The Boy cooks ... Black bean soup

It has been weeks since I've posted anything on the blog, mostly because we've been eating some repeat recipes and we've also been really busy with work. I've just been doing what was easier for me given the lack of time.

We recently had a long weekend and we headed up to The House for it. Stayed a lovely 4 days before heading back to reality and city life.

While we were up there, The Boy decided that he wanted a few things to eat that he's been craving but for some reason or other we have never made the effort to cook. One of them was black bean soup.

The Boy is a huge fan of anything bean-related. The 8-year old in him is particularly fond of the after effects of eating a lot of beans. :-)

Anyhow, he also decided that he will cook unaided by moi completely on his own while up at The House. Well, it wasn't completely unaided as I did offer some advice along the way but he pretty much did most of it himself. I was so proud of him.

Here's the RECIPE for the black bean soup that he made:

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
• 1/4 red capsicum, finely chopped
• 2 heaped teaspoons of chicken stock
• 1.5 cups of boling water
• 2 (15 oz) cans of black beans, undrained
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1.5 tablespoons of corn starch

Instructions:

• In a pot, combine the first 6 ingredients, simmer for 10 minutes
• Add half a can of beans, salt and cumin, cook for 5 minutes
• Puree soup with a hand blender while still in the pot
• Add the rest of the beans into the pot
• Combine cornstarch with 1.5 tablespoons of water
• Add lemon juice and cornstarch to soup and cook until thickened

For the most part we followed the instructions, though I was not keen on them. I struggled with that part of the instructions that said "puree soup". Seriously, I wanted my black bean soup to be chunky, but after feeling somewhat disgruntled about it, I left it and walked away because after all, this was The Boy's show and he was cooking it and it was his recipe.

That said, we still did a few things different which I think helped the soup.

I like more flavor in my soup, so I used 3 teaspoons of stock instead of the recommended 2 or rather, I suggested that The Boy use 3 teaspoons.

We mixed the cumin, salt and lemon juice together and just dumped it all in to let it boil before pureeing the soup.

We didn't have any cornstarch so went without. It wasn't really missed because the soup was very thick even without it. It might have been too thick with it.

After the soup was ready, I tasted it and found it to be somewhat bland so I added 1/2 teaspoon of paprika and 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder to give it some depth in the flavor. This worked out really, really well for us, but could have been a little to spicy for some, so watch this.

To serve, we added a generous dollop of sour cream, which softened the flavor and gave it a richness that was just delicious.

All in all, The Boy did an awesome job with this soup. We will definitely be doing this again.

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny's Fortunes Pty Ltd

Waffles a la The Boy

I'm on a roll with breakfast foods ... okay, this is the last of it ... for a little while anyway. :-)

This Sunday just past, The Boy asked if I wanted to have waffles for breakfast and I said yes. I love when The Boy makes pancakes for the weekend breakfast. We don't do it often, so when we do, it's always a treat.

Since The Boy made the waffles, I have no idea of the recipe. Worse yet, I think is that he has no idea of the recipe. He kinda just wings it. He mixes a bit of pancake mix - I think right now we are using Jiffy Buttermilk Pancake Mix that we got from USA Foods. He added certain amounts of milk (non fat soy for me), canola oil and possible (I don't know) one eggs and whisked it around. Then he eyeballed it to see if the mixture was thick enough and added more pancake mix if it wasn't. Seriously, it was all very hit and miss.

Fortunately, the waffles turned out lovely and tasted great.

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny’s Fortunes Pty Ltd

F-F-F-Friday - Helping My Girl Cook

I've got The Boy back to write my F-F-F-Friday post for me because he did such a fabulous job the last time. Plus, I just love hearing from him. So .... here's The Boy ....

After a year of being the beneficiary of my wonderful wife’s delicious cooking, I decided to take some cooking lessons myself.

I did this for three primary reasons:

• I realised what a large chore it was for her to do on her own, and I felt I could help her out when needing to take some of the pressure off,
• I remembered how cooking (I used to do a lot of Chinese cooking 25 years ago, but was self-taught) concentrated my attention on cooking and pushed work to the background and felt I would benefit from that again,
• And I felt that better understanding and participating in the cooking process would provide healthier and better tasting foods and also help me to better select matching wines for the meal

Most importantly, since my dad’s massive stroke (and remarkable recovery, thank God), I have taken to making my occupation the one of living and not working (of course, one still needs to work to make a living, but it is a matter of setting the right priorities). There is nothing more basic than preparing and eating meals and relating to others, so the focus on cooking has helped me to achieve that goal. It does take some time to learn and practice and also the time to prepare the meals, but it has been a fulfilling experience and as with most things, it is not a matter of time, but rather one of priority. Once I placed cooking, health and socialising with great friends higher on the list, I made the time and you can too.

Christmas cooking class, which involves drinking
with friends too

I have had six lessons so far, including three lessons from Cooking for Blokes, a great program in North Sydney, a special Christmas cooking lesson and special knife skills lesson from Cooking for Blokes, and recently a How to Cook Pasta lesson from Sandalyns in the Hunter Valley. I have loved the experience as it has provided me with a deeper understanding and more confidence to take on more myself.

My Girl still plans the meals when we have guests over and controls the kitchen, but I participate more. Additionally, I have been doing a few meals on my own for us, including making a cauliflower soup and a chicken risotto and tonight will be preparing a mushroom and sausage risotto. Additionally, in two weeks’ time, we will congregate with close friends at our place in the Hunter Valley to have a cooking, eating and drinking weekend among great friends – kind of like The Big Chill, but without the funeral and neuroticism! Each couple will lead the preparation of a meal, we will all cook, sit around and eat, drink and socialise and have a great time of it.

Resources available to help you get started are this blog, which provides a number of recipes and instructional material and here is the link for Cooking for Blokes which is a great way to learn and improve. It is for blokes, but also for women (this is where DAZ first trained!) and they have a six lesson Level 1 course followed by numerous Level 2 courses, provided by one of the Masterchef finalists.
I have learned to cook and have more confidence and fun doing so and so can you. It is not as intimidating as it might appear!

I cook for you ... and it's cauliflower soup

Sometimes it helps to stop and smell the roses, or in my case, to be grateful and thankful for the blessings in my life. I'll try not to wax on about it but I'm really grateful to The Boy when it comes to my cooking.

When I first got the idea that I wanted to learn how to cook (better), The Boy was supremely supportive. He did not quibble over the cost of the course or the time it took me away from him. In fact, he did not quibble at all. He just encouraged me to go ahead and do it.

Once I started the classes, he was all for me cooking food that he could match wines with. Then, when I decided to start cooking for the boys on a regular basis, he jumped right in and got excited about matching food with wines. He would regularly ask me what I'm cooking to see what wines he could pull out of the cellar for the meal.

He's been a great supporter too, telling friends and colleagues alike about my cooking (maybe a little too enthusiastic, since he told some people whom I didn't want knowing about the cooking ... ah well ...). He's also been generous with his praises and providing constructive feedback about what worked and what didn't. That said, he's super easy to please and to feed, so there hasn't been much negative feedback at all.

On top of that, he's also scouting out cooking supply stores, cookbook aisles in bookstores, hanging around patiently while I browse down aisles and aisles of cooking gadgets, gizmos, books and such.

So yeah, I'm dedicating an entire post to waxing lyrical over how wonderful The Boy is, but really, he deserves it. :-) I cook for you ...

Here's a RECIPE for a soup that I made for The Boy the other day. It's truffle cauliflower soup. The Boy was waxing lyrical over the soup. He called it "the best soup in the world" to which I demurred on the title, after which he claimed "the best cauliflower soup in the world". I don't think it's quite that level of greatness but it pleases me no end that The Boy is enthusiastic about my food.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole cauliflower, cut into pieces
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• Olive oil
• 4 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock, if you prefer)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Truffle oil
• Parsley, finely chopped

Instructions:

• Heat some olive oil in a large pot
• Put in onions to sautee, after a few minutes add garlic and continue to sautee until onions are translucent
• Add cauliflower and sautee for a few minutes until slightly cooked
• Cover pot with lid and cook cauliflower for 5 or some minutes, until onions brown slightly
• Pour in stock and bring to boil
• Reduce heat to simmer, cover and simmer for 30 - 40 minutes
• Turn off heat
• Either in a food processor (let the soup cool a little if you are doing it this way) or with a stick blender, blitz the soup until it is a thick creamy consistency and there are no more chunks of cauliflower or onion
• Return to heat and add salt and pepper to taste
• Heat through and serve into bowls
• Drizzle a swirl of truffle oil into the centre of the bowl and sprinkle with parsley to garnish
• Serve and enjoy

This is about the size for cutting the cauliflower into

The soup turned out very tasty and quite rich. The cauliflower really came into it's own, particularly since it was a super fresh cauliflower that I bought at a farmer stall. I think the cauliflower came out of the garden patch that morning. Here's a few things to note:

This is about the size the onion should be chopped into

• I was generous with the garlic when I said 4 cloves and that's because I like garlic - a lot! If you're not so keen on garlic, use less. However, I do think that the garlic added a lot of depth to the flavor, and the soup did not taste garlicky at all.
• I was also extremely generous with the pepper so that there was a lot of heat from the pepper coming through. If you don't like the heat or having it too peppery, ease back on the pepper.
• I used white finely ground pepper instead of black and instead of grinding it myself into the pot to season as I wanted to maintain that lovely, creamy texture of the soup without having black, flecky bits of pepper floating around in the soup. That's purely for aesthetics purposes only, so if you prefer freshly cracked pepper, go for it.
• And finally, I prefer chicken stock to vegetable stock for the soup base - always do. I think that the chicken stock adds a depth to the flavor that you don't get from vegetable stock, so if you're not vegetarian, go with the chicken stock. If you are using a vegetable stock, try adding a vegetable stock booster. That will help with the flavor.

The Boy, barbarian that he is, crushed up some crackers into the soup. Sometimes, he can be so American!

What about you? Is there anyone in your life that you're especially grateful for, for whatever reason? Anyone who'd cause you to wax lyrical over? or just want to acknowledge because of the impact they have in your life? Have you said "thank you" or "I love you" lately to that special person? 



© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny’s Fortunes Pty Ltd