Letters to the Editor
-
I like your attitude
Sounds like you love a challenge. Life goes on.
-
A really good recipe for black bean soup
Couldn't resist your plea...
BLACK BEAN SOUP WITH CUMIN AND CILANTRO
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
8 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup chopped jalapeños with seeds
2 cups dried black beans (about 13 ounces)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
8 cups (or more) vegetable stock or canned vegetable broth
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
Lime wedges
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic and jalapeños; sauté 5 minutes. Mix in beans and spices. Add 8 cups stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until beans are tender, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours 15 minutes. Working in batches, puree soup with cilantro in blender. Return soup to pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cool slightly. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and refrigerate.)
Bring soup to simmer, thinning with more stock if necessary. Ladle into bowls. Serve, passing lime wedges separately.
I add a small can of tomato sauce for a little more depth of flavor. I also only puree half, and keep half chunky. Enjoy!
-
Very cute and all, but...
It's beanittudes (get it? Attitudes about BEANS!) like yours that keep people thinking that vegetarians are weird, cheap hippies. When the reality is that many of us are all those things plus really enthusiastic cooks. Since when is cooking with dried beans exotic? Exotically poor or otherwise? Dude, Havrilesky, if it makes you feel better, buy fancier dried beans of the "borlotti" (aka cranberry) or "scarlet runner" variety. They will still be loads cheaper than anything out of a can, and you will get to feel extravagant.
-
Want even more satisfaction? Grow your own beans
I did this for the first time last summer, and it was very pleasurable, easy, healthy, and inexpensive. And good for the soil, to boot. Here's to fresh beans!
-
Not eating so much processed food is good for you
More work and somewhat more bland to some extent but it's better for you than heavily processed or gourmet food. I don't what to suggest about $70 handcream. Perhaps Ahava at only $16 is a the way to go.
-
Froggy's Black Bean Soup
This soup is amazing. Takes about 24 hours in a crock pot. Worth every bit of the time, and makes your house smell heavenly. Serve it with some of that fresh bread you learned to bake, and a good salad. Yum.
2 cups dry black beans.
8 cups cold water
3/4 cup cooked ham, diced (turkey ham works too)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons salt (yes use that much)
1/2 cup diced yellow onion (or more if you like it)
2 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (or more if you like it)
1 tablespoon chili powder (or more if you want it hotter)
Juice of 1 lime
(these next ingredients are for later)
1/4 cup rum
4 green onions, chopped
grated Monterrey Jack cheese
sour cream
lime wedges
The evening before you want to serve, dump all the first ingredients (black beans through lime juice) in the crock pot, put the lid on, turn it on High, and go to bed. It does its little crock pot thing all night. Yes, the beans go in dry, not soaked.
In the morning, take the lid off. It will simmer throughout the day. When it gets to the consistency you want (anything from soup to road tar, your pleasure), put the lid back on and turn the heat to Warm.
Just before you serve, stir in the rum. Garnish with green onions, cheese, sour cream, or lime, as you prefer.
I have a really big crock pot, I usually double the recipe. Not quite all the water fits when doubled, but it still works.
Yum!
-
I love Heather!
Seeing her byline on a weekday is exciting. More, please!
I have done the same thing in the bean aisle. Sometimes split peas are buy-one-get-one and then I have fun doing the calculation of what a whole pot of vegetarian split pea soup (made with water, not broth, 3 carrots, and one onion) costs per bowl - something like $.10. And it's yummy. Some weird part of me gets off on things like those magazine articles they used to have in the 70s, where they showed mom how to use the same item (chicken, frex) 4 meals in a row. (first roast, then casserole, then boil the bones and gizzards for soup, then leftovers!)
Not that I'm actually enjoying the diminished expectations, but what the hell - when boxed in by rising costs, falling wages, and who knows what on the financial horizon, what the hell, why not put soup on and start cutting up the curtains. (I have some old roman shades that would make fine slipcovers . . .)
-
Rum, ham and fresh cilantro
are expensive. Well, you can grow your own cilantro in the kitchen window, I guess (use a coriander seed from the cupboard if you're too cheap to buy a packet). Whiz up a can of those chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (very cheap at Mexican grocery) and it will keep in your fridge for months on end. Use a bit in your pot of soup (start with 1/2 teaspoon for a pound of beans, just in case you're spice sensitive), plus the zest and juice of one (CHEAP!) juice orange added just before serving. Also, don't skimp on the (CHEAP!) onions, and sautee them before you start, with a little salt; they will sweeten the soup. If your coriander seed sprouted, add fresh cilantro to each bowl. The rum does sound tasty, but can you afford it? ;)
Don't forget to go to the Indian grocery too, for dal and better rice. And azuki beans with sticky rice from the Asian grocery - what a treat! I have tried the Beans & Rice of every nation, and they are universally good.
But please. Splurge and put some cooking oil in your tortillas, OK? Promise? Or at least buy masa harina instead of making flour ones.
-
Time To Get Our Asses Kicked - and love every minute of it.
It's tough to admit that we've turned into a Third World country, but that's the way the Flat Earth lies.
And now we as Americans finally get to experience what the people of Central and South America have for so many years since becoming the newest Banana Republic in this hemisphere.... with a small group of super-rich; soon no middle class to speak of, and the vast majority working and non-working poor.
If some people learn to love it, that's their business... I think it's a shame.