Spicy Black Bean Soup

Wow.

Ingredients

• .75c dry black beans
• 4 strips of bacon, chopped finely
• 1 smallish onion, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1tsp dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4tsp thyme
• 6c chicken stock
• .25c cilantro, chopped
• 2 boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1 dried chili pepper, MOST of the seeds removed, ground in a mortar & pestle

Cover the black beans with 3 inches of cold water and let sit for about 8 hours.  Drain the water and rinse the beans.

In a soup pot, place the bacon and cook until crispy.  Then add the onion and pepper and the spices.  Cook until the onion is translucent and add the beans, stock, and the chicken thighs.  Stir well, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pot.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Simmer for like 2 hours.  After one of those hours has elapsed, remove the chicken using tongs or a slotted spoon and shred using two forks, then return them to the soup.  After about 2 hours, the beans should be very tender.  Add the cilantro.  Serve.

Thoughts: Not only was this amazing - one of our best soups yet - it pretty much left the entire floor of our building smelling awesome.  The chicken was a last minute innovation designed to use up leftovers before we left town, and shredding it seemed like a really easy way to deal with the stuff being too frozen to cut.  Claire declared that all the chicken in our soups should be prepared this way in the future.  Anyway, not much can be said about this soup.  It was awesome.  Maybe next time I'll use 2 chilies.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients

• neutral oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 1/2 tbsp garam masala
• 2 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 c red lentils
• 8 c chicken stock
• 2 c chicken, cooked (optional)
• 1c chopped cilantro (optional)
• 1 can coconut milk
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1c basmati rice, cooked

At some point while you're making the soup, you can cook the rice: wash 1c of rice, then put it in a pot with 1.25c water.  Bring to a boil, then cover and set to very low heat and cook for about 8 minutes.  Then turn off the heat and let it sit (covered) for another 10 minutes at least.

To make the soup, heat a little oil in a pot, then add the onions and carrots.  When the onions are getting translucent, add the garlic and all the other spices (including the bay leaves) and cook for a minute.  Then add the red lentils and toss to coat.  Then add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes.  Take it off the heat and add the lemon juice and coconut milk, then blend until smooth (we used a stick blender).  Stir in the cooked chicken and cilantro and correct seasoning (we had to add more spices and salt).  To serve, put rice in a bowl and pour soup over the rice.

Thoughts: When we first made the recipe, I tasted it before we added the coconut milk and thought that the flavor was fantastic.  The coconut milk really muted the spices, so we needed to add a lot more.  But it was quite good.  It might be nice to only PARTIALLY blend this but leave some of the lentils whole for texture.  Even so, this was quite good.

Disaster Index: 1/10

King Cake II

We didn't have great luck with our last king cake.  This is a creative twist on the original idea, and it worked really well.

Ingredients

• Dough
• .75c milk
• 2tbsp butter
• 2.25tsp yeast
• .25c sugar
• 1 egg
• .75tsp salt
• .25tsp nutmeg
• 2-3c flour
• Filling
• .5c brown sugar
• 1.5tsp cinnamon
• .25c flour
• .25c raisins
• .25c butter, melted

In a pan, bring the milk to a boil, stirring often.  Remove from heat and add the butter.  In a kitchenaid (or just a big bowl, I guess) add the dry ingredients for the dough along with the egg.  Start the mixer and add the milk / butter mixture.  Let it knead a lot, then adjust the flour ratio so that you get a SLIGHTLY sticky dough.  Form the dough into a ball and coat lightly with oil.  Set it in a bowl in a warm place to rise until doubled, about 2 hours.

Meanwhile, make the filling.  Get ready for this: mix the filling ingredients together.  DONE.

Preheat the oven to 375.  When the dough is done rising, roll it out on a well floured surface until it's about 11" x 16" (eyeball it).  You want a big rectangle.  Spread the filling over it evenly - I needed to use my fingers - then roll it up like you're making cinnamon rolls.  Actually, if you're using an almond, this is a great time to hide it.  Now place the bread on a cookie sheet (on parchment paper) and connect the ends together to make a big doughnut.  Slash 1/2" cuts in the top at 1" intervals (eyeball it again).  Bake for 30 minutes.  Frost with butter cream frosting.  Awesome.

Thoughts: This was great.  The whole "cinnamon roll" aspect was awesome.  The only bad thing was that it was kind of dry.  I think that in the future I would use neutral oil instead of butter and not use any eggs (or just the yolk).  However I would definitely make this again.  The frosting really saved this from being TOO dry.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Shirred Eggs

Easy and delicious.

Ingredients

• Eggs
• Cheese of some kind (we used Chevre)
• Salt and Pepper
• Milk
• Bacon or other meat product, optional
• Ramekins

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Put some PAM in a ramekin.  Cook bacon (if you're using it) until it's crispy, then chop it up.  Put some in the ramekin.  Crack one egg into the ramekin.  Put in more bacon.  Put in another egg and any more bacon.  Then add some salt and pepper and put in the oven for about 8-10 minutes, until the edges are looking cooked but the top isn't done.  If you're only making one egg, this takes 5-8 minutes.

Take the egg out and add the cheese.  The original recipe added about a tablespoon of milk to the top, but we didn't have great luck with this.  Put the eggs back in the oven for another 8-10 minutes for two eggs or another 5-8 for one egg, until they're cooked but the yolk is still runny.

Serve with toast.

Thoughts: The original recipe has you add milk in the middle.  This worked the first time, but the second time it just left us with watery eggs.  It was also tricky getting the timing right so the yolks were still runny, but by the third time we made it we were getting it right.  This was pretty great.  I will make this regularly.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Couscous with Fennel

and other vegetables?

Ingredients

• 1 large fennel bulb, cubed
• 2c chicken broth
• 1c water
• 2c couscous
• 2x zucchini, chopped
• 1c grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/2c raisins
• carrots?

In a pan, add oil and the fennel, zucchini, and any other vegetables that you want to have in your couscous.  I can't remember what we put in.  Once the fennel is tender (about 8 minutes), add the broth, water, and raisins.  Bring to a boil, then  stir in the couscous.  Remove from heat and cover for 10 minutes until the couscous has absorbed the water.  Add grape tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste.

Thoughts: We first made this with just the fennel and found it lacking, so we added all the other vegetables and the raisins.  I think it turned out really well, though I believe Claire wasn't as fond of it.  This has less to do with the quality of the recipe and more to do with her distrust of couscous.  This was incredibly easy and really good.

Disaster Index: 1/10