Marzano are the best (and cheapest) with the 96 oz. can from Cento being almost as good.

[Jamestown1630]

when I was young, I don’t remember that the canned, diced tomatoes were even available yet. We bought canned whole ones and squished them for recipes in our fists :-)

(And I think they were better than the chopped-up ones are now.)

[PUGACHEV]

It really depends on the recipe. For Vodka sauce, San Marzano tomatoes don’t really work for me, but the diced tomatoes are perfect.

[Jamestown1630]

You know a lot about tomato sauce!

I’m a beginner :-)

[caww]

Thanks.

[caww]

Oh yes indeed Lipton Soup Chip Dip is fabulous!

You have to like onion soup to use it as actual soup so I pass on that. But it’s a necessary staple in my cupboard.

Thanks for the link

[ApplegateRanch]

“Beefy Resilient” beans.

Thanks; just ordered a small pkt.

Good luck with you selecting project.

[leaning conservative]

The Lipton onion dip is soooooo good. Now I’ve got a craving.....

[leaning conservative]

Heaven to me would be a French restaurant nearby that always has French onion soup on their menu.