KarenJoSeattle

Diversionary Post - Split Peas With Brown Rice and Carrots

Tonight I used a technique I learned soon after I graduated from college the first time around, in a recipe from a long-gone vegetarian cookbook. The author made a carrot and onion soup by processing the vegetables in a blender to chop them finely.

That recipe basically just used carrots, onions and herbs - mostly thyme - sauteed in oil before adding water. The soup was quick and easy to make for a first course or soup and sandwich dinner. Without the blender I couldn't have finely diced enough onion without crying for hours from the irritation or grated enough carrots without crying for hours from  the boredom.

I decided to use this idea as a basis for a split pea soup that would have a less overwhelming peaness than usual. Split peas cook quickly enough that I don't use a slow cooker, especially as I like mine not cooked to complete mush.

My recipe:

Start by chopping half a large onion and about a cup of baby carrots left over from your sister's birthday party in two batches in the blender. Get them pretty finely chopped without actually pureeing them, though some larger bit should remain.

This goes in a pot with a few tablespoons of olive oil, some of which is garlic flavored, along with a generous sprinkle of thyme - maybe a couple teaspoons worth - and a half cup of uncooked brown rice. After this combination sautes for long enough to just start to stick a bit around the edges, pour on some white wine - more than half a cup but less than a full cup. Never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink.

Let this simmer together for a while while you tell the spousal unit about a piece read in Cook's Illustrated while at the grocery store the day before. They had read that alcohol, i.e. wine, added to a hot liquid forms compounds called something vaguely like azetoles that prevent the alcohol from evaporating. After some testing they decided that, indeed, when wine was added to a hot sauce or stock it retained its 'boozy' taste no matter how much it was reduced or how long it then cooked. When simmered on it's own before another liquid was added, it lost that boozy flavor and mellowed as expected.

Once the wine reduces a bit, add a pound of split peas (2 to 2 1/4 cups) and a quart of water. Bring back to a simmer/light boil. Let it cook for an hour, stirring occasionally and adding another three cups of water one at a time while you also finally sew the frigging buttons on your sweater now that you have acquired appropriate needles and thread. Vow next time to believe the package on how much liquid the peas will need, though when you're in your normal urban environment with its greater selection of food products you buy your peas in the bulk organic section, of course.

Toss together a green salad with some socially and physique-ally responsible dressing.

Serve a meal that would make Frances Moore Lappe proud, mostly. What ever happened to the first paperback edition of that book I bought brand new and kept for years?

You're right, I didn't add salt or pepper. I don't think it needs either. Feel free to disagree.

P.S. The recipe makes two large bowls plus that much again in leftovers that will need some water added during reheating after they solidify to a solid mass in the frig.

Cooking v. Knitting

Besides the lentils I cooked a pot of white beans. My recipe for these is just in my head. It comes from several recipes I read over the years, mostly the one I remember from Cooking From an Italian Garden.

I use cannellini beans. Any white bean will do, but cannellini have a more 'meaty' flavor than other white beans so they will make a difference.

I do the same 'rapid soak' method with the white beans. I put them in a large batter bowl, cover with hot water, and boil in the microwave for about five minutes. Then I let them sit while I get everything else ready.

Everything else includes a large onion and several cloves of garlic, mostly smushed in my mini-food processor, three or four big pinches of sage, less rosemary, a couple grinds of black pepper, and this many juniper berries cooked together in olive oil in the microwave and then boiled with some white wine. How much of each relates to my mood as much as my cooking experience.

After I stir in the beans I add enough liquid to almost cover. The white beans also need more liquid added during cooking. I use  a bit more wine but mostly water. They cook for a few hours on high in a slow cooker, then on low over night.

So, other than baking where the chance of experimental failure is high and my modifications are minimal, I don't cook from recipes, though I often base my cooking on ideas from recipes. Sometimes I write down my versions.

Actually, the first recipe I remember writing was for a cake. It turned out well enough that my family ate it. My father really liked it, or said he did. I liked it. I must have been about ten or eleven.

In high school  I taught myself to knit from a book, but I didn't use patterns. Not many were available there and then and those I remember seeing seemed way beyond me. I did buy a stitch pattern book and devise scarves. That was about it.

When I took up knitting back up seven or eight years ago, I went straight to sweaters, but altered the first pattern I knit. It went okay. The second thing I started was a simple-ish large shawl I designed. I love books that discuss design-it-yourself sweaters like Elizabeth Zimmerman or Barbara Walker. Lately, I've started knitting scarves and small shawls that I create myself again, using all of my stitch pattern books. I have lots of sweater ideas in my head and a few drawn in a notebook.

I don't really think of myself as an advanced knitter; more intermediate. There are lots of things I haven't done. For example, my current project will include my first button bands. I've only done small colorwork projects.

Not everything turns out like I want it. That doesn't bother me. I'd like to wear mostly hand knit sweaters, but some of the ones I've made get worn very little and just at home. Still, I learned something from every one of them. I'm definitely a process knitter.

I really should knit more things from patterns. They'd teach me a lot, too.

I've just never been one to follow the recipe. It's a good thing that I like my own cooking.

Lentils in Red Wine

Let's hope TypePad can handle a cut and paste of my recipe.

I promised this last night, but stopped to read a copule of blogs first -- bad plan.  Before I knew it, two AM had come and gone and with it my chance to get eight hours of sleep.

I have to head off to my Pilates class in half an hour, so this needs to work the first time. Cross your fingers. Any problems must wait until later tonight for repair.

I'll have another bean recipe then. And I'll discuss what my cooking style has to do with my knitting.

The recipe suggested French Green Lentils as a variation. I never make this with any other kind. French Green Lentils are smaller and a dark green speckled with black. They hold together for the most part even when cooked for a long time. Their flavor has a decidedly peppery component to it.  I buy my lentils in the bulk section of my large Whole Foods but I've also found this variety in boxes in the regular bean section, usually as the Dean and Delucca brand.

I've gotten in the habit of putting only part of the liquid I call for in the lentils to start. They usually don't need all of it. If they're too wet, or I just want them sooner, I'll pop the whole insert from the crock pot in the microwave for one or two five minute zaps.

This recipe originally came from The Savory Way by Deborah Madison. I've modified it in this copy of my recipe card. I also adjusted for what I had and didn't have (how could we be out of onions?) when I made it.

I don't follow my own recipes. That sentence should tell you a whole lot about my knitting.

Rinse:  1 pound French Green Lentils

Cover in hot water, then put in microwave on high for about 5 minutes to bring to boil

Cook in microwave 1 or 2 minutes until onion colors:

-2 or 3 Tbs. Olive Oil

-1 medium Onion, diced

-Several cloves Garlic, chopped (I chop the onion and garlic almost to mush in a blender.)

-3 or 4 Bay Leaves

-several pinches of Thyme

-1/2 C chopped Parsley (I often leave out the parsley.)

Put in large crock pot set on High with:

-1 or 2 Tbs. Tomato Paste (I use Sun-Dried from a tube)

-3 cups or one bottle hearty Red Wine (If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it.)

When the wine has been steaming for a while, add:

-Lentils with their water

-Just enough more water to cover if needed (The lentils take up a lots of water in the microwave so they don't absorb a lot more here and there's a lot of wine to absorb.)

-Salt, if you use it - I don't

Cook on high for 2 to 4 hours. Add more water if needed, then turn to low and cook overnight.

Add:     dash or two of

Sherry

Vinegar

-Ground Pepper