busy busy bean soup

This was the perfect soup to have simmering away on the stove while I was working.  Wednesdays are our busy nights with yoga and basketball, so this soup was ready for the boyfriend before he headed off to basketball, and I ate this when I came home from yoga.  If I had some thyme or rosemary I would have put that in too, with the tomatoes I think.  But, the soup was pretty good just as it is.  If I had thought it out better, I would have made the focaccia I baked on Thursday on Wednesday to eat with the soup.  Together, they are making a pretty good lunch today!

I did very little to change the focaccia recipe.  I let the dough rise for 1 and half hours for its first rise, and probably an hour and a half for it's second rise.  I got caught up running some errands!  It's a beautiful dough that was very forgiving, and the focaccia is dense and yummy.  We didn't have rosemary so we topped ours with olives throughout, and some crushed red pepper on one quarter, some oregano on another quarter, and some onions on a little strip.  All variations were delicious!

Bean Soup (Basically Minestrone)

Makes 6 servings

Takes 3 hours

1 cup dried white beans

4 cups water

1 onion, sliced

4 small cloves of garlic, sliced

1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

1 bay leaf

10 peppercorns

1 16 oz. jar of tomatoes

2 carrots, diced

1 package frozen spinach, thawed

1 cup orzo

If you remember, or are good at planning ahead, put the beans and four cups of water in a bowl, cover, and let sit overnight.  Otherwise, in a bowl, cover white beans with 4 cups of boiling water and let sit for 1 hour.

In a large pot over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in some olive oil (enough to cover bottom of pot).  When they begin to soften, add the smoked paprika and cook until the oil turns red and the onions are completely translucent.  Add the bay leaf and peppercorns and cook a bit more.

Drain the beans and add to the pot, stirring well.  Let cook for a minute or two.  Add the jar of tomatoes, salt (1 tsp. for now*) and then 2 jars of water.  Raise heat so that it boils, and then reduce heat back to medium and let simmer, covered, for 40 minutes to 1 hour.  Check for salt and doneness of beans, and when you are satisfied with the beans being cooked, add carrots.  Start water for pasta and cook a few minutes shorter than package directions.  Add pasta and spinach to soup and cook for a few more minutes.  If you are going to serve it later, turn off the heat, cover, and let sit until you are ready to reheat.

* I ended up using 2 and a half spoons of salt in the soup (plus more in the water for cooking pasta).  It was a little on the salty side...

Focaccia with Olives

from Bon Appetit, May 1995

Makes 8 very big servings

Takes 4 hours total rising and baking time

2 cups warm water (105°F  to 115°F - it is very important that your water is not too hot.  too cold is fine)

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (not instant)

4 1/2 cups (about) all purpose flour (I used bread flour)

2 teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

24 black or green brine-cured olives (such as Kalamata or Greek), pitted, halved
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried

Place 2 cups warm water in large bowl. Sprinkle dry yeast over; stir with fork. Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 10 minutes.

Add 4 1/4 cups flour and salt to yeast mixture and stir to blend well (dough will be sticky). Knead dough on floured surface until smooth and elastic, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls if dough is sticky, about 10 minutes. Form dough into ball. Oil large bowl; add dough, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm area until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.  There is nowhere in my house that is warm right now, so I put it in the oven with the light on.

Punch down dough; knead into ball and return to same bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm area until doubled, about 45 minutes or less.

Coat a large, lipped baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil. Punch down dough.  At this stage, mine was so beautiful!  With all those long gluten strings that you are supposed to swoon over in your bread dough.  And readers, I did swoon, but I forgot to take a photograph.  Next time...

Transfer to prepared sheet. Using fingertips, press out dough to edges of the sheet, this will be difficult because the dough will want to contract.  Persevere.  Let dough rest 10 minutes.

Drizzle 2 tablespoons oil over dough. Sprinkle olives and chopped rosemary evenly over. Let dough rise uncovered in warm area until puffy, about 25 minutes.

Preheat oven to 475°F. Press fingertips all over dough, forming indentations. Bake bread until brown and crusty, about 20 minutes. Serve bread warm or at room temperature.

We couldn't stop ourselves from eating before the picture was taken!

Some Experiments

Happy New Year everyone!  I feel so excited about 2010 already.  Hope it's a good one for you all.  In the next few days I'll try to post some recipes from over the holidays, once I get some pictures together.  There was so much cooking.

Yesterday was my first night cooking in Halifax, and I decided to experiment a little.  I made my dal, but towards the end, I added some defrosted frozen whole spinach.  I only made 1/2 cup of dal and added 2 cups of water.  It was really good.

We ate the dal spinach with some chapatis I made with cracked wheat, and an experimental potato curry.  I've been meaning to use the cracked wheat since I had so much leftover from the amazing cracked wheat top knots from October.  I wanted to make a massaman-ish curry with potatoes and peanuts.  My betrothed was not so happy about this curry.  In his words, "it's not that I don't like it, I just don't like it." 

I actually really liked it.  It was spicy and peanuty.  You have to like peanuts to like this curry.  Try it and tell me what you think.

Cracked Wheat Chapatis

Makes 8 chapatis

Takes 2 hours (but only 30 active minutes)

1/4 cup cracked wheat

1/2 cup water

1 cup chapati flour (wheat flour)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup water

Place the cracked wheat in a heatproof bowl.  Bring 1/2 cup water to a boil and pour over the wheat.  Cover and let sit for 1 hour.  (While waiting you can make whatever you want to eat with the chapatis.)

Drain the wheat of any excess water and place in a large bowl with the flour, salt and water.  Oil your hands with ghee or canola oil and mix together to form a dough ball, adding more water or flour as necessary.  Place on a flour surface and knead until it is smooth and tight.  Let rest for 30 minutes while you are making other things.

Pre-heat a griddle on high.  Divide the dough evenly into 8 balls.  I divide the dough into halves, the halves into halves, etc to form evenly sized balls.  Using plenty of flour, roll into thin circles.  I recommend watching Manjula making her chapatis.  She's a pro!

Cook the chapatis until they are brown on each side, (they won't puff) and rub both sides with ghee when you take them off the griddle.  To keep them warm, place between two plates with paper towels on the bottom and top of the stack.

This is a hearty chapati that I really enjoyed.  I think this would also make a delicious cracker, and I am planning on making the dough again and baking it.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Peanut Potato Curry

Makes 4 servings

Takes 30 minutes

1/4 cup raw peanuts

1/2 inch piece of ginger, sliced

2 garlic cloves, sliced

4 potatoes, chopped into 1 inch cubes
1/2 green chili

1 teaspoon sambhar powder, or other curry powder

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1 inch piece of dried tamarind, available in Indian grocery stores

1/2 cup water

Boil the water and pour over the piece of tamarind to soften it.

Heat oil in a large saute pan on medium-high.  Add peanuts, and when they are lightly brown, add the ginger and garlic.  When they are beginning to brown (make sure your stove is not too hot), add the potatoes.  Saute for a minute and add the sambhar powder, green chili and cinnamon.  Squeeze the tamarind, mashing all the pulp loose with your fingers.  Pour the water only into the pan, saving the tamarind pulp in case you later decide the curry needs more sour taste.

Add salt (a half teaspoon for now), lower the heat to simmer, and cover for 10 minutes.

Check the potaotes for doneness (it will probably need 5 more minutes) and the sauce for yumminess.  It should be spicy, if it is not, add more sambhar powder or chili powder.  It should be salty, if it is not, add more salt.  It should have a little tang, if not, pour more hot water over the tamarind, let soak for 2 minutes, and add the juice back to the potatoes.  Add more water if it's a little too dry.  You want the curry to be saucy so you can scoop it up with your chapatis.

It was soo good!  The betrothed is not much of a food experimenter, so maybe after he eats it a couple of times, he'll like it better...

Pongal for One

Today I came home, dead tired, to see that my little hyacinths had opened!  They had turned colors and begun to spread apart this morning, but no hint yet of a bloom.  The woman at the Borough Market said it would take them 3 weeks or so, but I guess they like my warm, damp room.  (I learned that the bulbs could be stored in a dark, dry place until next year when they will bloom again)

Readers, I made the most delicious dinner!  I'm so glad I stopped by the grocery store just to get some fresh spinach and tomatoes, everything else I had in my pantry which I keep very well-stocked with staples.  It was really simple, pongal, a mixture of rice and lentils, with sauteed spinach and tomatoes.  This is becoming my standard dinner, what I crave around 2:30 in the afternoon.

Pongal for one

Takes 20 minutes

Makes 1 serving

butter

1/4 tsp. cumin seeds

1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

little bit of ginger

1/4 cup rice

1/4 cup masoor dal

salt

3 small cloves garlic

1/4 tsp. mustard seeds

1/2 chili, sliced lengthwise

2 big handfuls of fresh spinach, washed well

4 or 5 cherry tomatoes, halved

In a sauce pan, heat butter on low-medium low heat.  Decide the size of butter depending on what kind of day it was.  Mine was a 1/2 tbsp. day: I really needed the butter.  Otherwise, I would have used half that amount with some safflower or canola oil.  You do not want the heat to be too high because the butter will burn, but if it's too low, nothing will sizzle.

When the butter is melted, add cumin seeds, pepper and ginger.  When cumin seeds begin really sizzling and everything is very fragrant, add rice and dal, and saute for a minute.  It's ok if the butter is browning because that makes everything taste better.

Add 1 1/2 cups of water and salt to taste.  Bring to a boil, lower heat and cover for 15 minutes.

While the pongal is cooking, heat a little bit of oil in a small saute pan on medium high heat.  Add the garlic, chili and mustard seeds.  Be ready with the spinach!  When the mustard seeds begin popping, add spinach and tomatoes to the pan.  Add salt and saute for 1 minute or until spinach is soft and tomatoes are beginning to shrivel.

Eat!  With pickles or yoghurt or just by itself.  It was so good!

Happy Diwali! (with recipes)

For the past 7 or 8 years, Diwali has meant inviting friends over and making very large meals.  I love everyone coming together, and George, Catherine and I would cram our apartment in New York with all the people we love and eat a lot!  I remember our first Diwali in Manhattan, driving around the East Village grocery shopping and listening to the Smiths.  Sometimes Deepa would come down from Boston, and I remember one year we tried to make paneer!

Mostly I remember everyone crammed into that tiny apartment on 2nd street eating.  I appreciated so much, that regardless of whether it was their first or twenty-first Diwali, everyone really participated in making it a festive celebration, especially Catherine and George.

In Berkeley, we've invited everyone over for a special meal, but it hasn't been quite the same.  One year, there was a conference and I came home as the party was already started.  I remember Deepa making a special Persian Love Cake for a certain someone during the POGD.  Last year we celebrated Diwal-O-ween with a little weiner dog.

I was a chili pepper. 

This year, I was looking forward to Paddy and I celebrating our first Diwali together in the same place, even though this place does not have the friends I have come to depend on.

There was a lot of cooking, and I will spread the recipes over a couple of posts (especially since I am waiting for more pictures of our little party last night).  There was a lot of cooking, and to be perfectly honest, some things did not come out very well.

(A dramatic re-enactment of the meal)

I made

Manjula's parathas
Kala channa masala
Aloo muttar gobi
Keera
Carrot Salad
Pickled Onions
Takkali Sadam (Tomato Rice)
Kesari








I won't say a lot about the recipes I took from other bloggers.  Manjula's parathas were delicious as always.  I was having a bit of a hard time getting the heat right, as many of the parathas did not puff as well as they should have.  I made my own ghee, and it came out so well!  And I definitely used a lot of ghee to keep the parathas soft after they came off the tawa.  They were a big hit.  My one recommendation for Manjula's parathas, is that you are better making four bigger parathas than the 5 she suggests her recipe makes.

For the kesari, I did not use kesari powder, but added two pinches of saffron when I added the cardamom.

Delicious!

I have to say, the recipes from Mad Tea Party were not that great.  I probably screwed up the proportions, and I definitely did not add enough salt at the final tasting.  The chole was too spicy, not hot, but just too much of the spices.  The aloo gobi tasted ok, but I should have chopped the potatoes smaller, because they did not cook as quickly as the cauliflower.  Maybe added the potatoes first and the then the cauliflower?  Anyway, mushy cauliflower, hard potatoes.  Yuck.

The Keera went really well.  As did the thakkali sadam, my mom's recipe.  I'll post the Keera recipe and the carrot salad recipe today, and post the thakkali sadam recipe tomorrow.  Hopefully I will have other pictures than these pictures of the leftovers!

Keera (spinach)
takes 20 minutes (mostly for washing spinach)
makes 4 servings


1 pound spinach, very well washed
1 tsp. urad dal (skinned and split) 
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1/4 tsp. crushed chili pepper flakes, or 1 dried red chili
salt


Ok, this happens quickly, so gather all your ingredients.  Heat oil on medium high heat in a large saute pan.  When it is very hot, add the urad dal, and toast until light brown.  Add the cumin seeds, when they become brown and very fragrant add the red chili pepper.  Wait 2 seconds, and add the spinach.  It might not all fit into the pan at first.  Add salt and keep stirring, it will reduce very quickly.  Cook until the spinach is done, to your taste.  I like it barely cooked (about 1 minute once it's all in the pan) so it is still very bright green.  Paddy likes the spinach very well done, about 3 minutes.


You can also use frozen spinach.  Let it thaw (for about 20 minutes).  Cook a bit longer than you would fresh spinach.

Carrot Salad
takes 20 minutes
makes 4 servings

3 carrots
1 green chili, split lengthwise
1 tsp. mustard seeds
salt
1 lime
handful cilantro

Wash and peel the carrots.  Grate.  Add green chili and salt to taste, about 1/2 tsp.  Squeeze the juice of the lime onto the carrots.  In a small saute pan heat oil on medium high heat to very hot.  Have the lid ready.  Add the mustard seeds.  When they begin to pop, put the lid on and turn off the heat!  When the spluttering has subsided, spoon the mustard seeds out of the pan onto the carrots.  Mix it all together, and let sit for about 10 minutes.  Top with cilantro.

Carrot salad is really good with yoghurt rice and also rasam and rice.  

To all of my Berkeley and New York friends, I miss you so much!  Diwali is not the same in Canada.  Great people, good food, but not the same.

More recipes coming!