Liz’s continued kitchen (mis)adventures

[edenfalling]

I am making bean soup today! I turned the crockpot on around 1:30pm, but this recipe takes at least ten hours to cook properly so it won't be done until midnight-ish. It also takes about six hours to start smelling like Food instead of mismatched raw ingredients and dirty water, but my kitchen now smells pleasantly edible and the broth is slowly thickening into a lovely brown mush, so yay!

(This is not a visually attractive soup. It is, however, delicious.)

Right now I am eating the last of a not terribly successful chicken-and-onion experiment from a few weeks ago, which I doctored up a little with soy sauce and garlic powder and am eating over rice (accompanied by spinach salad with feta, craisins, and balsamic vinaigrette). I have moved the second container of not terribly successful beef-and-onion experiment from the freezer to the fridge to thaw, and I think tomorrow I will reheat it on the stove and try to fix the seasonings a little. (Moral of that story: cheap knockoff Worcestershire sauce is not your friend, especially without knowing what other spices should be used to balance it.)

The last couple things I've made in my crockpot have involved dumping rice (and water, obviously) in for the last two hours, so the grains soak up all the flavor and moisture and I don't have to worry about finding a starch to accompany my premixed meat and veggies. Now they are all premixed! It is very convenient and I wish I'd thought of that years ago. :)

Comments

[branchandroot]

Seems like wrong-worcestershire beef could be fixed by simmering it a while in mirin and soy sauce. Or adding peas. Worcestershire needs sweet to balance the tangy.

[edenfalling]

Hmm. I don't have mirin (and am not sure what else I'd ever do with it, though I am fairly sure my grocery store has some for sale), but peas are probably doable. Any other suggestions for sweet stuff?

I made the other container of beef mistake less dire by adding soy, garlic, and cumin and simmering it for over half an hour, but that still wasn't particularly tasty, just edible.

[branchandroot]

Yeah, most of what mirin is good for is beef, though you can do a nice chicken glaze with it too. Another option, though, is honey. Honey and garlic fix a lot of things, and both would go well with the tangy. Depending on how you feel about it, pepper alone can fix a lot, especially if you're eating the meat with a starch like potato.

[edenfalling]

Honey and garlic I can do!

Black pepper or red/cayenne pepper? I mean, I like both but they seem like they fix slightly different flavor problems...

[branchandroot]

Black pepper! I'd add a teaspoon at a time until it either a) balances out whatever went wrong or b) is too hot. So that one's kind of a "fix it or kill it" option. But I've had really good results with black pepper and worcestershire mistakes as long as there's a burn-mitigating starch in the mix.

[edenfalling]

*makes note*

[eos_joy]

This is always sounds so delicious. Question: have you posted this recipe before? Like, ingredients and steps? Because I am so down to eat some delicious bean soup. ^^

[edenfalling]

I... may have done? Anyway, it's pretty simple. You get a package of 14- or 16-bean mix (I use Goya) and soak the beans as directed. I usually go for the 4 cups of cold water overnight method because it is very low effort. Then I use a slightly tweaked version of the soup recipe Goya suggests on their 16-bean mix bag:

1 sack of beans (soaked, rinsed, and drained)
1 onion (chopped)
1 carrot/a handful or so of baby carrots (chopped)
4-8 oz. ham (cubed or diced; I usually buy pre-diced and just dump in the whole bag)
chicken bouillon (1 or 2 cubes/packets)
1 bay leaf
salt (to taste, suggested minimum of 1/2 tsp)
black pepper (to taste, suggested minimum of 1/4 tsp)
a dash or two of cumin for flavor if you want

(Optional two sticks of celery are optional. Goya recommends them, but I never have celery around and have not noticed its lack.)

Dump everything into a slow cooker, add water until all ingredients are covered, turn on low and cook for 10-12 hours. It helps if you stir it occasionally during that period, but that's not strictly necessary. Depending on what serving size you use, this will make 12-18 meals. :)

Sorry for the inexact measurements, but it's a pretty forgiving recipe. I mostly eyeball it and it turns out reasonably similar each time.