Sunday-Accomplished

I sauna'd for a good hour today. Sweat out a night's worth of toxins. I feel good.
While I was in the sauna, the black beans were in the slow cooker on high. When I got home, all I had to do was chop & stir-fry the veggies, and with some tricky maneuvers, whip together a chili which I am gonna eat with Lucas while we finish watching StarTrek-The Search For Spock.


Here's what happened:

2 1/2 cups of soaked black beans
(back story: take 1 1/2 cups of dry black beans and soak in 4 cups pure water in a deep bowl overnight. Drain & refrigerate until use. Within four days; airtight stays better longer)
4-5 cups water
Put in a slow cooker on high. Aprox 3-4 hours

3 small carrots
1 small red onion
2 cloves of garlic (use that gorgeous Ontario grown-it's fresher and juicier)
4 large button mushrooms
2 tbsp fryable sunflower oil (organic, cold pressed & canadian-orphee brand you can trust)
1/2 cup organic Catsup
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp chili powder
1 shake paprika
1 shake himalayan rock salt
2 tsp rosemary
1 ancho chili
1 chipotle pepper
4 sundried tomatoes

put the sundreid tomatoes, chipotle and ancho through the old fashioned meat grinder, finish with a small peice of bread. Grind into a bowl and transfer to the slow cooker with the cooked beans.
add catsup & stir well

Chop carrots, onion, garlic, mushrooms & fry in a cast iron skillet on med in sunflower oil
dash-in the spices, stir fry for 5-10 minutes
transfer this to the slow cooker and put on low.
cook for 30 minutes.

make spelt ribbon pasta.
serve the chili over the pasta.

why not?

Now you try.

January is almost done

stew is food
This one was made on a busy Wednesday. I did it in stages, and I have not yet tried it as it's currently in its low heat last cooking stages. I did take a taste of broth, however, and I think it's got that gourmet je ne sais quoi.
we'll have it for lunches tomorrow, as I am back at the community centre and we are both so broke we might end up on welfare.

it's called: wasabi mung bean with wine wine braise stew

1) soak 1.5 cup mung beans for 4hours or so (while you work on your biology course and run errands)
2) bring the mungs to a boil in 2 cups water, hold at boil for ten minutes, turn off heat and let simmer
3) chop three small white turnips into cubes (while thing is boiling to conserve time)
4) add to a slow cooker: turnip, beans and their cooking water, a 500ml container of organic chicken broth, one package Harvest Sun instant organic Leek Potato soup mix, one tablespoon of bonito flakes, 1 tablespoon of fresh chopped gingerroot and 1 packet of pure powdered wasabi (eden brand, no food color)
5) set to high for 1 hour and a half and walk away. (do more biology and talk to friends on the phone)
6) with 15 minutes until the time's up, chop 2 small onions, 6 large white button mushrooms, 3 large cloves of ontario garlic, 1 sprig of fresh rosemary, 1 tablespoon of organic butter, 1/4 cup of white wine; add to a medium saucepan with a lid.
7) braise on medium heat with the lid on stirring twice for 10 minutes.
8) test the mung beans for softness. they should be reasonably soft. (if not cook on high for another 25 minutes before the next step)
9) add braise to the slow cooker and set on low heat for 1 hour.
9) check on it after 15 minutes add 1/2 cup water
10)go watch the basketball game and see old pal. Have drinks.