White beans, butter, tarragon

This late, I learned tarragon  tastes like licorice and cannot last in the refrigerator three weeks unattended.

This is the first time I ever microwaved an egg. It doesn't seem the right thing to do and I expected it to explode but instead it worked very nicely covered with cling film.

I'm slumming it.

I am really digging these beans in all forms. I don't know why they're aren't more famous. The only beans we had growing up were baked beans from a tin and nobody really liked them. And lima beans. Nobody liked those either. But these dry beans that I've been doing with bacon, this time with butter, keep me interested. They're excellent. And every time I touch them they come out differently.

White beans, bacon

It's very good bacon.

• white beans
• bacon
• water
• sea salt
• cilantro

That's all.

I don't know why the food snobs like it cut so thickly. Maybe they have a technique to cook the fat crispy and attractively but I find thick chunks of jiggly bacon fat gross. 

Smoked ham hock, beans, spinach

This ham shank was $8.00 and I was all, "What? Can you divide that in half please?" So they did. I have both halves and they packaged them separately and they are the best thing I've ever tasted in beans. Smoked ham hock is the way to go, with a lot of meat on it, like this. It flavors a large pot and it is totally worth it. 

These bones are going to make some little dog very happy.

Emily said, "This would be better with feta" and I said, "Why, Miss Dickinson that rhymes" and Emily said, "I know."

Meatball, French fries, white beans

White beans. 

* dramatically* The Great White Northern Bean. 

Pressure cooked for an hour with a ham hock.

The ham hock didn't have much meat on it but the meat that it did have on it is sure tastes good. And ham is very different from beef but I don't care. A regular meatloaf has those mixed anyway. 

Ground up dead cow meat mixed mixed with ground up dead pig meat but don't tell the kids it will distress them unnecessarily. That's what usually goes into a usual meatloaf, but not here, this is just a plain ground dead cow meat loaf type meatball.

Meatball. 

The idea is obscene.

Think about what you're doing, People, think about what you're doing.

But delicious. 

Somehow I think this would go down well in Cincinnati. I think they're fond of poutine type heaps of various carbohydrate masses slathered with some kind of thick fat suffused liquid.

I look at a thing like this and think, "needs color." 

Beans

Dry beans made earlier.

Dry beans are fast under pressure even not soaked. With or without pressure the acid, like tomato and molasses, must be held back until the beans are nearly finished or the  surface of each individual bean will toughen. This is true for starches like potato and it is a thing that can be used. For instance, if you intend to have soaked beans cook all day in a slow cooker, it might do to have them tougher depending on the size of the bean.

It was nice having this pile of beans around rather plain with tomato. Each serving was adjusted with various flavor imparting elements when the bowl of leftover beans was reheated so having it plain was convenient as nearly blank slate and each serving was different.

Beans and beef

Curry shrimp, papaya

A powerful and fragrant marinade is prepared and then cooled down for shrimp to bask. After a term of chilled marination, the marinade with the shrimp is heated to boil just long enough for the shrimp to turn color, about 2.5 or 3 minutes. 

Papaya and banana are diced and coated with lime juice. The fruit is added to the heated shrimp off the heat, so the fruit is barely warmed through and not at all cooked. 

Small white beans are prepared separately. 

ARTS !

This is a ripe red papaya ↑. 

What? It is green and yellow, you say? 

It's kind of red on the inside, more of an orange color, actually ↓. 

The white beans are small enough that they do not need to be presoaked, but these were pressure cooked on low setting for 30 minutes in flavorful water. Rice might have been a better starch but I am out of white rice. The brown rice that I have would be cooked the same way as the beans, wild rice a little bit longer at higher pressure. 

Bean cooking liquid: 

*  two cups tap water

*  three bay leaves

*  15 or so peppercorns

*  1/2 teaspoon fennel seed

*  1/2 teaspoon cumin seed

*  1/4 teaspoons whole cloves

*  salt and pepper

* 1/2 LB small white beans, sorted for stones and other oddities

I've heard more than a few times that salt toughens beans while cooking, but that is not true. Acid does toughen the surface of beans while cooking which is a fact of chemistry that the cook can use to their advantage when sturdiness for endurance, long cooking times, transportation, reheating, etc., are anticipated. 

The curry is an impulse combination of things I had on had that seemed to me would be good together. The aim is to contrive a flavorful marinade that hits all the taste spots and has the flavor of curry. The basis is prepared curry powder. I am conscious to include something sweet and something hot. 

Curry marinade / sauce:

*  1 cup tap water

*  1 large clove garlic, grated

*  1 piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

*  1 hot pepper either red or green, finely diced

*  2 chipotle peppers finely diced. (this turned out to be quite hot, maybe 1 would be better)

*  1 small onion, sliced in half from tip to root then sliced thinly

*  2 level tablespoons prepared curry (any type will do)

*  3 tablespoons mango chutney

*  salt / black pepper

The papaya is cubed and the banana sliced. Both are coated with fresh lime juice. 

1)  The beans are prepared

2)  The marinade is prepared by heating the vegetables, adding the spices, then cooling. 

3)  Frozen shrimp are thawed and added to the cooled marinade. 

4)  Half a large papaya is cubed and coated with fresh lime juice. 

5)  When the time comes, immediately before service, a burner is turned on high. Simultaneously, the beans are reheated. The pot with the shrimp is put on the burner and carefully watched for the few minutes it takes for the marinade to boil and for the shrimp to change color. The pot is removed from the heat immediately and the cubed and acidulated fruit is added to the pot with the shrimp. A plate is prepared with the shrimp and fruit and then the beans (or rice) is turned out on top of it all. The plate is positioned on the photography station and the lights are set up. Several shots are taken of the plate from various angles, distances, and camera settings. ← Sorry about that, I got carried away there for a second. The plate is served. 

White bean sandwiches

You process any bean your little heart desires into a paste just as you can process garbanzo beans into hummus. Mexican cuisine is big on black beans flavored with lard in lieu of olive oil, and cumin instead of za'atar or sumac or whatever other Middle Eastern spice you manage to scrounge up at the spice market. 

This paste is made from a can of white beans. White beans because I carelessly opened a can by mistake last night when I was going for a can of chick peas.

Bread.

Used ingredients that would go into a brioche:

* 1/2 Cup of milk
* 1 egg
* Tablespoon of Butter

^^^ warmed in microwave to 125℉, added 1/2 teaspoon yeast.  

* 1/2 teaspoon white sugar (yeast food)
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* handful of wheat grains run through coffee grinder into powder
* AP flour by the tablespoon to form a dough

What to do.

Mix dough, divide into thirds. Divide each third into thirds and form into patties like you intend squat little pizzas. Press into floured board and cover with plastic. Cover that with kitchen towel.  Allow to rise. Fry till done. I like to keep a lid smaller than the pan so I can drizzle a small amount of water onto the lid and let it seep through the crack and steam the frying bread underneath. That way they're fried and slightly steamed simultaneously. Helps assure the insides of the bread is cooked.

Bean paste

* can of white beans
* processed with
* juice of 1/2 lime
* 1/4 Cup white wine
* any seasoning you have on hand.

Made mayonnaise again, just for this.

*goat cheese. Flavored goat cheese left over from the party. This stuff doesn't last. Goat cheese goes rank really fast. Therefore, it's something of a race to see if I can use it before it must be tossed.

White beans

The beans were white when they started out.