Apparently 'eyeballing' and experimenting with ingredients isn't as common as it was when I was learning to cook - so I made this recipe again as an actual recipe with measurements. I 'scientifically' tested it out- and it worked fine. Bonus is I now have two quarts of soup to eat this week at work :)
Navy Bean Soup (with measurements)
makes two quarts (or two pints and a quart, which is how I put it up for convenience)
Note : This recipe was created to make a specific point of how to use dried beans, to have that in my 'cooking arsenal' and know how long it would take to make it correctly. My daughter had wondered how to cook the beans from dry state, and there are SO many versions out there I wanted something I had done myself to show her a good method. I use a lot of lentils and split peas, but dried beans do take patience and time to prepare properly. Navy beans are small and cook up well into soups like this. Dried beans are a lot cheaper than canned beans, are very available in many places and keep very well. They keep even better when stored in a cabinet in a tight container like a coffee can, to prevent cabinet fly getting into the plastic bags. You could use canned beans for this, just figure out what quantity you like and of course, it would make it quicker as the canned beans would already be at the softened state, just heat it up with the vegetables in it until they are done and blend it.
The Method / Recipe :
In a large pot rinse one cup of navy beans - fresher beans are best, pick out any discolored or bits of other things (stem, gravel whatever, depends on your brand, they're much better about that than they were when I was a kid, as well)
pour out rinse water, add 4 cups of clean water to pot with beans
add 1 tablespoon of distilled white vinegar
Do NOT add salt or oil
put on stove and bring to a rolling boil - let it boil like that stirring for a bit, the beans may rise to the top and become sort of wrinkled
turn off the heat, remove pot from heat, add a lid to the pot, let sit undrained for 1 HOUR
After one hour :
add about a tablespoon of olive oil
add rosemary and garlic powder, flake, minced whatever you like
add some ham or bacon or kielbasa if you want (it helps a lot to add fat but you don't want to overwhelm or add too much saltiness) I used one round of Canadian bacon that Mark had bought for pizza, cut up very fine
optional : black pepper, ground brown mustard seed and/or celery seed
Put pot back on heat and bring back to a boil, stir well.
bring down to a simmer, where it just barely bubbles or not even quite bubbling but close, keep at this heat for 1.5 hours or so, stirring occasionally
remove a bean or two onto a plate and try to mash it with the back of a spoon
if it mashes easily, it is time to continue - if not, stir well and keep at temperature for another half hour, test again - if you had added salt before, it will be very difficult to get this to work well, as the beans may have hardened, so no SALT other than what might have already been in the meat
if mashable : add several good handfuls of diced zucchini and another of sliced onion, carrots might work in this or bok choy tops and bottoms - I've done the latter with no real change in taste but have been wondering if I might put carrots in it or if that taste would be too different
I also add some Garlic Parmesan grill seasoning at this point, because it is VERY good, but I know it has salt in it, so I don't add it earlier.
bring pot back to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or so until the vegetables are well cooked - I have my veggies in the freezer, so this works well for them
take entire pot off of heat, put on a towel or trivet on a counter, and blend with a stick blender until smooth
Either serve when cooled with bread and maybe some shredded cheese or : Pour up into two clean glass quart jars or two pints and a quart, leaving about an inch at the top of each jar - place tops on and put in refrigerator after they have cooled on the counter some, using within four to five days. This will not keep out of the refrigerator, and it is best to use it as soon as you can, but I routinely get four or five days out of it before it is gone.
Another nice variation for serving : add several tablespoons of diced mild green chiles to the pot when rewarming, and then tear up flour tortilla into very small pieces, heat with the soup and it becomes almost a noodle.
Madeleine cookies :
It seems I have to keep putting this recipe back up in multiple places because either I'm spelling it off, or the algorithm just really doesn't like to give it back to me when I ask. It has went as far as to say that the website doesn't have a recipe for it - when in fact, it probably has about four different ones. I make this sometimes once a week, but not too much more often than that - and know I've posted the recipe several times over the years although it always does fluctuate some.
What I'm using lately for the Madeleine recipe - also called magdalenas in Catalan
3 large chicken eggs, set out on counter to warm up and beat with 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup of white sugar plus 1 softened stick of butter plus 2 tbsp of dark brown sugar - beat together for a total of FIVE minutes - then mix in 1 cup (little more) of white flour (that has come out of the freezer a few minutes beforehand) and 1 tsp of baking powder and less than 1/2 tsp of salt - mix dry ingredients in portions into the wet mixture. 375 preheated oven, each well of the madeleine pan brushed with butter and coated with flour, fill wells up only half way, and remove from oven as soon as the outer bits of the cookie begins to brown in the pan and a finger pressed makes the cookie bounce back - turn out onto plate to prevent it from overcooking in the madeleine pan. All that bit about pouring in melted butter at one point and/or chilling the dough before baking it -- I tried that time and again, and found it really didn't matter in the end product at least not to me.
Madeleine cookies
3 large eggs
1 tsp of vanilla extract (mixed with the eggs)
1/2 cup of white sugar
2 tbsp of dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) of pre-softened butter
1 to 1 and 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp little less of salt
375 degree oven, 10 minutes or less
this recipe should fill 2 madeleine pans, each well about 1/2 full or so
