Although the concept of beans in brownies has been around for awhile, it took the right recipe to convince me that it’s a good idea.
A warning: these are not quite on par with real, dense, fudgy, bakery-style brownies – the kind with the chewy middle and crackling top that my grandma used to make. But for what they are – a big can of black beans providing enough starchiness to give them structure, eliminating the need for flour, sweetened with only 1/2 cup of sugar (about half that of most brownie recipes) – they’re pretty damn tasty. And the boys, who have no preconceived notion of what a brownie should be (besides square and chocolate), adore them. So why not?
I posted the recipe over at the Family Kitchen.
January 21 2011 | Family Kitchen | 19 Comments »
Can’t sleep. Can’t breathe. The cherry NyQuil and OJ Shirley Temple I mixed up (the Sick Shirley) has not kicked in yet. And so I’m up poking around the internet, figuring out how to do fun stuff like this. I have a cold. A drippy-nosed cold, the kind where you can generally breathe fine through one nostril but not at all through the other, and it feels like your brain is swathed in cotton batting. And when you run all the way down to the basement to change the laundry and come back up again, you have to sit down for a rest. Fortunately I’ve been on a bit of a soup kick lately, so I had some at the ready.
LOOK AT THE COLOUR OF THIS SOUP! It’s not part of the effect – this is what it looks like – a mug of lipstick/fire engine/nail enamel red paint. In Vancouver last week, I was lucky enough to stay at the new Fairmont Pacific Rim, which again made me question my decision to marry for love, not money. Downstairs in the giovani café there was a beet and butternut squash soup on the menu that I didn’t get, but the power of suggestion is strong with me. I wish I would have seen if it was chunky (like borscht) or smooth (like squash soup). I decided, since I’m totally into sippable soups right now (like I used to be into Vans and Social Distortion), that I’d do a purée. I roasted the squash and beets first, and added a splash of orange juice because it was in the fridge. It puréed into a brilliant red, the orange squash offsetting the Barney purple shade of beet. Lovely. And far better the second day. Particularly with a dollop of sour cream on top, which you could, if you wanted to, draw a bamboo skewer through to make a heart.
Roasted Beet and Butternut Squash Soup
canola or olive oil, for cooking
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced
2-3 beets, tops trimmed
1 large onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1-2 cups orange juice
1 L chicken or vegetable stock
a big splash of half & half (optional)
sour cream, for serving (optional)
Preheat the oven to 450F. Spread the squash out on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with oil. Wrap the beets individually in foil. Place the sheet in the oven and the beets directly on the rack; roast for 30 minutes, or until the squash is soft and turning golden on the edges.
In a medium pot, heat a drizzle of oil over medium heat and saute the onion for a few minutes, until starting to soften. Add the garlic and roasted squash. When they’re cool enough to handle, peel and chop the beets; add to the pot along with the orange juice and stock and simmer for about half an hour.
Add the cream, puree the soup with a hand-held immersion blender and season with salt to taste. Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream. Serves 6.
One Year Ago: Poached Eggs Over Warm Lentil Salad with Bacon
January 19 2011 | freezable and soup | 11 Comments »
I’ve been shirking my dinner duties, I know. Sorry. Today I made baked bread soup. Mostly because it sounded so intriguing – don’t you think? You cook down a ton of veg – the usual onion-carrot-celery trio, plus garlic, thin-skinned potatoes, kale, savoy cabbage, tomatoes and smooth white kidney beans – it really is pure virtue in a pot, this. Then you tear up almost half a loaf of crusty bread and poke the pieces in, and refrigerate the lot overnight. I did the whole thing in an enamel-covered cast iron pot – it went from stovetop to fridge, then into the oven the next day. On day 1 it doesn’t seem like all that much, but overnight it morphs into something much better, and then when you bake it uncovered rather than reheat it on the stovetop, it gets all crusty around the edges, almost like a casserole. I thought it needed some freshly grated Parmesan on top – don’t you agree?
The original called for 1 lb of dried white kidney beans, which are soaked, simmered, and then partly pureed. You could do this, of course. But I don’t want to turn you off at the prospect of having to soak and cook your beans before even starting on your “soup”, which then must sit in wait for a night before you can bake it. You could of course start with dried beans if you like.
It’s like a big ol’ salad, condensed and warmed up for winter. If you’re the type to crumble crackers into your soup and won’t be too upset at not being able to actually slurp it, you’ll love it.
In other news, this site has expanded a little. Dinner with Julie is now a citizen of the Republic of Facebook. All the cool kids were doing it, and I succumbed to peer pressure. That’s right, I have another page to update. It will be like Dinner with Julie Lite®. I do like the idea of posting little snippets and links and photos here and there in between the bigger posts, which I’m hoping will go back to being more dinner-oriented. I have some ideas. Stay tuned.
Tuscan Baked Bread Soup
adapted from Saveur, Issue #46
canola or olive oil
2 onions, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
2 celery ribs, thickly sliced
2 thin-skinned potatoes, chopped
1 large bunch swiss chard or kale, ribs removed and leaves torn or coarsely chopped
1/2 small savoy cabbage, cored and coarsely chopped
1 796 mL can whole plum tomatoes, undrained
1 L chicken or vegetable stock
3 thick slices day-old country-style crusty white bread
1 19 oz (540 mL) can white kidney or navy beans, drained
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat a good drizzle of oil over medium heat and saute the onions for about 10 minutes, until soft. Add carrots, celery, potatoes, chard and cabbage. Add tomatoes and stock, cover, and cook for about an hour, until everything is soft.
Tear the bread into chunks and add it to the pot, along with the beans. Cool completely and refrigerate.
The next day, preheat oven to 375º. Heat the leftover soup in the casserole in the oven, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 1 hour. For the last 30 minutes, do not stir; let soup brown lightly. If you like, top it with some Parmesan cheese. Drizzle with olive oil and serve.
January 18 2011 | one dish and soup and vegetarian | 12 Comments »
Waffles have become more than a weekend thing around here. The boys consider pancakes and waffles for breakfast the ultimate treat – the novelty has not worn off – and they are almost as simple to make as the house stumbles awake on a cold weekday morning as a bowl of cereal or oatmeal, particularly if there are leftovers in the freezer to pop in the toaster.
On this particular morning (post-sleepover, meaning waffles were a must), as I vaguely wondered what to do with a single blackened banana, I stumbled upon these banana waffles made with quinoa flour by Elizabeth and Brian, food bloggers from Brooklyn (I want to be that!) who I met when we were in New York (that does sound pretty cool, too) and really liked. They’re just great people, with a great blog. I wonder what my blog would be like if Mike contributed to it? Mike Mondays? More grilled cheese, I think.
Also: at the risk of turning into the Packaging Police, I must inform you that bottled pancake syrup has a longer ingredient list than I’m comfortable with – syrup should be an ingredient, not contain a lengthy list of them. I myself am hooked on the Real Thing – pure maple syrup (from our friend Manon if at all possible) – but in reality maple syrup is pricier than Scotch. A fairly wee bottle of real maple syrup will run you about $17, which lets face it, sends many people running into the arms of Aunt Jemima.
But let’s take a look at the ingredient list of bottled pancake syrup, shall we? I don’t think most people think to look at the ingredients. It’s just syrup, right? Sadly not. I was at my Mom’s house for brunch over the holidays (sorry Mom) and as a diabetic, she keeps the lite (lower sugar) stuff around. I took a peek. Serendipitously, my dad walked in with groceries at the same time, and had picked up a bottle of the regular stuff. Same thing. This is what the bottle of Aunt Jemima Lite (in Canada) contains:
INGREDIENTS: LIQUID SUGAR, WATER, CELLULOSE GUM, SALT, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOURS, SORBIC ACID, SODIUM BENZOATE, CARAMEL COLOUR, SODIUM HEXAMETAPHOSPHATE, SULPHITES.
If you look up the ingredients on the US website, you’ll get a slightly different spin:
INGREDIENTS: CORN SYRUP, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, WATER, CELLULOSE GUM, CARAMEL COLOR, SALT, SODIUM BENZOATE AND SORBIC ACID (PRESERVATIVES), ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL FLAVORS, SODIUM HEXAMETAPHOSPHATE.
So. Homemade syrup – why not? It’s just sugar, after all. Like hot cocoa, I’m not sure it even warrants a recipe. Homemade syrup is as cheap as it gets, and as easy to make as heating up stuff from the bottle that you have stored in the fridge. If you like, spike it with vanilla, or maple extract, or a splash of cream, or a handful of fresh or frozen berries. For a flavour twist, use apple cider or orange juice in place of the water.
Brown Sugar Syrup: bring two parts packed brown sugar to one part water or juice to a simmer; cook until the sugar dissolves completely. If you like, add a few drops of vanilla or maple extract. If it seems too runny, simmer it a little longer. Serve warm.
Of course you can keep your own syrup in a sealed jar in the fridge indefinitely.
Quinoa Banana Waffles
tweaked a bit from Brooklyn Supper, by way of the Family Kitchen
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour (or oat flour, or more all-purpose or flour)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 very ripe banana, mashed
In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, oil and vanilla. Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture, add the mashed banana and stir just until combined.
Pour batter into a preheated waffle iron using a measuring cup or ladle (as much as your particular machine can handle) and cook until golden brown. Keep them warm in a 200F oven, or serve immediately.
January 16 2011 | breakfast | 37 Comments »
I know I know… I’ve gone all Martha on you guys. But these are like little bite-sized coconut cream pies (without the fat) that you don’t need hot chocolate to enjoy – just float one straight-up on your tongue and let it melt. OK, chewing is probably a good idea.
I posted the recipe over at the Family Kitchen.
January 14 2011 | leftovers | 7 Comments »
