What's Cookin'?

I have decided to make black bean soup for dinner and instead of just opening cans I'm gonna cook the beans.  I soaked one cup of beans overnight then added salt to the soaking water after reading a blog by a vegan cookbook author this morning.
I then drained the rinse water and added 1/4 whole onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 bay leaves and salt. When the beans are tender, which should take a couple of hours, I will discard the onion, garlic and bay leaves, and there should be about three cups of black beans.
In large soup pot I will sauté the rest of the chopped onion, two chopped cloves of garlic and two cups of sliced carrots.  When those are done, I will add the beans, 1/2 cup of orange juice, one can of Rotel tomatoes with green chiles and enough bean broth to make it a soup.  Salt, pepper and cumin will spice up the dish.  I would add a chipotle pepper in adobo sauce if I had it.


What to go with the meal?  How about some real southern cornbread and a cabbage slaw with red bell pepper with Caesar dressing?  Yup, that will definitely fit the bill.  A cheap red wine and Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra ice cream for dessert sounds good to me.


Let me tell you, the aroma in my house is glorious right now.  I love cooking!


Update:
Because the beans were so dang good and all of the ingredients so far were organic, I decided to ditch the Rotel tomatoes.  After I discarded the bay leaves, I left the onion because it had basically disintegrated and the one garlic clove I could find I smashed and added to the sauté mix.  I used the juice of 1/2 organic orange (devoured the other half) and then added Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes.  I don't like my soup to be too "soupy" and this turned out to be "da bomb".  Too bad you can't have any.

Dining at Home

I thought I'd follow up on my last post and let you know how my Asian Fusion dinner was.

The Szechuan Guacamole was very good. The ingredients were very interesting (toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, chinese five spice, ginger and oriental chile paste) which made the dip spicy and tangy. I served it with rice chips, cauliflower and carrots. I really wanted to have daikon instead of carrots for an all white dipping theme but there was none to be had.

The Szechuan Noodle Salad was good. This was a cold soba noodle salad with a marinade of soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, ginger and a bit of that oriental chile paste. I was hoping for more of a kick with the chile paste so will definitely add more next time. I julienned a red bell pepper, yellow squash and snow peas which was a great combination and just the right amount of "crunch".

The Asian Fritatta was excellent. I stir fried onions, garlic, asparagus, julienned carrot, shitake mushrooms and mung bean sprouts and added soy sauce. This was placed in a baking dish and then 6 eggs were beaten and poured on top. I also made a sauce of water, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, sherry and scallions which was thickened with corn starch. I had been hesitating about the sauce but was glad that I made it as it really added a nice touch.

For dessert I made a peach crumble. I got this from the Moosewood Dessert cookbook and the crumble had flour and cornmeal, sugar and butter. I used frozen peaches since they are so much cheaper. The dish was very good but I'll probably use less sugar next time. This was served with vanilla ice cream

After dinner we watched "Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock?", a documentary about a woman who purchased a painting at a thrift store and then spent the next 10 years trying to get it authenticated. This was a very interesting look at the art world.

So the evening was a success and we ate and drank too much but that's okay. The best thing is that I have lots of leftovers!!