Quick pepper, onion, and sausage soup

For quite a while I carried around the notion that soups had to be long simmered.  Soup was an all day affair.  But, I was wrong.

This soup uses boxed chicken broth and canned beans. It is not really a set recipe, more of a "fridge soup".  It started as a recipe from a camping magazine.  The main ingredients are peppers, onions and sausage.



Procedure:
*Brown 12 ounces (or more) of sausage.  This time I started with sweet Italian sausage, but I've used smoked sausage, or chorizo sausage.

*Reserve some fat and slowly cook thinly sliced onions until softened and slightly carmelized..

*Add sliced peppers. I used small sweet peppers.  I have used bell peppers and added hotter varieties.  Depends on what's on hand.

*Add 1 quart chicken stock.  Homemade stock is always best, but I seldom have it on hand. One of the characteristics of homemade stock is a high gelatin content.  Gelatin from the bones will often cause refrigerated stock to tighten up like jello. A bit of unflavored gelatin adds body to boxed stock.  I added one envelop when I added the stock. It's nice, but not necessary.

*Extras - I had about 6 ounces of cooked mushrooms from the night before.  They went in the pot. Sometimes we have an extra baked potato, it would have been a good addition.  Nancy likes more beans and would have added a second can.  Try something.

*Simmer until heated throughout.

Cassoulet

Now I'm getting fancy (or not).  I wanted to use my new dutch oven. A cassoulet is basically a bean casserole or bean stew.  It is French, but French peasant cooking. That means it was designed to be flexible like any homemade stew or soup . Many French versions use duck legs. Other regions use lamb shoulder as the primary meat. All use sausages. In the U.S. we have chicken available.  Working off a recipe from Serious Eats, I made my version..

Looking at the procedure list, this seems insanely complicated.  It's not.  I'm just making a pot of baked pork and beans.  I've browned some chicken and sausages to add to the pot.

Jacques Pepin has a recipe for a 30 minute Hurray! Cassoulet  He uses canned beans. I'm  not sure his is a lot easier.  It's not hard to let a pot bake in a slow oven.

Procedure:
*The night before start 8 ounces of beans soaking.  Add 1 tablespoon of kosher salt to 1 quart of water.
* Cook 4 oz of salt pork. Cut it up into small chunks and cook until crispy. Remove from pan.
* Trim excess fat and skin from 4 chicken thighs and brown in the pork fat. This will render a lot of fat from the chicken.
* Remove most of the fat and add 8 to 12 ounces of sausages to pan.  Cook until they are browned.   Seasoning for this dish will come from the meats.  Salt pork will add salt, so be careful of additional salt. Select sausages like garlic and onion, or Italian.

* Remove the sausages and cook one chopped onion until it is soft. Scrape up the brown fond on the bottom of the pan and add a few tablespoons of wine if necessary to deglaze.




* Rinse the beans and add them to the pan.  Add enough chicken stock to cover the beans. If you are not using homemade stock, see the Serious Eats recipe for hints on how to add a bit of unflavored gelatin to add body to the stock.
* Bring the beans to a simmer and cook for 40-45 minutes.




*Add all the meats back to the pan.  Arrange the chicken skin side up.  Bake in a 285 -300 degree oven for 4 hours.  Check every hour or so and add stock or water as necessary.  The beans should just remain covered.

Serve in a shallow bowl

Homemade Bean Soup

This is double homemade soup.  The beans all came from the garden.  Last years crop of green beans got ahead of us. Toward the end of the season we let the beans mature and dry.

Cooking the beans was fairly standard. At 8:00 A.M.,  I covered the beans with water and brought the pot to a boil.  After 5 minutes the heat was turned off and the beans soaked until 3:00 P.M.

The beans were rinsed and covered with fresh water.  Using/modifying a Mennonite Girls Recipe, I added several smoked ham shanks, 1/3 cup brown sugar and a couple of tablespoons of hot sauce.

The soup simmered for about 3 hours.  The shanks were removed.  I used an immersion blender to blend about 1/4 of the beans and thicken the soup. Remove the ham from the bones and put it it back to the soup.

Nancy made some corn bread muffins for a perfect supper.

Cold night stew

Probably every amateur cook  has heard of Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon.  It's a stew with beef and carrots cooked in a red wine broth. Following her recipe exactly is a lot of work with a lot of ingredients.  This variation was easy and satisfying on a cold winter night.

A note: cooking shows sometimes pretentiously advise cooks to "never use a wine you wouldn't drink".  It's implied that using cheap red wine (CRW) will not taste good.  These same people will moan about how the complex flavors of wine will be destroyed if the wine is allowed in an environment that is more than 80 degrees.  I use the cheap stuff for cooking , but then I'll also drink it.

Recipe #49  CRW Beef Stew

1-1.5 pounds beef chuck
1 pound carrots
1 diced onion
1 rib of celery - diced
1/4 cup flour
1 or 2 cups red wine
1 can beef broth (or two cups water)
salt and pepper
Herbs de Provence
Mashed potatoes 2-4 servings
1 package frozen pearl onions (10 ounces)

Cut the beef into uniform chunks.  Brown the meat in a little oil.  Lots of brown stuff (fond) on the bottom if the pan leads to good flavor so don't crowd the meat.  I browned mine in three batches. 


Remove the meat and cook the diced onion and celery.  Scrape up the fond.  Add the meat back into the pot and stir in the flour.   Keeping stirring until the flour disappears.




  Add carrots.  Add the wine, broth, and/or enough water to cover the ingredients. Let the pot simmer for a couple of hours until the meat is tender.  This can be done ahead of time and the pot reheated.

Heat a bit of oil in a non-stick fry pan and add the pearl onions.  Stir them around the pan until they brown.





Put a mound of mashed potatoes in a bowl. (I used left-overs, but the combination was so good I would do it even if I had to cook some potatoes.)  Ladle stew on/around the .potatoes.  Put a couple of tablespoons of the hot, browned onions on top. Eat.

Easy, cheap, and, slow.

While I was looking back on old blog posts to find my first Daily Sentinel link, I came across my first recipe post.

Easy, cheap, and, fast - What a man wants in a good recipe

I was going to title this post “Simple recipes for simple guys“, but She-who-must-be-obeyed gave me one of those looks. So, I hope she likes this.

Note to my male readers: A man’s ability to cook an edible meal and clean up afterward is an attribute highly valued by women.

There is no shortage of cooking shows, magazines and websites. So I say, “why not me too?” Too often recipes are unnecessarily complicated. There are too many ingredients, and too many pans. So let’s simplify it.

A couple of things stand out for me from that first post. It's still true that the ability to cook is a highly valued attribute.  It's also true that there is no shortage of  cooking shows, magazines and websites.  In fact the right hand column of this bog has a link that will list all the Grand Life Recipes  and the recipes are also aggregated on Grand Life Cooking.

But cooking is more than just following recipes.  After practice and trial and error efforts some skills emerge.  Some technique is important. And imagination is always the secret ingredient.  Can you imagine the taste?  What would it taste like if you added a bit of that spice?  Only practice gives a cook that.

Chefs are tasked with inventing a dish and then replicating it exactly the same night after night.  When you go to your favorite restaurant you often order something you have had before and you know exactly how it should taste.

A Cook is different. A good cook  can put together a good meal with items on hand.  General guidelines can serve as well as a detailed recipe.

Yesterday, She-who-must-be-obeyed said, "It's cold out - some bean soup would be good".  There are four or five bean recipes on this blog, and thousands on the internet.  But as the lady said, it's really cold out right now and this is the soup made from what's on hand. I did not want to go out to the store.

Recipe #48 Hambone, red bean and lentil soup.

Red beans and ham

1 cup (8 oz) red beans
3/4 cup red lentils
1 can diced tomatoes (with onion, celery and green pepper)
1 ham bone
water
splash of blackstrap molasses
dash of Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper

That's the recipe list because that's what I had. I often use stock rather than water, but neither homemade nor canned was available. Fresh veggies were in short supply too. I often start with a Mirepoix (onions celery and carrots), but I had a can of tomatoes with stuff in it.

After you have cooked a few pots of beans you know what to do.  Beans take a long time at high altitude whether you pre-soak or not.  I just started these dry right after lunch.  Cover the beans with a couple of inches of water and bring to a boil - then let them simmer.  A couple of hours before dinner add the ham bone and some lentils.  The lentils will cook faster than the beans and fall apart to thicken the soup.  In the last hour sample the broth and add salt and pepper. Remove the bone and chunk up the meat.  Fifteen minutes before serving add a couple of tablespoons of blackstrap molasses (if you have it) and a few shakes of  Worcestershire sauce.  Blackstrap molasses is not particularly sweet, but it does add a nice complex flavor.  The cornbread muffins are straight out of the Jiffy cornbread box. 

I used only half a package of beans because there are only two of us. The general rule is 1 cup of dry beans yields 3 cups of cooked beans.  Note that the lentils have disappeared into the broth. I was using a five quart pot so I made 2½   or 3 quarts of soup. That's enough for dinner and lunch the next day.

Lentil soup

Soup and a sandwich is a classic combination. This lentil soup has a Mideast flavor. Lentils are high in protein, high in fiber, easy to cook. Unlike bigger legumes, lentils do not need soaking and cook in as little as 30 minutes.

Recipe #40 Lentil soup

1 cup lentils
3 cups water or stock
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
additional spices to taste

Add a little oil to the bottom of a sauce pan.  Cook onions until soft, add garlic and cook a few minutes more.  Add lentils and liquid. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30-45 minutes.  Add salt and pepper.  Lentil soup is spiced up with peppers, curry, or garam masala (dry-roasted, ground spices, such as black pepper, cumin, cloves, and cardamom, used in the cooking of northern India.)

Four Bean Stew

It's four beans because that's what I happened to have on hand. My mixture consisted of red lentils, black-eyed peas, small white beans , and red beans. It could just have easily been 5 or 6 different kinds of beans. Back in 2007, I posted a recipe for ham and black eyed peas. I think I've added to my cooking skills since then. So, here my 2010 recipe for ham and beans stew. I'm calling it a stew because it is thicker than a soup. We cooked a a shank end ham for the holidays. The nice thing about a ham is that so many meals can be made, there is lots of ham for sandwiches, and the bone anchors a great soup or stew.


Recipe #34 Ham and mixed bean stew

Ham bone
1 pound cooked ham
2 cups mixed dried beans (about one pound)
1 chopped onion
1 chopped celery stick
1 chopped carrot
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cooking oil

(1)Soak the beans first. This hot-soak method is from the Central Bean company page.

After sorting and rinsing the beans, in a large pot add 10 cups of water for each pound (2 cups) of dry beans. Bring to a boil. Boil for 2 or 3 minutes, remove from heat, cover and stand at least 1 hour (quick-soak method), but preferably 4 hours or more; maximum 24 hours. (The longer soaking time is recommended to allow a greater amount of sugar to dissolve, thus helping the beans to be more easily digested.) Whether you soak the beans for one hour or several, discard soak water; rinse beans and pan. Return beans to pan, add fresh cold water to fully cover the beans.

The sugar they are refering to, is the undigestable sugars that can cause gas. This method reduces those sugars and softens the beans. Long cooking also reduces the problem.

(2) When the beans have soaked and are ready to cook add a small amount of oil to your cooking pot. Cook the chopped vegtables. Add the chunks of ham and the bone. If you have a few peieces of the rind with attached fat, throw those in the pot too. A little fat will add a lot of flavor.

(3) Add the rinsed and soaked beans. Add only enough water to cover the beans. Add the molasses and sugar. These will help maintain the structure of the beans as they cook. Simmer gently for 3 or more hours. Cooking times vary, some recipes give times of one or 1 ½ hours, but the high altitude of Colorado generally requires more time.

(4) When the beans are cooked to your liking, remove the bone and larger pieces of meat. Cut meat into bite sized chunks. Before returning the meat to the pot use a stick blender to puree some of the beans. This will thicken your dish and give a nice texture to the soup/stew.

Black-eyed peas

Here is a recipe for using that holiday ham bone. This recipe was first published on Grand Life back 2007.

Recipe # 12 Ham and Black-eyed Pea Soup

1 pound of ham and ham bone
8 oz black-eyed peas
1 large onion - diced
2 large carrots - sliced
2 stalks celery - diced
2-3 tomatoes - chopped
1-2cloves of garlic
4 cups (2 cans) chicken stock
Salt and pepper

Soften the beans prior to starting the soup. To quick start this process, place beans in a pot and cover with water. Bring the pot to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes. Remove and let the beans soak for one hour. Rinse beans and they are ready for the soup pot.

Heat a large soup kettle and sauté onions, carrots, celery and garlic. When the vegetables soften, add bits diced ham and stir together. Season with salt and pepper. It is not necessary to cook the vegetables first. All the ingredients can be put in the pot and heated. However, a quick sauté will bring out the aromatic qualities and make the kitchen smell good. It doesn’t take much time and you can add the ingredients as you chop them up.

You’ll notice a bottle of wine on the counter. This recipe does not call for wine to be added to the pot, but it doesn’t hurt to add a bit to the cook.

Once the vegetables and ham have cooked a few minutes, add tomatoes, softened black-eyed peas (any variety of bean will do) and 4 cups of stock. Add additional water to cover all the ingredients.

Bring the soup up to a boil, and then reduce the heat. Let it simmer for about three hours. My stove has a simmer control that works well for soups. This recipe also works well in a slow cooker or crock pot.

Soup always goes well with good bread. An easy favorite in our house is garlic toast.
Start with thick slices of French bread. Heat butter, olive oil and chopped garlic in the microwave. Brush each slice with the mixture and place on a baking sheet. Sprinkle each slice with a little parmesan cheese and a little dried parsley. Broil one side until heated and slightly toasted.

Saturday night at the Red Bean Cafe

We have a Saturday night tradition at our house. We turn on Garrison’s Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion show on public radio. We cook up something slow and savory. We enjoy the evening together.

Nancy started out the evening on the patio next to the fireplace.

She was soon joined by some friends.

I was inside working on some red beans and rice. Jim Schroeder sent me a recipe. He wrote, "If you want to fill the house with an aroma- try the attached recipe for red beans and rice. This is my own adaptation of how real Cajuns make the dish. I like it hot, hot, some prefer to tone it down a little. Molasses is the "secret" ingredient- nice mix of sweet and hot between the molasses and cayenne pepper.

In a previous post I wrote about making a Mirepoix. Cajun cooking starts with a roux and the trinity: onion, bell pepper, and celery. Here is Jim's recipe.

Recipe # 30 Red Beans and Rice

1 pound dry red kidney beans (or two cans)
4 TBSP vegetable oil
¼ cup flour
1 medium yellow onion- diced
1 green bell pepper (optional)- seeds removed, cored, diced
1 TBSP crushed garlic
1 TBSP Cajun seasoning (Tony Chachere’s or Zatarain’s)
(or substitue cayenne pepper,oregano, salt, black pepper, basil & oregano to taste)
1/2 cup dark molasses
2 (14 oz) cans diced tomatoes
2 (14 oz) cans water
1 TBSP Louisiana style hot sauce
1 lb sliced or cubed smoked sausage (beef, pork or turkey- I like beef Kielbasa for this recipe)

In a large stewpot:
Make a roux (sauté flour into hot oil to a consistency of a thick gravy or thin paste, stirring continuously until medium to deep nutty brown color—just short of scorching). Add diced onion, stir until coated and lightly cook over medium heat until semitransparent. Add green pepper, garlic and seasonings. Stir over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add sausage and lightly sauté until coated and slightly browned. Add beans, diced tomatoes, molasses, hot sauce and water (consistency should be like a thick soup, adjust water as needed). Gently stir. Bring to full boil, then reduce heat and simmer covered for 2+ hours, stirring only very occasionally (avoid over-stirring) until beans are tender.

Alternatively, after ingredients have been combined, the mixture can be transferred to a crock pot and cooked on high for 3-4 hours or until beans are tender.

We let the beans simmer through out the two hour radio show. The beans are best served with rice and a slice or two of crusty homemade bread.

I really enjoyed this dish, and Nancy loved it. She is a real rice- beans-cajun fan. I used canned beans and cut the recipe in half. There was plenty for dinner and a little left for lunch.

Red Chili

I like to play in the kitchen. Sometimes, putting together a complicated project is an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. But, it doesn't always have to be hard.

I've been cooking this chili for fifty years and I still like it. It is an easy, kid-friendly recipe that my brother and I learned at an early age. It was a way for us to help out and get dinner started.

Recipe #28 Red Chili

1 pound hamburger
1 can chili beans
1 can tomatoes

1 chopped onion
1 minced garlic clove
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 beef bouillon cube
pinch red pepper flakes
salt & pepper

Brown the hamburger, adding onions, garlic and about half the seasonings. Dried onion or onion powder and garlic powder can be substituted. This is especially helpful for younger kids who lack knife skills. It's also good for camping when prep space is difficult.

Add 1 can of beans and one can of tomatoes. Kuner's Chili Beans are a Colorado product that uses pinto beans. There are several other brand of chili beans to chose from. I used Mexican style stewed tomatoes, but whole, diced, or crushed are equally good.

Add about 1 cup of water. How much water added will determine the thickness of the final dinner. Add the remaining spices. Bouillon cubes have a lot if salt, so don't add too much additional salt. Simmer for 30-60 minutes.

Serve with a bit of cheese on top. Add a warm tortilla or saltine crackers on the side.

Fast, easy and cheap

First Published in January of 2007-
The prices have gone up a bit, but it is still a inexpensive and tasty meal. Sometimes people look askance at me when I describe this recipe, but it has never failed to please. Give it a try.

I was going to title this post “Simple recipes for simple guys“, but She-who-must-be-obeyed gave me one of those looks. So, I hope she likes this.

Note to my male readers: A man’s ability to cook an edible meal and clean up afterward is an attribute highly valued by women.

There is no shortage of cooking shows, magazines and websites. So I say, “why not me too?” Too often, recipes are unnecessarily complicated. There are too many ingredients and too many pans. So let’s simplify it.

Simple recipe #1 Beef and Beans
1 pound hamburger
1 can pork and beans
1 drizzle of molasses (you can use catsup instead)

Brown the hamburger in a skillet. Pour off the fat. Hold back the hamburger with a spatula while draining the fat. (Try not to lose too much of the meat. Don’t use a strainer - it’s just something else to wash.) Add one can of beans and some molasses (or ketchup). Stir well then heat over medium low heat until it bubbles. If you are feeling fancy you can add some extras - not necessary to the recipe: a splash of Worcestershire sauce, and/or sprinkle some cheese on top. Let it melt. I’ve used grated and sliced cheese. Use what’s on hand. It’s surprisingly good with a slice of bread or a hot buttered tortilla to push it on the fork. It’s dinner for two and maybe some extra. The clean up is a snap. Cost:
hamburger = $.99
beans: = $.50
generous estimate for extras: =$.50.
Grand total= $1.99


Easy, cheap, and fast. It’s what a guy wants in a good recipe.