Blue Cayenne

Oh, we strategized.

We’d be at our computers at 9 a.m. sharp, fingers poised to click the button that read “buy Hamilton tickets” the moment the digital clock struck nine. Then, The Segerstrom Theatre would place us into a “virtual waiting room” where the ticketing system would randomly assign us a number in the waiting line. We could do this!

Nine a.m.

Click!

Then, there was what we will forever call “the minor setback.”

40,018 and 42,303.

How could that even be? The answer to that question is that, apparently, more than forty thousand other Hamilton junkies signed in at nine, too. Again, how could that even be?

So, throughout the day my friend Carole and I have mostly watched our computer screens ever-so-slowly tick down the numbers. It is 6 p.m. as I write this–nine hours since we joined the line, and we are now 26,691 and 28,976 respectively.

What does one do while waiting in a virtual ticket line for nine hours? For Carole, it was a no-brainer. Clean your house while watching a marathon of old Colbert reruns. (Carole knows how to party!)

For me, it was a day to make soup and finish my income taxes.

I’m beginning to accept the fact that, at 26,691, the closest I may ever get to a Hamilton ticket is to read the lyrics online. This snippet seems apropos.

“Alexander Hamilton
My name is Alexander Hamilton
And there’s a million things I haven’t done
But just you wait, just you wait.”

Like Alexander Hamilton, I’m  waiting.

My number is now 26,443.

How can that even be? Apparently, seeing the play Hamilton is going to be among the “million things I haven’t done.”

Here is a recipe for the soup. It’s quite good–a brothy Tuscan soup with farro. I don’t know if the founding fathers ate farro. It was popular in Europe and the Middle East during the time Hamilton et al were putting together our new government.

Tuscan Farro Soup

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Ingredients

• 2 T. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion (sliced)
• 2 celery stalks (trimmed and chopped)
• 2 carrots (peeled and chopped)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 T. minced garlic
• 1 C. farro (or spelt or barley) (uncooked)
• 2 C. cooked white beans
• 2 C. chopped tomatoes (I used Trader Joe's San Marzanos)
• 6 C. vegetable stock or water (If you don't eat all the soup on the first day, you will need to add more stock or water as the farro absorbs the liquid in the soup)
• 1/4 C. chopped fresh parsley and/or cilantro (I used both)
• 1/4 C. chopped basil (optional)
• Freshly-grated Parmesan

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add onions, carrots and celery to the hot oil and saute for 5-10 minutes until the vegetables are beginning to soften. Stir the garlic into the vegetable mixture and add the farro, tomatoes and stock. Stir.
2. Turn up the heat and bring your soup to a boil and then turn down the heat a bit letting the soup simmer for about an hour until the farro is tender. Add the cooked beans to the soup and stir in the parsley and/or cilantro and cook for another five minutes.
3. Taste. Adjust seasonings. Serve with a generous amount of grated Parmesan sprinkled over the top of the soup.

Nutrition

Calories

1584 cal

Fat

33 g

Carbs

158 g

Protein

45 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

116

https://bluecayenne.com/tuscan-farro-soup-while-waiting-for-hamilton

Here is a link to the original recipe from which this recipe was adapted: Mark Bittman’s Tuscan Farro Soup.

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Pythagoras was so convinced that beans had souls that their consumption was forbidden among his followers.

Don’t get me wrong. I love beans, but I’m not so sure about the soul part. Tiny little bean hearts, maybe.

Truth be told, however you fix ’em, I love beans. I love beans in soups. I love beans baked. I love beans and grains in salads paired with a really good vinaigrette. Refried beans rock my world as a guilty pleasure for breakfast. Then, there is glorious hummus…

Let me count the ways.

First, beans are flat out great for your health. They are low in fat with most beans having no more than 2-3% fat. Beans contain no cholesterol. Most beans are at least 20% protein. Beans are high-carbohydrate energy powerhouses. Beans are a rich source of fiber, B vitamins and iron. What’s not to love?

Second, beans taste wonderful.

Third, beans are abundant in nature. Did you realize that beans are part of the third largest flowering plant family? Only orchids and daisies outnumber them. And, food scientists rank beans as the second most important family in the human diet. (Grasses are first.) So…there is no need to feel any guilt when you put away a Chris Christie-size bowl of beans. (Just don’t do it while lounging on a New Jersey beach that you’ve closed to the public. Just sayin…)

Obviously, with all those good qualities, it doesn’t take much of a nudge to get me to try a new bean recipe, particularly if you throw me a little curve in the recipe–some unexpected ingredient, for example.

This is such a recipe.

This baked bean recipe is adapted from one in a cookbook that I just added to my collection, The First Mess by Laura Wright. (Yes. I know. Buying cookbooks is an addiction for me. Hear me out here, though. I believe that if I just find just one extraordinary recipe in a cookbook, the book is a bargain and well-worth a piece of the dwindling shelf space in my office.)

And…I knew I had to buy this book. Wright, after all, is a somebody in the food blogging world. She is a highly-regarded Canadian blogger and cookbook writer. Saveur Magazine named her blog “Best Food Blog” in 2014. Better Homes and Gardens nominated her blog as Best Food Blog in 2016.

So, with one tiny click on Amazon late one recent insomnia-stained night, it was done. The First Mess was mine and I could drift off to sleep knowing that somewhere in a Seattle warehouse Jeff Bezos would be wrapping my package.

But…back to beans and this great recipe. Wright’s cookbook features a creative baked beans recipe with maple syrup and Medjool dates. You read that right, Medjool dates! The dates were definitely the “hook” for me on this recipe. Who ever thought of putting dates into baked beans?  Genius.

Here is a link to Amazon where you can buy her book: Laura Wright’s The First Mess .

Here is my adaptation of Wright’s recipe.

A Date with Baked Beans

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Ingredients

• 1 pound dried white beans (I used Rancho Gordo Marcella beans)
• 9 C. water
• 1 medium onion (chopped)
• 1/2 C. pure maple syrup (I used Trader Joe's brand)
• 1/2 C. Medjool dates (pitted and chopped) (or use more if you like a sweeter baked beans)
• 1/4 C. tomato paste
• 1/4 C. unsulfured molasses
• 1/4 C. apple cider vinegar
• 1 T. grainy mustard
• 2 t. smoked paprika (dissolved in water)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Garnish with chopped parsley, chopped tomatoes and chopped red onion

Instructions

1. Soak beans overnight. Cook the beans in an Instant Pot for about for 20-25 minutes or until done but not falling apart.
2. Alternatively, drain soaked beans and put them into a large Dutch oven. Cover the beans with water and bring them to a boil. Lower the heat and cook the beans for about 40 minutes or until they are just tender.Drain.
3. Whichever way you cook the beans, reserve about two cups of the cooking water. Using the Instant Pot method, I didn't have quite two cups and added tap water.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
5. Put the beans in a large Dutch oven and stir in the chopped onion, maple syrup,dates, tomato paste, molasses, apple cider vinegar, mustard, smoked paprika, salt, pepper and the two cups of reserved bean cooking water. Cover the pot with a solid, tight-fitting lid.
6. Bake at 325 degrees F. for at least 2 hours or until the beans are tender. Check on the beans as you are baking them and add a bit more water as necessary if the beans seem dry. You want them the beans to be suspended in a tasty sauce when you serve them.
7. Serve with a garnish of chopped parsley and chopped tomatoes. Some chopped red onion would be a nice garnish, too.

7.8.1.2

113

https://bluecayenne.com/dates-baked-beans-and-sitting-on-a-beach-with-chris-christie

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Today’s plat du jour on my table is ratatouille, a classic French vegetable stew that is a specialty of cooks in Provence and Nice. Apparently, a lot of other Mediterranean countries claim some version of this dish, too, so you may have encountered ratatouille under a different name. In Italy it is caponata. In Spain, it is called pisto. It gets its most colorful name, though, in Turkey where it is cooked as a stuffing for an eggplant and is called imam baildi– literally, the imam fainted. Who wouldn’t want to cook (and taste) a dish with that great name?

There are lots of theories about the meaning and origin of the French name for this dish. Rata seems to have been a local term for a chunky stew and touiller is a French word for stirring things up.  Somewhere along the way the “r” was dropped. Several sources I’ve read claim that the original ratatouille, given its origin as a peasant food, should actually be translated as “motley stew.” (That one made me laugh, and, in a flight of whimsy, I briefly wondered  if the heavy metal band Motely Crue was secretly a group of gourmands who were cool enough to have crafted their name as a clever pun for the Provincial dish? Nah! Didn’t happen.The boys-behaving-badly rock band was never accused of being classy. Ever. I suspect their favorite food group was Lowenbrau.)

Traditionally, ratatouille is served as a side dish with a meat course and/or with rice or couscous. Julia Child, who was famous for her ratatouille, served it alone. I served mine with Israeli couscous from Trader Joe’s. (Israeli couscous is a variation on regular couscous. It is made from wheat, is larger than traditional couscous, and is toasted.)

There are many other ways to serve ratatouille. For example, ratatouille is so popular in Provence that it has fast food versions served on baguettes, pizzas and local flatbreads called fougasses. (A fougasse is often studded with olives, cheese, and garlic. How good does that sound?)  Sometimes, ratatouille is served topped with a poached or fried egg to boost the dish’s protein, although the chickpeas in the dish are also a good source of protein. You may want to try one of these variations with your leftovers. This recipe makes a lot of ratatouille!

Whatever its origins, ratatouille is a great dish and one that lets a pastiche of fresh vegetables like eggplants, zucchini, onions, peppers, tomatoes and garlic shine. Here is the recipe. It is easy and nobody at your table will call it a motley stew.

Ratatouille

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Ingredients

• 1 pound eggplant (peeled or unpeeled and cut into large chunks)
• 3/4 pound zucchini (cut into large chunks)
• 1 pound plum tomatoes (cored and chopped)
• 1 onion (sliced)
• 2 yellow bell peppers (cored, seeded and sliced)
• 1 fennel bulb (about 1 pound) (trimmed and cut into large chunks) Don't leave out the fennel.
• 5 garlic cloves (halved)
• 1 t. salt (to taste)
• Black pepper to taste
• 1/4 C. olive oil
• 3 C. canned or cooked chickpeas (drained)
• 1 T. chopped fresh thyme
• 1 T. chopped fresh parsley (or more)
• Oil-cured Kalamata olives for garnish
• Grated gruyere cheese for garnish
• A drizzle of your best extra-virgin olive oil
• A few chopped cherry tomatoes for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Prepare your vegetables, mix them together and spread them on a large cooking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the top of the vegetables and toss to coat the vegetables with the olive oil.
3. Roast the vegetables in your oven until they are beginning to brown and are tender. The tomatoes should be releasing their water as the dish cooks to create a bit of sauce. This will take about 30 to 40 minutes and you will want to stir the vegetable mixture several times during the cooking.
4. Take the tray of vegetables from the oven and mix in the chickpeas. Return the vegetables to the oven and cook for 5 to 10 minutes more.
5. Stir in the herbs. Adjust salt and pepper seasonings. Serve hot or warm (or cold) garnished with shredded gruyere, chopped cherry tomatoes, Kalamata olives and a just-before-serving drizzle of the best extra-virgin olive oil you have in your kitchen..

Notes

Don't even think about leaving out the fennel. It is wonderful in this dish and is available in most supermarkets.

Nutrition

Calories

1578 cal

Fat

73 g

Carbs

200 g

Protein

59 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

110

https://bluecayenne.com/ratatouille

Here is a link to the original dish from which the recipe above was adapted: Mark Bittman’s Ratatouille.

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