Edamame bean soup

At last! Edamame beans in the store. No, not yet the crisp bright green version, but edamame stored in a container with water. I should write to the manufacturer and ask for a frozen version. Still, here is my S.T.A.R. soup aka Fifteen Minute Soup, my only true contribution to these pages: soup with 3 ingredients + one star.

Edamame bean soup

2 leeks, chopped (oh, always add the green parts of course)
1 onion
1 piece of root celery
the star: edamame beans
olive oil
1 bay leaf
seasoning: horsetail powder, a bit of curry, pepper, salt
1 l water

Heat olive oil, add all vegetables including the beans, braise for 10-15 minutes over low-medium heat until the root celery pieces are soft.

Mix this mixture with the hand mixer, only then add water, mix some more until silky smooth. Adjust the seasoning.

Serve with some flat parsley and out of sheer snobbery some of the beans as decoration.

Bean stew with tomato and goat cheese

Nina, my newspaper's weekend magazine, listed a few oven dishes by an Antwerp chef, Johan Segers of 't Fornuis. Originially this was Bean stew with Sainte-Maure, a commercial lightly ash-covered goat cheese. Think Panzanella, but the winter version with beans.

Original recipe (serves 4)

50 g white beans, 50 g coconut* beans and 50 g bonito* beans (*don't know what these are, I only used white beans), 50 g flagolets (brown beans), 50 g Gigantes or giant Greek white beans: all soaked for 2 hours. Chef says working from dried beans gives better taste (but it is a lot of work). If you have oceans of time or are a professional, cook each type of bean separately, and drain.

10 cherry tomatos, skinned, deseeded, cut in two (I skipped those).
2 normal tomatoes, skinned, deseeded, cut in two.
8 tablespoons tomato sauce (I used concentrate - on purpose, rich source of licopene)
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 roll of goat cheese Sainte-Maure (I used an ash-covered organic runny goat cheese, crust removed)
4 slices of bread, cut crouton-style

Preheat oven at 180 °C.
Combine beans, tomato sauce, bread, garlic, and season with salt and pepper. Put this at the bottom of the oven tin.
Cover with the fresh tomatoes, and add the goat cheese on top.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until cheese has melted.

Note: an even better idea is to infuse the bread with olive oil and minced garlic, just like Panzanella. Also, add a little olive oil to the bean mixture.

Add some chopped parsley, serve at once. Quick and home-made!

Zucchini tart and string beans

Don't just think that hardly any time for food excludes the home-made vegetable tart. Here is a meal gilded by the evening light of a side order of string beans, stewed in some oil and their own juices, and a vegetable tart filled with zucchini and goat cheese. Hey, why not a string beans and goat cheese tart next time?

Key message of this post: Jason Epstein's memoir Eating has liberated me once and for all of the imperative that we should at all cost let a dough of pâte brisée (in some older posts on vegetable tarts I've spoken of pâte sablée) rest after blending the ingredients. Epstein doesn't bother, and I don't either, ever.

Pâte brisée (my recipe, see also Taty's in her book Tartes et Légumineuses)
10 dl (100 ml) cold water
250 g flour
125 g butter
pinch of salt (or add other spices e.g. paprika, curry)

Combine until you have the consistency of a soft leather glove. Quickly flatten and in one move, drape over a round baking tin. Cut off remaining edges if needed, form a smaller ball with them, and use the next day for something else (like a covered fruit dessert for instance).

Al fresco: springtime minestrone

Last week the minestra at an Italian local restaurant was not exactly the same as the one I had ordered there a few months back. On both accounts however it was greatly satisfying both to palate and the eye.

So it dawned on me: minestrone takes advantage of the cook's taste for color, his whim or the season's vegetables. This soup looked prim with its slivers of yellow bell pepper, a green leafy vegetable and soy sprouts. And it also had brown beans, chickpeas and white beans tossed in.

So after cleaning out my fridge first to be methodical about buying my weekend vegetables next, I got hold of some springtime stars -fresh pea pods! bright green-leaf paksoy!- and made my own springtime minestrone. I've posted the drill before.

To summarize my cues from The Harry's Bar Cookbook, here are 3 big steps:

1. Frying an onion for 10-15 minutes until browned.
2. Adding the vegetables and stewing them for 15 minutes with a bay leaf and seasoning.
3. Adding both broth and tomato paste, letting come to a boil, then letting simmer for 15' minutes. If the soup's too thick, add some more boiling water.

I quickly made my own 15' vegetable broth mainly with leek and winter turnip - 15 minutes is my favorite cue in soup making.
Then I was getting all geared up, realizing this could be my first evening meal al fresco.
The sun was abundant while I was chopping away. Here are my spring vegetables and legumes:
-leek
-green celery
-carrot
-1 tomato, peeled
-green peas
-1/4 huge red bell pepper
-pakshoy leaves, chopped
-1 new potato
-brown and white beans and a few chickpeas

Note: it was my first meal al fresco on a day without airplanes and a sunset tinged by volcanic ash.

Dreaming of catching summer: minestrone

Two experiences set off wanting to eat this soup: a friend's vegetable soup which used as a base her mother's fantastic home-made sterilized summer tomatoes, to which she added a bit of leek and onion, and a visit to a local Italian restaurant where I tried the minestrone.

I also used dry gigantes elephantes, as they are called in Greece, aka the great white, the jumbo white bean, soaked overnight and cooked with fresh sage, ready for further use. I glanced over at the Harry's Bar cookbook for their Minestrone recipe with my own additions (beans, pancetta) or slight changes.

Dreaming of catching summer: minestrone

My additions:
200 g Gigantes or jumbo white beans, cooked
1 slice of pancetta, chopped in pieces
1 clove of garlic

Harry's Bar Cookbook ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
30 g butter
1 onion, sliced
1 celery rib, diced
2 leeks, thinly sliced
1 large tomato
2 small zucchini
A small wedge of Savoy cabbage
1 medium potato
1 medium carrot
6 asparagus spears (omitted here)
1 bay leaf
salt, pepper
2 liter boiling water or chicken stock
80 ml tomato sauce (I used tomato concentrate)
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Sauté the onion in olive oil, add half of the butter, wait until the onion is well browned after 10-15 minutes. This browning is indeed key to taste.

Add the pancetta, garlic, beans and remaining vegetables, bay leaf, salt and pepper, and stew until the vegetables are tender. In all about 15-25 minutes.

Add the stock, and the tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and let simmer for about 15 more minutes.

Stir in the remaining butter and adjust the seasoning.

Serve to plenty of folk, and imagine catching next summer in a jar.

Why pico de gallo here in winter is a very bad idea

Black beans work their charm on me: when seeing this rarity in a supermarket here, I instantly want to eat them. And that's where my fantasy of conjuring up the Great Texan Tastes finds its spark.

Not only did I start a reverie about Tart Black Bean Salsa, I was so overly reckless to add Texas Pico as well.

When having to decide how long to cook black beans, I choose to be on the safe side: 2 hours, as say Grady Spears and June Naylor in The Texas Cowboy Kitchen, which has the recipes.

Tart Black Bean Salsa with Texas Pico de Gallo

From The Texas Cowboy Kitchen

2 cups of dried black beans (I had leftovers of about 250 g)
16 cups of water (or 1,5 times the amount of the beans)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 large ears of yellow corn (omitted here, replaced by a few tablespoons of tinned corn)
1 red bell pepper
1-2 granny smith apples (omitted here)
1 cup Texas pico
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chile powder (I used chipotle chile)
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon white vinegar

First, let the black beans soak overnight in plenty of water. The next day, rinse them.

Secondly, cook the black beans in water. Bring to a boil first, then reduce the heat and let simmer for 2 hours.

(Skipped here): Preheat the over at 450 °F, remove the husks and silks from the corn, brush with vegetable oil and place them on a baking sheet. Roast for 15-20 minutes, turning to roast evenly. Remove from oven, let cool, and cut the corn from the cob.

In a bowl, combine the cooked corn, the black beans, and everything else. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Texas pico de gallo

6 jalapenos, sliced (replaced by small red and green chile peppers)
1 red onion
6 green onions, thinly sliced (I used scallions)
2 tomatoes, diced
2 bunches cilantro leaves, stems removed and minced
juice of 2 limes
salt

Combine everything, drizzle with lime juice, and salt, toss again, let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

I hereby solemnly declare that on account of the tomatoes, the limes and yes, even the cilantro, albeit tended to with the utmost care by destemming every leaf, making pico de gallo in Belgium in winter is a totally futile attempt. It certainly looks the part, but doesn't taste like it. I drowned my disillusion in a dollop of sour cream.

Enamor them with lunch

Preparing copious lunch salads is always a treat, and double portions come in handy when visitors surprize you unannounced. Although this Bean Salad from my favorite book Super Salads (Dutch ISBN 90-5920 164 7) by Michael van Straten can also serve as a small appetizer before a meal, as main dish it managed to captivate my guest on a sunny high noon in October.

Bean Salad with Eggs and Curry

4 hard boiled eggs
1 can (300 g) of green flageolet beans
1 can (300g) of white beans
2 tablespoons curry powder
6 tablespoons of mayonaise
1 red onion
2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro

Prepare and combine all ingredients.

Note: I used parsley instead of cilantro, and only white beans. Generous amounts of curry powder give this dish pizzazz. I used Budwig mayo instead of real one (with linseed oil and cottage cheese). The salad is said to stimulate blood circulation.