Snowcap Beans with Stewed Tomatoes and Oregano Pesto

Sometimes it’s fun to start with an ingredient and then figure out what to do with it (rather than starting with a recipe and gathering the ingredients). Last week I was looking through the dried bean and rice options at the grocery store to see what was available. I found some pretty, two-toned snowcap beans and was compelled to bring them home. I had no particular plan for their use and set about choosing a way to serve them. A little searching brought me to the Rancho Gordo article in the November issue of Food and Wine which included a recipe for giant lima beans with stewed tomatoes and oregano pesto. I hoped that it would work well enough with snowcaps instead of giant limas and gave it a whirl.

I must have been caught up in the actual preparation of this dish because I completely forgot to grab the camera and get a shot of the beans in dried form or after the initial cooking. Good job. You can see what they look like here. They’re nice looking, light brown beans with a snowy white side. They retained their colors after the initial cooking, but once they baked in the stewed tomatoes, the colors were muddied. I wasn’t able to find any other information about them like where they originated, so they’re a slightly mysterious type of bean. They’re bigger than pintos but not as big as giant limas. Their taste is mild like cannellinis, but they seemed firmer in texture. They were delicious in this dish, but next time I’ll use them in a way that preserves their colors.

So, how was this made? Well, there’s a good amount of cooking time required, and splitting the tasks between two days is a good idea. On day one, I cooked the soaked beans and simmered the stewed tomatoes. Onion and garlic were cooked in a saucepan until softened, and then canned whole tomatoes and chopped, fresh oregano were added. This was left to simmer for an hour. Also on day one, I made the pesto which included olive oil, oregano, parsley, and garlic. On day two, the beans and stewed tomatoes were combined and baked for 45 minutes. This is the point at which I strayed from the instructions. Feta cheese was supposed to have been added on top of the beans while they baked. I was feeling like I wanted little, cold cheese sprinkles rather than warm, melty blobs, so I waited until the beans were plated to add cheese. Course breadcrumbs were toasted in olive oil and used as a topping with the pesto.

I enjoyed this as a vegetarian main course with grilled bread with sauteed shitakes on the side. Kurt chose to make it a side dish with a steak. The breadcrumbs added nice crunch, the pesto brightened it all up with its herby, garliciness, the feta sprinkles were creamy and rich, and the long-cooked beans were tender and full-flavored. It takes some planning and patience, but once all the components come together, you’ll have a delicious dish that can be a main course or a side that is definitely worth it.

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Carrot Cake Cookies

I should never have made these cookies. It was a very bad idea, and now I’m stuck with having eaten them. Ordinarily, I bake cookies and happily share them because they’re just cookies. Not so with these babies. Carrot cake cookies sandwiched together with cream cheese frosting do not get shared so much as they get devoured very, very quickly. These are from Martha Stewart's Cookies, and as I’ve said before, every cookie in that book looks similarly devourable.

These have all the things a carrot cake might have like grated fresh carrots, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and raisins. For no particular reason, I reduced the amount of raisins and added some chopped pecans. I guess if there were a reason, it would be that my favorite carrot cake recipe has nuts in it so I wanted some in these cookies too. Since they get sandwiched, it’s convenient if they’re all the same size. I used a small ice cream scoop to place the dough on the baking sheets in even-sized mounds. The recipe suggests chilling the dough before scooping, but chilled dough is more difficult to spoon out of the bowl. So, I placed the dough mounds on sheets, and then chilled the baking sheets before putting them in the oven.

The cream cheese frosting is basic, straightforward, and as delicious as it always is. Once these were filled with frosting and finished, I realized this would be the first cookie I would prefer to eat from the refrigerator. This is interesting because Kurt is a cold cookie kind of guy. Even chocolate chip. He prefers them straight from the refrigerator, and I don’t understand it. For me, chocolate chip cookies are only worth eating directly from the oven. The refrigerator doesn’t even enter the picture. But here, cream cheese frosting necessitates refrigeration. I can tell you that these are by far my favorite cold cookie, and I have many, many extra calories to burn this week.

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Goat Cheese-Edamame Dip with Spiced Pepitas

This soy bean and cheese dip came from the November issue of Food and Wine and was part of an article about starters for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s actually a great recipe to have on file for year-round use because the ingredients are always easy to locate. I used frozen, shelled edamame which were briefly cooked in boiling water. The cooked, drained edamame were pureed in a food processor with sour cream, goat cheese, lemon juice, garlic, and canned chipotles and adobo sauce. Chopped oregano, which luckily enough grows in my herb garden all year but is skippable if you don't have it, was stirred in once the mixture was smooth.

A crunchy topping was made with pepitas which were roasted with salt, ground coriander, crushed red pepper, and olive oil. When the pepitas came out of the oven, they were tossed with lemon zest and oregano. The lemon zest added a burst of flavor, and I have to remember to try that with roasted nuts in the future. While the pepitas roasted, I baked some pita chips which I cut to size, brushed with olive oil, and sprinkled with a mix of cayenne, ground coriander, ground cumin, salt, and pepper.

It makes a thick dip, but sturdy vegetables would have been great for dipping too. The combination of flavors is interesting with the smooth, mild bean puree and creamy, tangy goat cheese and sour cream and the hit of heat and smokiness from the chipotles. And, the pepita topping adds another layer of flavor and texture. The recipe results in a generous amount of dip, so we still have some leftover. I’m thinking of using it for a sandwich for lunch tomorrow by spreading it in a pita and adding arugula, and now, I’m already looking forward to lunch.


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Chilli Tofu in Coconut Broth

To accompany the chilli rice paper rolls, I also made chilli tofu in coconut broth from the chilli chapter in Flavors. I had to make a couple of substitutions, but I mostly followed the instructions in the book. One issue is that I never seem to find kaffir lime leaves at my grocery store. That seems like something I should be able to find there, but I never do. For the coconut broth, since I was lacking lime leaves, I used some lemongrass stalks from my herb garden instead. For serving, the soup was to have been topped with Thai basil leaves which I’ve grown in the past but didn’t this year, and I didn’t find that at Central Market either. I used chopped fresh mint instead. One last change was using baby bok choy instead of Chinese broccoli.

Did I ruin it horribly with these cavalier changes? I don’t think so. The coconut broth was made by warming coconut milk, vegetable stock, and my lemongrass stalks in a deep saute pan. Sweet potato slices were added, the pan was covered, and it cooked for eight minutes. Then, chopped bok choy was added, and it continued cooking for another four minutes. Let me pause, because if none of this sounds appealing at all, just consider cooking some sweet potato in coconut milk. That discovery alone made this dish an amazing experience. When I tasted a piece of sweet potato for doneness, it was really delicious. Next Thanksgiving, I’m thinking the sweet potato dish should absolutely involve coconut milk. Now, back to the matter at hand. Meanwhile, the tofu cubes were sauteed with chillies, soy sauce, ginger, lime juice, and no sugar because I skipped it. I do that. I prefer to let the acidity have its way with the flavor profile. I can’t help it.

The finished soup turned out great. The vegetables in the coconut broth were mild, cooked to a softened state, and rich tasting from their time in the flavorful liquid. The tofu cubes sitting on top were spicy and sharply flavored from the chilli sauce. Little by little, the chilli sauce meandered into the coconut broth, and the flavors mixed, and it was all wonderful together. I will make it again for certain, and I will fondly remember this coconut milk and sweet potato rendezvous.

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Chilli Rice Paper Rolls

The next meal from Donna Hay’s Flavors was Asian influenced and came from the chilli chapter. Her chilli rice paper rolls and chilli tofu in coconut broth both looked so irresistible I had to give them a try. I’ve been candid about my inabilities in the realm of preparing Asian cuisine, so I treaded cautiously into these recipes. I took my time, made sure I mostly followed the instructions, and guess what? Everything turned out fine. Better than fine. These shrimp rolls were definitely the best I’ve ever made. That’s not saying much, but the chilli salad filling in these rolls was really fantastic.

Shrimp was sauteed with ginger and thinly sliced chillis which were supposed to be red. Oddly enough, there were no red chillis, which I usually spell chiles but I’m going with the spelling used in the book, at the store so I used green. The salad filling consisted of very thinly sliced green onion, cucumber, mint, lime juice, and fish sauce. Because the chillis were green, and everything else in the salad was green, I added some tiny carrot matchsticks just to contribute a little color variety. The mixture was tart, fresh-tasting, and crunchy. For a dipping sauce, I used soy sauce with some green onion and ginger.

The rolls can sit in the refrigerator covered with a damp towel, so advance preparation is a definite possibility. We didn’t have leftovers, so I don’t know what they would be like after overnight refrigeration but a few hours would be fine. The cool, crisp lightness, the combination of salty and spicy flavors, and the fresh, sweet shrimp made these addictive. And, then they were gone, and I’m already craving them again.

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Balsamic Chicken with Garlic Couscous

The time had come for a meal with a little meat in it, or chicken, but that’s still meat, so I set about browsing through books for inspiration. I pulled Donna Hay’s Flavors from the shelf and once again realized how really interesting and appealing everything in that book is. There are nine chapters in the book and each is devoted to a particular flavor. It shows particular flavors used in very different preparations, and it makes you stop to consider what basic tastes work with one another. This balsamic chicken with garlic couscous dish is from the garlic and onion chapter. The chapter begins with a quick discussion of types of onions and garlic and some basic preparations, and then each recipe has an accompanying photo of the delectable-looking food. It was difficult to decide which meal I wanted to try, and I ended up making a few things from the book over the course of a couple of days. I’ll be posting the other items soon.

The balsamic chicken was started by marinating boneless chicken in balsamic vinegar, chicken stock, crushed garlic, and sugar. I tend to greatly reduce or entirely skip the sugar in recipes when it’s intended to balance acidity because I like a little tart spunkiness. Two tablespoons of sugar seemed excessive at any rate, so I only used about two teaspoons. The less sweet marinade did its work for 20 minutes while garlic was sliced and green beans were cleaned. I used whole wheat couscous which was cooked with chicken stock. The chicken breasts were sauteed on each side before the marinade was poured into the pan. It finished cooking through as the marinade thickened into a sauce.

To finish the couscous, sliced garlic and thyme were sauteed in a little butter and the cooked couscous was stirred into that mixture. Kurt commented on the couscous being the best ever, and I let him know that it could be because of the half a stick of butter in it. I re-read the ingredient list a couple of times and did the weight to volume conversion a few more times to be sure, two ounces equals four tablespoons, but yes, it was half a stick of butter. It was worth it. The couscous was fantastic, and the chicken was just as delicious as it looked in the book. The marinade thickened nicely into a sauce, and it left the chicken flavorful and tender. The garlic, both raw in the marinade and butter sauteed to savory wonder in the couscous, added character to the meal as it always does. This meal was a winner from Donna Hay, and there’s more of the same throughout the book.

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Practice Eclairs

I had made pate a choux, vanilla pastry cream, and chocolate glaze before, but I had never made them all at the same time in the form of an eclair. I decided it was high-time I do so, and I grabbed Wayne Harley Brachman’s Retro Desserts for a recipe to follow. I’ve had this book since it first came out in 2000, and it’s full of fun, well-known desserts with everything from cakes and pies to ice creams and candies. The book is described as bringing together kitsch desserts for today’s kitchens and letting you make your remembered favorites entirely from scratch. The cream-filled devil’s food cupcakes bring back Ho Ho’s. I’ve never had cherries jubilee, but it’s in the book too. I’ve made the banana pudding which was fantastic, and I’ve always wanted to try the banana peanut butter sandwich cake. Then, there’s the rocky road pizza pie and the white-chocolate grasshopper pie to try. I could go on and on, but I was explaining about the eclairs.

I’ve named this post Practice Eclairs because these were so far from perfect. In fact, they were so ugly only their mother could love them. When it came time to pipe the dough into eclair shapes, I rather failed at the task. They ended up too wide and too flat and didn’t puff up enough to make them look any better after baking. I also made a few minis which were kind of cute, and I would love to make an entire batch at that small size. The mini version is shown at the top of the post. Making the pate a choux was easy enough. I’ve made Ina Garten’s gourgeres, and her technique involves a food processor to incorporate the eggs. Brachman suggested using an electric mixer which also worked fine, and either method is much easier than stirring in each egg by hand. So, making pate a choux is no problem; piping it into appropriate shapes still needs work.

The vanilla pastry cream was also not a problem. I’ve followed the recipe in this book several times, and it always turns out great. For filling the eclairs, this recipe suggests slicing the top off each one, pulling out some of the interior dough, and spreading the pastry cream on the bottom piece. Then, the top pieces were dipped in the chocolate glaze and set aside to dry. Tops found bottoms, and they were done. Slicing the eclairs to fill them, instead of hollowing them with a skewer and then piping in the filling, seemed like cheating. I think it also contributed to their unsightliness. However, the look of them stopped mattering as soon as I tasted them.

Freshly made eclairs are a wonderful thing. The pastry cream made with a vanilla bean had incredible flavor, and the chocolate glaze with espresso was amazing. I want to try again and do a little better job of piping the dough into eclair shapes. And, I want to try some other recipes to compare and contrast and fill them without slicing, but deliciousness won out over ugliness with these for certain.


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