Black Bean Soup, Perfect Basmati Rice, Limelight Pie, and Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread.

 As promised here is the post about my adventures in the kitchen this past weekend.
Here is: Black Bean Soup, Perfect Basmati Rice, Limelight Pie, and Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread.

My first experience with black beans was part of the first meal my current tutor made me. It was in the form of a Black Bean Hummus. I was hooked day one.  Lets begin by giving you some nutritional information about Black Beans. You Carnivores wonder how the Vegetarians get all their protein? “A cup of black beans will provide you with 15.2 grams of protein (that's 30.5% of the daily value for protein), plus 74.8% of the daily value for fiber. All this for a cost of only 227 calories with virtually no fat.” Also, beans are cheap. Can I say this again? CHEAP and HEALTHY MEAL! Also look at the price per pound. You will get more for your money buying the dried beans than the canned version. Get those beans dried and as close to their natural state as possible. I understand the convenience of pre-cooked beans, but ¼ of a pound bag of dried beans makes four times the amount of one can of beans.  And one more note, about industrial canning: beans require a short cook time at low temperatures. But made in mass form and produced on that scale it involves very high temperatures over a long time span. It ends up cooking out more of the nutritional value of the beans making them the beans with less of a reason for eating them.  Any additional reading I direct you to this page. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=2

All it takes to prepare a meal is planning and knowing what you need in the kitchen.

Black Bean Soup

This versatile soup can be made with ease, enjoyed as leftovers, frozen, and made into more yummy things such as Black Bean Burgers, Black Bean Hummus, and making homemade burritos.

You will need:

-       1 large pot

-       2-3 cups of water per cup of beans

-       2 cups Black Beans

-       4 Tbsp unsalted butter

-       1 white/yellow onion diced

-       4 cloves fresh garlic, minced/or 2 Tbsp minced garlic from a jar (I always add extra because I love garlic!)

-       1 lime, zested, then cut in half
- 1 bunch fresh Cilantro chopped

-       Spices to taste: Salt, Pepper, Cumin, Cayenne Pepper are my essentials, add whatever else you like after the beans are cooked.

Presoaking your beans overnight ahead of time will help reduce your cooking time and make them easier to digest.  I highly recommend this method.

1.     Place beans in a large bowl and soak in water, making sure it covers the beans. Cover with a dishtowel and let sit overnight.

2.     Melt butter in large pot on medium to high heat

3.     Add onions and sauté till golden yellow (3-4mins)

4.     Add garlic and sauté for another minute or two

5.     Add beans and water making sure it covers the beans.

6.     Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until they are done

7.     Add cilantro, lime zest, and squeeze the juice into the soup

8.     Add Salt, Pepper, Cumin and whatever other spices you enjoy

I love to pair this soup with Basmati Rice and sautéed vegetables.

Basmati Rice

I read this awesome tip about keeping the proper consistency of this rice. By adding the lime juice and olive oil it helps the rice not to stick together grain by grain, but can easily be molded into a beautiful round serving.

-       1 cup of rice to 1 & 1/3 cups of water

-       2 tbsp unsalted butter

-       1 onion diced (shallots are a wonderful substitution here)

-       A few garlic cloves minced

-       1 tbsp lime juice

-       1 tbsp olive oil

-       Salt and Pepper to taste

1.     Presoaking your rice will leach out a lot of the starch and provide a less clumpy texture for your rice

2.     Melt butter in pot over medium to high heat

3.     Sauté fresh onion and garlic in bottom of pan till golden yellow

4.     Add water and bring to boil

5.     Add rice, lime juice, and olive oil

6.     Cook for 15mins, and then take off heat and let sit for another 10mins.

7.     Salt and Pepper to taste, fluff with fork and serve!

Limelight Pie

This pie recipe is taken from the cookbook For Goodness Taste put together by the Junior League of Rochester.

This book was in my Mothers recipe cabinet, and one I remember always wanting to cook out of. I asked for it for Christmas one year, and got it! I would say 90% of all the recipes I have tried from this book have worked out and been extremely tasty and simply elegant. This is the best key lime pie recipe I have baked to date. Also, it is the tutors’ favorite dessert.

Limelight Pie

Ingredients
4 eggs, separated
1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk
½ cup fresh lime juice
Baked 9-inch graham cracker crust
¼ cup confectioners’ sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla

• In a large bowl, use whisk or rotary beater to beat egg yolks. 
• Add milk and beat until well blended. Stir in lime juice. Beat slowly until thick.
• Pour into cooled pie shell
• In a large bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add sugar and vanilla. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form
• Spread meringue on pic. Bake approximately 5 to 7 minutes or until top browns. 
• Refrigerate until serving time.
• Hint: this pie is best made one day in advance.

Temperature: 375
Time: 5 to 7 minutes
8 Servings

Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

I also made, on this past rainy Sunday, this scrumptious recipe I found on one of my favorite food blogs, Joy the Baker.  When I made it and followed her recipe it turned out exactly like the pictures, and since I do not have the best access to amazing cameras, you can look at hers and know I can make it and you can too!

http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2011/03/cinnamon-sugar-pull-apart-bread/
Variation: I haven’t tried this yet but in the layering process you could add a sweet cream cheese filling as well.

Thank you all for reading and any questions, comments, posts, your own experience, please share!

Writers Note:
This is the first time I have ever written down a recipe not copied from a book. I am going to practice writing down recipe’s to get the rhythm down and understand how to make a coherent flow to instructions. Also, there is so much that I truly to not know, which I have again discovered by beginning this project. It is another avenue to research and expand my knowledge about what I love so much.