Not cassoulet, just lamb and beans

This isn't cassoulet.  It may be better.  It isn't cholent either. It takes time but not much effort and no hard-to-find ingredients.  It is perfect for a Sunday evening meal, or even a Friday evening. You can leave it to cook while you are toodling around the house.  It can sit in the oven for hours on low either before or after you do the bread crumb topping.

The inspiration for this was twofold.  One is the pre-Pesach purge.  We had some presoaked frozen limas in the fridge, as well as some lamb neck, and I couldn't think of anything better to do with them, perhaps because there isn't.  The other is my father reminiscing about how his mother used to stew limas with meat bones.  You could also use other beans, but the lima was my grandmother's preferred bean.  She also rarely cooked lamb, and I am pretty sure that she never cooked with rosemary, but this dish still tastes like someone's grandmother made it.

What this dish is is REALLY good.  There is something about he combination of meat fat and gelatin and tender beans that is deeply satisfying, particularly on a chilly day accompanied by some red wine.  The quantities below will serve 4-6, though the recipe could be halved or doubled. You could also cook it on 325 for a total of 90 minutes to 2 hours, but slow and steady is  better.

Lamb with Beans

Ingredients

• 1 pound large white lima beans or gigantes, washed and soaked overnight (see below)
• 1-2 pounds meaty lamb bones, like neck
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large or 2 medium onions, chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 2 anchovy filets (optional but desirable)
• 1/4  to 1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (optional but desirable)
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees and bring some water to the boil.
2. Heat olive oil, reserving about 2 teaspoons,  in  a 4-quart oven safe casserole, dry the lamb, and saute on all sides until nicely browned.  Remove lamb to a dish.
3. Saute the onions in the oil until they begin to brown, and chop three of the garlic coarsely, add to the pot and saute on low about a minute.  Add the anchovy filets and the Aleppo pepper and mash the anchovy until it becomes a paste.  
4. Add about a cup of water to the pot and deglaze until the brown bits on the pot have dissolved.
5. Return the lamb to the pot, add the beans, and barely cover with boiling water.  Tuck the rosemary sprigs into the pot and season with salt and pepper. 
6. Bring to the simmer, cover and put in the oven for two hours.
7. Uncover, correct salt and pepper, and put it back for another one or two hours, depending on how tender the lamb and beans are and how much liquid you want.  If you leave it for the full two hours much of the liquid will evaporate and the beans on top will begin to become crusty.
8. Smash the remaining garlic with salt, and chop-smash into almost a paste. Mix the garlic together  with the bread crumbs and  parsley.  Spread on top of the meat and beans, and return to the oven for 15 minutes to a half hour or even more.  If the bread crumbs are not brown, turn on the broiler for a few minutes, but watch it carefully, since you do not want to burn the bread crumbs or the garlic.  
9. Serves 4 - 6 with a nice red wine, some salad and maybe some bread.  

The beans: As I mention above, in my grandmother's house it was almost always limas, unless it was cholent and some red kidney beans might sneak in.  You could also make this with another white bean such as great northern or navy.  Gigantes, the giant Greek limas, are my favorite -- they have a great flavor and texture and hold up well under long cooking -- though they are more expensive.  Beans really don't need to be soaked overnight.  As Barbara Kafka has remarked, beans are legumes, and not phantoms, and there is nothing magical about the nighttime.  (Well, maybe there is, but not as far as beans are concerned.)  Just rinse them and soak them in water for 4-8 hours.  Time does not necessarily equal effort.  Once you have soaked beans, you can drain and freeze them so that they are ready on shorter notice.  

Red beans with sour plum chutney -- Lobio Tkemali

Many (okay, three) devoted readers of this blog have noted that I have not posted in the past several months.  This is because our kitchen is being renovated.  I won't go into this here because it has been much of my life for the past three months and blogging is an escape from it all.  Needless to say, our home cooking has been limited and rather uninteresting.  However, I have made a few things which can be done without an stove, oven or much prep work, so I thought I would share them here.  One of my favorite is a Georgian red bean salad with a dressing of sour plum sauce called Lobio tkemali.  Although better with home-cooked beans, it can be made with canned beans as well.  The sauce can be made in a microwave. If you have the sauce on hand, it takes a few minutes to pull it all together.

Lobio tkemali

Ingredients

• 1 large can small red beans (red kidney beans are an acceptable substitute, home-cooked beans a significant improvement
• 1 cup tkemali sauce (about 1/2 of the recipe below)
• 1 small red onion
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped coriander
• salt to taste

Method

1. Rinse the beans well to remove all of the gross liquid in the can. Drain well and put into a serving bowl.
2. Mix in the tkemali sauce.
3. Peel the onion and cut a few thin slices from the center for garnish.  Chop the rest fine.
4. Mix the chopped onion and 1/4 cup of the coriander.
5. Spread the remaining coriander on top of the beans, and garnish with onion rings.
6. Serves 6 as a side dish or appetizer.

I give a double recipe for the plum sauce because it is almost as easy to make in a double as it is in a single recipe and it is very versatile.  It goes well with the George Foreman grilled boneless chicken breast or thigh with spice rubs that have been a mainstay of our kitchen-less diet as well as with shashlik and other kebabs properly cooked over charcoal.   It is the classic accompaniment to kachapuri, the Georgian cheese-stuffed bread.

Tkemali is the name of a Georgian sour plum and a sauce from which it is made.  The great Darra Goldstein recommends using slightly underripe Santa Rosa plums.  I don't know if I have ever even seen this variety, so I make the sauce with Italian prune plums, which are nice and tart and in season in September and October.  If you can 't find these plums, you can make it with empress or any other black plum,  underripe preferred.  Taste the sauce toward the end of cooking, and if it is sweet rather than sour, add some balsamic vinegar or tamarind paste,  bit at a time, until it is nice and sour.  The seasoning is really to taste, but I find that the proportions below make a delicious, sour, garlic, slightly spicy sauce.  The time is also approximate, and will depend on such variables at the power of your microwave, shape of the container, etc.

Microwave Tkemali

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (sunflower is more widely used in the former Soviet Union, I use canola
• 15-20 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
• 2 hot fresh chili peppers, red or green  (a variety like serrano, cayenne or bird chili is fine, keep the seeds in if you want the heat), slice 
• 2 pounds fresh prune plums, quartered lengthwise and pitted
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt, or more to taste
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander

Method

1. Heat oil is a 2 quart or larger microwave-safe casserole on high for two minutes.
2. Add garlic and chili, stir, and zap two minutes more.
3. Add plums and salt, stir, cover with a piece of paper towel, and zap for 5 minutes.
4. Stir in half the coriander, and cook for 5 minutes more.
5. Remove from oven, and taste for texture and sourness.  If too thin, return to the microwave for a few minutes until the texture of a thick compote.  The plums will lose more than 2/3 of their volume.  If it is not sour enough, add a bit of tamarind or balsamic vinegar until it is.  Return to the overn for a few minutes to blend flavors.
6. When cool, and just before serving, stir in the rest of the coriander. (The sauce will keep longer if you hold back on mixing in raw ingredients until just before serving.)
7. Makes about 2 cups of sauce.

Kale, chick pea and farro soup

As I noted in an earlier post while I am happy to use a bit of Osem soup powder now and again, I avoid canned beans when I can.  Go figure.

This is real detox food, something that we needed after the holidays and a deep-fat,sugar  and alcohol filled trip to Austin.   I will give the recipe how we made it (cooked, not canned chick peas but Osem soup powder, quick cooking farro) and suggest a varity of substitutions so that you can fit it with the way you cook.  If your pantry is stocked like ours, this is a super-easy soup an great on a chilly day.

Kale, chickpea and farro soup

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 stalkes celery, trimmed and chopped
• 2 carrots, trimmed and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic peeled and sliced
• 1-2 bunches of kale (preferably Russian or lacinato kale, but use what you can get, including a bag of the pre-washed stuff); wash, remove coarse ribs and cut into thick shreds
• Salt and pepper
• 1 to 1 1/2 quarts water (bringing it to a boil separately while you are doing the rest will save lots of time)
• parmesean cheese rinds (optional, but highly desireable)
• 1/2 pound chickpeas, cooked, with their soaking liquid (see below)
• 1 tablespoon Osem powder, or two bullion cubes (more or less)
• 1/2 cup quick-cooking farro

Method

1. Heat the oil on medium-high in a 4-quart pot, and add the onion, celery and carrot as they are prepared and saute until soft but not browned.  Add a sprinkline of  salt and pepper, which will help this along, but not too much salt since the soup powder and cheese rind will be salty.
2. Add the garlic and saute another minute.
3. Add the kale and saute, stirring occasionally until it wilts and loses much of its volume.
4. Add the water and cheese rind and bring the soup to the boil.
5. Turn heat down to simmer and cook 20 minutes. 
6. Add the chickpeas and their water and bring to the boil again.
7. Add the Osem powder if using, taste for saltiness, and correct seasonings.
8. Add the farro and cook about 10 minuts until tender.  If you are using pearled farro, not precooked, it may take around a half hour so add it when you add the water.
9. Serve on its own, with a drizzle of olive oil, or some grated parmesean cheese.

Chickpeas:  I prefer homemade chickpeas for this, and often have some in the freezer.  Soak one pound of chick peas for eight hours or overnight in plenty of water with a pinch of baking soda.  Drain, rinse and put in a pot,  cover with water by about one inch, bring to the boil and simmer until done, about 30-45 minutes.  Skim the scum that comes to the surface at the beginning of cooking.  Use half the chickpeas and liquid in this soup and freeze the rest to use in the recipe of your choice.  If you insist on using canned chickpeas it will still be good.  Use one large can, drain and rinse well, and increase the liquid in the soup by about 2 cups. 

Choices, choices, choices:  Fresh cooked chick peas but MSG-filled soup powder?  That is how I cook and people tend not to complain.  By all means, you can substitute canned chickpeas, as above, or use a vegetable stock (preferably homemade) if you swing that way.  If you are not concerned about kashrut, or eliminte the cheese rind, use a chicken or meat broth.   The parmesean cheese rind adds great umami flavor.  Alessandra Rovati of the wonderful Dinner in Venice blog notes that Italian Jews will often throw cheese rinds into soups in lieu of meat bones. The quantity is hard to specify, I would say a 2-3 inch piece is sufficient. 

Mica's chickpeas

Mica Hoodbhoy is 50% Turkish, 50% Pakistani, but 100% gastronome.  She is one of the people, and they are relatively few (no offense intended to the rest of you), whose taste in food I really respect. This is her recipe, more or less, for chickpeas cooked with tomatoes and spinach.  You can add roasted or fried eggplant if you want to, but you really don't have to, though the illustration below includes eggplant.  It is a cinch.   I made it with canned chickpeas and it was just fine.  You can make it with chickpeas you cook yourself and it will be even better.  This is a very easy vegetarian main dish to whip up on short notice.

Mica's chickpeas


Ingredients

• 1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed
• 1 medium-large onion, chopped
• 4-10 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
• a few grindings black pepper
• 14 or 28 ounce can crushed or diced tomatoes, with liquid (depends on how tomatoe-y you want the dish)
• 1 eggplant, cut into 1 inch pieces and roasted (optional-- I cut it into one inch chunks, toss with a bit of oil, broil for 5-10 minutes and then roast on 425 until cooked through)
• 19 ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained well (or 2-3 cups cooked chickpeas, which are always better, but ease is of the essence here)
• salt to taste
• 10 ounces - 1 pound fresh spinach, shredded (I find that the pre-washed large leaf spinach works well here)
• 1 - 3 teaspoons dried spearmint (don't use peppermint here)

Method

1. Heat the vegetable oil in large pot or skillet. 
2. Add cumin seed and cook for a minute or so until it darkens slightly.
3. Add onion and saute until soft but not brown, about 5 minutes.
4. Add garlic and saute for a minute or two, but do not brown. 
5. Add the Aleppo and black peppers and saute on low another minute.
6. Add tomatoes and cook on high for about 10 minutes until the oil separates and it thickens into a sauce.
7. Add chickpeas, eggplant and salt to taste and cook until eggplant is soft and chickpeas are hot. (Some people who live in my house prefer the eggplant soft.  If you like it firmer, make sure that it is cooked through when you roast it and add it just before the spearmint.)
8. Add spinach, cover and cook until spinach is done to taste. (Some people like it barely cooked, some like it cooked much longer.  The time will depend on your taste, as well as the size and shape of the pot. Don't get me started about how long it takes things to cook......)
9. Add the spearmint.  If it is crushed and clean, you can add it straight to the pot.  If it is in leaf form, you have to push it through a sieve to leave the debris behind.
10. Cook another few minutes and serve with rice, bulgur, pita or couscous.  It is also nice with yoghurt, especially with a crushed clove of garlic and some salt.
11. Serves 3-4 as a main dish depending on what else your are serving, and many more as a side.

Spanish chickpea soup, farkashert

One of the nice things about cooking dried beans is that you can freeze them in the process, after soaking or after cooking, so it is easy to have some to add to a dish.  I keep beans in process in the freezer in zip-loc bags or plastic containers along with their soaking or cooking water which actually adds flavor rather than just slime and salt to the final product. The important thing, of course, is to label them so that you know at which stage they were frozen.

I was feeling under the weather today, and noticed that we had some frozen cooked chickpeas in the freezer, as well as some semi-dried turkey kubano sausages, and I was in the mood for a soup. This kosher version of Spanish chickpea and chorizo soup was the result.  I find the turkey sausages a good substitute for the chorizo, and I accentuate the smokiness by using smoked Spanish paprika and fire-roasted tomatoes. Then again, maybe it is just too long since I have had the real thing.  The quantities are very approximate and little more of this or a little less of that according to you taste won't hurt anyone. The amounts below make for a rather soupy soup.  A diced potato or turnip added 10 minutes before the end would be a nice addition as well.  It looks a lot nicer than the picture here, which actually looks like hubagrits soup with which it has little in common, but I though I should post a picture because my blog lacks visuals.  Here is how you do it:



Spanish chickpea soup 

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 6 links semi-dried turkey kubano sausages (about 3 ounces)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion or shallot
• 5 cloves sliced garlic
• 1 heaping tablespoon smoked Spanish paprika
• 14 ounce can diced or crushed tomatoes (I use Muir Glen fire-roasted -- the smoky flavor is particularly important here)
• 2 cups chicken broth (while homemade is nice, I used boxed Manischewitz; if you must, 2 use cups water and a bouillon cube or 2 teaspoons Osem powder)
• 2 cups frozen cooked chickpeas with their liquid (if you must, you can substitute a 19 ounce can, drained and rinsed)
• Pepper and salt

Method

1. Dice 2 of the sausages fine and saute in olive oil in a saucepan on medium heat until brown.
2. Add the onion or shallot and saute until soft.  Add the garlic and saute a minute or to longer.
3. Turn heat to low and stir in the paprika and a few grindings of black pepper if you want.  Saute another minute.
4. Add the tomatoes, turn the heat to high, and cook about 10 minutes until it thickens into a sauce.
5. Add the broth and the remain links, whole but pricked with a fork and bring to the boil. Turn heat down and simmer for 10 minutes.  
6. Add the chickpeas and their liquid if using (they will defrost in the soup), bring back to the boil, turn heat down, cover and simmer on low for 20 minutes.  \
7. Remove the whole sausages, slice, and return to the soup.  Correct for salt and pepper.  (I don't salt until the end since the broth and sausages generally have salt.)
8. Serves 4 as an appetizer or two as a main course.  

Chick pea and coconut curry with sweet potatoes

I love my pressure cooker.  It makes a great bean or lentil soup in a fraction of the time it would take to cook conventionally, and can cook a clod into submission in minutes rather than hours.  But, I find that for cooking beans and bean stews, rather than soups, it can be dicey.  They can easily get pressured into a pap, and you need to cook them with too much liquid for the result to be a thick stew, rather than a soup, if that is what you want.

There is an interesting looking recipe for chick peas cooked with sweet potatoes and coconut milk in Lorna Sass's Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure.  However,  I found the pressure cooker version of this too liquid, and the sweet potatoes tended to dissolve into a puree, which is something my wife doesn't like.   I substituted a vegan Thai curry paste for the curry power (many curry pastes are made with fermented shrimp) and added some lemongrass, for a more Thai flavor.  I also reengineered Sass's recipe for conventional cooking, and the consensus was that it is a keeper:

Chickpea and coconut curry with sweet potatoes


Ingredients

• 1 pound dried chickpeas (or 2 large cans)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (coconut oil is actually very nice here)
• 2 large shallots, sliced
• 2-4 cloves sliced garlic (if my mother isn't coming to dinner)
• 1 tablespoon Thai-style red vegan curry paste (if you don't care about the shrimp you can use any kind;  if you can't find it, you can use curry powder  -- the dish will be good, but just not quite as good)
• 1 stalk lemongrass, rinsed trimmed and dried outer leaves removed if necessary, and cut into two inch pieces
• 14 ounce can diced tomatoes (I use Muir Glen fire-roasted)
• 14 ounce can coconut milk (light is fine)
• 1 tablespoon Bragg's amino's or soy sauce
• salt to taste
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1-2  sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice

Method

1. If using dried chick peas, pick over for any stones, rinse, and soak 8 hours or over night. Alternatively, you can quick soak them by boiling them for 1 minute and then setting them aside, covered for an hour or two.
2. Drain and rinse the soaked chick peas. Put them in a 3- to 4-quart pot, cover with water by about one inch and bring to the boil.  Skim off the foam if there is any, turn the heat down to medium, and simmer until just a bit firmer than you like.  It is hard to predict the time, but depending on the age of the chickpeas, how fast they are cooking, and how long they soaked, it should take between 25 and 45 minutes.   (You can do this beforehand -- they will keep several days in the fridge or frozen for months.)  
3. If you are using the cans, just drain and rinse well.
4. While the chick peas are cooking, heat the oil on high in a medium nonstick skillet, add shallots, salt lightly and cook until they begin to brown.  Add garlic if you are using and stir a few times.
5. Turn heat to low, add curry paste, and cook another minute, stirring. Add lemongrass and cook for a few seconds.
6. Add the tomatoes and half of the cilantro, turn heat to high, and cook for about 5-8 minutes until it turns into a sauce.
7. Add coconut milk, and simmer on medium low until it thickens.  Add the Bragg's aminos or soy sauce.
8. Add the sauce mixture to the chick peas, stir in the sweet potatoes, and cook until the peas and potatoes are done to your liking, about 20 minutes.
9. Garnish with the remaining cilantro and serve with rice and lime wedges, and with a hot sauce like sambal oelek for those who want it.
10. This is a vegetarian main dish for four or a side for eight to ten. 

Cuban-style black beans, I think (beware of puerile humor)

I am cursed with an excellent memory for foods that I have cooked and/or eaten. There are some days when it is touch and go whether I remember my kids names, but I can often recall how I made something in 1978. Like this dish.

It was spring of my senior year in college in Chicago, and Henry Chao, who thought that he was something of a social failure, was coming over to our house for dinner before driving overnight to Boston with some people he didn't know. We made this version of black beans and rice, which was delicious. We did, however, cook the beans in the soaking water, which though it does add to the flavor also adds considerably to the amount of gas produced by those who eat it. As my roommates and I suffered through our musical evening, we could only think of how Henry must have felt. I don't recall him talking to any of us the rest of the year.

I think the recipe came from one of the early New York Times international cookbooks, but I haven't been able to find it so at this point I claim it as my own. I think it was called Cuban-style black beans, but I may be wrong. If there was originally meat in it, it has become vegetarian over time. You could always add a hunk of the smoky/fatty/salty animal bit of your choice when you cook the beans, but it really doesn't need it. It is easy and good.

I made this tonight for dinner at my daughter's insistence. She said the weather called for it, and she was right. I didn't have a recipe, but cooked more or less from memory from over 30 years ago. I wish I could remember other things as well. We had it with rice and some ropa vieja leftovers from the freezer.

Cuban-style black beans

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried black beans
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium or one large onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 3-9 cloves of garlic, to taste, peeled
• coarse salt, about 1 teaspoon
• 1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns
• rind of 1 lemon, grated
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Method

1. Pick over beans to remove stones and odd looking bits, rinse well, and soak 6-8 hours or overnight. (As I have said before, beans are not phantoms. It is the time and not the time of day that counts.)
2. Boil water in a kettle. (This should probably be the second or third thing you do every evening when you walk into the house, since you will probably end up using it and it will save lots of time later.)
   
3. Drain and rinse beans. (Decreases though does not eliminate negative consequences later).
4. Place in a 4 quart pot and cover with the boiling water by about 1/2 inch. Add more water if necessary. Bring to a boil, skim the scum if there is much, and simmer until nearly done. If the beans look like they are drying out, add more water. Duh. This can take from 25-40 minutes, but see below for more detail.
5. Meanwhile, saute the onion in the olive oil on medium heat. When soft but not brown, add the green pepper and saute until soft.
6. Meanwhile, crush the garlic with the coarse salt and peppercorns until you have a paste. Add the lemon zest, cumin and oregano and crush some more.
7. Add the garlic and spice mixture to the onions and peppers, and saute a few minutes until fragrant and the garlic loses some of its raw odor.
8. Add the lemon juice and cook a minute more.
   
9. The the beans are almost soft -- the skins of a few will be splitting but most will still have some bite or tooth to them, add the seasonings. Cook on very low heat about 10 minutes more.
10. Ideally, shut the heat and let the beans sit for 10 minutes to an hour and then reheat. This will allow the beans, which were cooked without salt to absorb it and the other seasonings. If you want the liquid to be thicker, mash some of the beans before you reheat, but reheat very carefully so that you don't burn them.
    
11. Serve with rice. Other nice accompaniments, depending on the meal, are olive oil (including garlic or hot pepper seasoned oil), hot sauce, vinegar (balsamic and sherry are especially nice), chopped onion, avocado, cilantro and sour cream.

Canned or dried beans?: In almost all cases, dried beans are superior, and don't contain the sudsy goo that canned beans do. Although it takes a bit more time, it takes almost no effort to cook them, only time. It also saves money. You can also control the texture of the end product. Black beans are one of the only varieties that I have found that are a partial exception to this. Canned black beans tend to be firmer than the others, but you still have to rinse off the goo in the can and you don't get the nice bean broth. If you make this dish with canned beans, you can either add some vegetable or chicken broth, or have drier beans without the liquid. But you should really make it from scratch. The actual time it takes to cook them is hard to predict and depends largely on the age of the beans. I tend to cook them in relatively little water, so there will be some nice broth but it won't be too soupy, and start tasting as early as 20 minutes after they start to cook. Why do it from scratch if you end up with mush?