Eric's Quinoa and Sausage Crockpot Stew

Eric gets full credit for this fabulous dinner.   We all loved it - and,  and! - it was a crockpot thing so we threw it in the pot, covered it up and went into town between snowstorms.  

Awe.  Some. 

It's a hearty blend of quinoa and beans, gussied up with carrot slices, onions and garlic and a pinch or two of garden herbs.   

We liked it thick as a stew, but if you added extra water or broth, it would make a terrific brothy soup, too.  

Eric's Quinoa and Sausage Crockpot Stew
www.rurification.com

1 lb sausage, crumbled, browned and drained
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 can black beans
1 can great northern beans
2 chopped carrots [or more!]
5-6 cups water
1 3/4 cups mixed quinoa, well rinsed
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 bay leaf

Cook up the sausage with the onion and garlic.  Drain the fat off and put in the crockpot with everything else.   Cook 6-7 hours on low.    If your quinoa takes up too much water, add more.   You can add extra water or broth to make a thinner, brothy soup.    Add a few stalks of celery for you celery lovers out there.   It's pretty hard to go wrong here.

A note about quinoa.  We get red, black and white quinoa from our local international market [Sahara Mart] in the bulk section.   Then we get home and mix it all together and store it in quart jars.    We like the white quinoa by itself in some things, so we always buy extra of that and leave a jar of plain white, too.     

Rinsing the quinoa is very important!    I drop it in the bottom of a large soup pot and run water over it until the pot fills.   Then I stir it around.   The water will cloud up, but the quinoa will settle pretty quickly.    I pour the old water off and do it all again two or three times.   If your pot is the right height [tall!], you can just run a constant gentle stream straight in the pot and the quinoa will stir up, but stay in the bottom with the flow while the old water pours out the top.     You can also bundle it and rinse it in a towel or several layers of cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer.    Whatever works.

Bean Soup with Bacon, Chicken and Pesto

I have been so hungry for soup lately!   Maybe it's the weather, maybe my it's my need for comfort food -  I don't know.  But soup, soup, soup is all I've been thinking about.  

Except for eggnog.   I've been thinking about eggnog.  

Also, fruitcake, which I love, and which probably makes me a freak to most of the English speaking world and, now that I think about it, probably all of the French speaking world.  It's true, though.  I've been thinking about fruitcake.  Please don't stop reading the blog because you know this about me now.

Even though I love fruitcake and eggnog, they only go so far before they leave you quivering on the floor in a sugar induced coma.   I don't know about you, but I just don't have time for a sugar induced coma.  Which is why I've been thinking about soup.

I'm pretty sure that soup prevents sugar induced comas.   Yet another reason to love soup.

I have a great recipe for Clam Chowder that I got from a college roommate [Thanks, Julie!].    I love the Hungarian Mushroom Soup that's in The New Moosewood Cookbook.  I also love Chili.  And Minestrone - without the pasta, so I guess it's not really minestrone, it's sort of an Italian style Vegetable Soup.   Whatever.       But I want more variety in my soups so I picked up a couple of soup books from the library.

I love the library.  There was a Whole Shelf full of soup books at the library - and those were just the ones that weren't checked out.   When they're all in, I bet they have Two Whole Shelves of books about soup.  Maybe even Three.    Which means there's a whole world of soup out there that I've been missing.    

Don't you think?

At any rate, I fell in love with one of the soup books I brought home.   Fell. In. Love.    And since I know you want to know which one it was, I'm going to tell you.  

Ta-DA!     My new favorite cookbook!   Knack Soup Classics: Chowders, Gumbos, Bisques, Broths, Stocks, and Other Delicious Soups

Chowders! Bisques! Gumbos!    Now we're talking.

I love this book.  It's simple and covers all the basics, which means it's a good way to learn how to make your own soups. 

And so I did.

Bean Soup with Bacon, Chicken and Pesto
www.rurification.com

• 1/2 lb bacon, cooked until crisp, cooled and crumbled
• 2 T butter or bacon grease
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup carrots, chopped
• a handful of dried rat tail radishes or celery or both
• 2 cans great northern beans
• 2 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed [Brown them in the bacon grease!]
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups water
• 1 tsp sugar
• a couple of grinds of black pepper 
• pesto.   Here's how we make our pesto.

Fry the bacon first, then set it aside to cool.    Saute the onion, garlic and carrots in the butter or bacon grease until soft.  Add the remaining ingredients, except the pesto.   Heat through and simmer for an hour.    Serve with a spoon full of pesto stirred in.      Makes 8 servings.

It's really tasty!   Everyone here loved it - even the I Don't Eat Beans kid.   I think the bacon had something to do with that.

If you don't have dried celery or radishes, then use a stalk or two of fresh celery.   Or leave it out.   We never have fresh celery around, so we started buying a big bunch and dehydrating it to use in soups.   Just chop it up and toss it in the dehydrator and dry it until it's crispy.   Store it in a jar or in a bag in the freezer.    

Garden Report - Chinese Long Beans

It's the end of the season.  We've had a few freezes and I can report on how well the long beans did.

I told you before that the Chinese green long beans were somewhat of a late bloomer.    Seriously late bloomer.   I had despaired that we would get many beans from them at all and predicted that we wouldn't do the green ones again.

I was wrong.

Turns out, the Chinese red long beans love the heat, but the green long beans love the cool.   As soon as the the weather cooled, the green ones took off.   Took.  Off. 

In addition, the green long beans are reasonably frost hardy.   We've had three nights of light frosts and the green long beans are doing better than ever.   Here's a pic:

The red long beans are on the left side of the trellis.  The green ones are on the right side of the trellis.   Big difference.

The red long beans got spots all over the leaves as soon as it frosted.  The green ones keep right on going and bearing.

I got the original seeds from Baker Creek [www.rareseeds.com].  I saved seed from the red beans last year and planted them in the Spring.   I had excellent germination.     I'll save seed this year, too.

The red long beans are fabulous for mid season bearing.   We love them - they are my favorite bean.  I'll always have these.   They do well in the heat and they bear like crazy.  

The green ones are slower going.  I planted them at the same time, but they didn't hit their stride until late in the season after the weather dropped from the100's and  90's to the 80s and lower.  I'm guessing these would be wonderful for northern gardens.  Since the green ones are so cold tolerant, I'm going to try to plant the green ones at the same time I plant peas next year to give them a head start in the cool.     At the very least, I know that they're a fantastic fall bearing bean and I'll be saving some seed for late next season, too. 

Chinese Red Long Beans

I've talked to you about my Chinese red long beans before.    I saved seed from the ones last year and planted it this year and they came up and produced beautifully.   No problems at all with them.   I also got some seed from Baker Creek for some Chinese green long beans and I was surprised to see that the green beans are much later producing than the red ones.    My red ones burst out of the ground, climbed the trellis and bloomed and bore like crazy.   The green ones sprouted, took their time climbing and once up there spent several weeks admiring the view instead of putting out flowers. 

It's possible that the red beans like the heat more than the green ones.  That's my theory, anyway.   

The pic above is of the red ones on their side of the trellis.   Pretty, huh.

And here's a pic of them closer.    All those red beans hanging on the trellis are really pretty.

The trick is to pick them before they get soft and lumpy looking.   The problem I have is that they're so pretty and they grow so fast that I forget to cut them soon enough.   They're still tasty when they're fatter, but we like them best when they're around 18 inches long and about the thickness of a pen.

Don't forget to leave some on the plant so you can save seed for next year.    Leave them on until the beans dry up completely - even after a frost.   Then cut them down, take the seeds out of the pod, put them in an envelope and LABEL them so you remember what they are for next year. 

My favorite way to eat long beans is to cut them into pieces a few inches long, the sautee them up with lots of garlic and a bit of butter until they're a bit crispy.  Then toss in a spoonful of Thai red curry paste.   Stir it all around well until the beans are well covered with it.   Enjoy.

Bush Beans and Pole Beans

These are my beautiful bean vines.  [That's the morning sun hitting the trees behind them. And you can just see the chicken coop on the right.] 

Last year I saved some seeds from the beans I grew.   I saved some dragon tongue bush beans and some kentucky wonder bush beans.  

And when I planted them this year, they came up!

I was so excited.   Seeds are kind of a whole different ball game from just watering a plant.

Seriously.

Anyway, my beans came up with 100% germination rate, which was really great and which meant that I had planted way too many because I do that, just in case, and so I had to pull out every other baby bean plant. 

It's good for me to practice thinning things.    I tend to over crowd things and they just grow better if I thin. 

So I thinned. 

And I still had a lovely row of each kind of bean. 

And then something interesting happened.   The green Kentucky wonder bush beans got awfully long. 

And then they got longer.

Some of my bush beans threw seeds for pole beans.   Also, some of my green beans had flat pods like the dragon tongues, but green. 

Even though beans aren't supposed to interbreed accidentally like that, these beans must have had a lot of genetic diversity and also been highly suggestible.    I'm thinking the dragon tongues talked them into the whole flat pod thing that one weekend last year when we were in Michigan. 

At any rate, we put some fence posts in the row, laid some strong twine from post to post and tied our beans up.   About half of them are happily climbing higher and higher.   The other half are still bush beans. 

The heat has meant that they've been spotty setting bloom and seed.   The dragon tongues seemed to tolerate the heat a bit better, but there are a lot of blossoms on all the beans now, so I'm hoping we'll get a second late harvest.  

Fava Beans

I grow favas every year just because they are snow tolerant.    The University of Idaho extension office suggests planting favas as a winter cover crop.

Who knew?

I plant them the same time I plant the peas.   This year we put extra chicken dirt on the garden and I've never seen favas so happy and dark green in my life.    They're about 18 inches tall now and flowering like crazy.

White flowers with black spots.

The beans will come in pods.  You're supposed to take them out of the pods, then take the outer cover off the individual beans.  The outer cover can be bitter.

I don't care.    I take them out of the pod then sautee them with lots of garlic.   The bitter cover is pretty mild and doesn't bother me.

Also, if you haven't looked at the Gardening tab above lately, you might check it out now.   I've added a lot of information on our veg gardening schedule and a comprehensive list of what I'm growing this year.   As things progress, I'll be commenting on our experiences with each variety.  

Bean Seeds

I saved some bean seeds for next year.    

I learned from Caleb Warnock's new book that beans breed true, even when you're growing a bunch of different kinds in the same garden.   [Not true of squash or corn or beets....].    I feel pretty confident that when we plant these next year, we'll get the same kinds of beans.  

This is what I learned from my experience.   Let the pods get crispy dry on the vine before you bring them in.    They'll finish drying inside, but they'll be most of the way done.   The soft pods have good seeds, too, but it will take a lot longer to get them completely dry.   Let Mother Nature do as much work for you as possible.

Here are the dragon tongue beans, striped just like the pods are.

And here are the red long beans and green beans.   I'll let you figure out which is which.

If I'd had a lot more space and patience and dry weather, we could have saved enough to use in soups.   However, since it's so hard to dry things at all here, we're only saving enough for next year's seed. 

Curry Pickles - New and improved

Curry pickles with curry paste

Remember when we made that first batch of curry pickles?

I tried it again with curry paste instead of powder.   I'm so glad I did.   These were really, really good!  So much better than the first batch.

I made a jar with red long beans and red curry paste. 

And I made a jar with green beans and cukes and green curry paste.

The curry paste was a much improved curry flavor, but they were both medium heat and really kicked the heat up a notch.   Since I've got a low heat eater, next time I'll leave the extra chili pepper out of the jar or use mild heat curry.  

With all the different types of curry out there - Indian, Thai, etc. - and all the heat levels, these pickles are really versatile.   I'm excited to try this with different curries next year. 

I really like this recipe because you don't have to make much.  It's easy to cut in half if you want just one jar.  And if you want to try two different things, it's easy to do a different thing in each jar.   Plus, if you don't like them much, then you can always take the other jar to a potluck.  Someone will definitely like them. 

Here's the revised recipe for you.    Enjoy!

Curry Pickles - New and improved version!

• Green or red beans - enough to pack 2 pint jars
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups vinegar
• 1 T canning salt
• 1 rounded tsp of curry paste in each jar.
• 1 dried chili pepper in each jar.
• 1 garlic clove in each jar.

Wash and trim the beans and pack them into the jars. Put a chili [if you want the extra heat] and a garlic clove in each jar.   Boil the water, vinegar, and salt.   Pour over beans until they're covered 1/2 inch with liquid.  Process 10 minutes for canning.  Makes 2 pints.

Wait two weeks before opening.  

Szechuan Bean Pickles

I love spicy Szechuan food.   These sounded sooo good I couldn't wait to try them.  Plus, I had a bunch of my red Chinese long beans, too - and I want to try those beans as many ways as possible, while I've got them fresh.

In our taste test, these pickles were by far the favorites.   I'll be making these every year.   Use regular green beans if you can't find the long beans.  

Szechuan Long Bean Pickles

•  Beans - enough to pack 2 pint jars, about 1 lb. 
• 1 C Oriental Spice vinegar
• 1/2 C water
• 1/4 C soy sauce
• 1/4 C sugar
• 2 T dark sesame oil
• 1 T peppercorns
• 1 inch fresh ginger, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced

Clean and trim the beans.  Pack into 2 pint jars.    Put all other ingredients into a saucepan and boil.   Pour over beans, covering 1/2 inch above tops.  Process for canning, 10 minutes.  

Let sit for 4 weeks before opening.

Note:  You can blanch the beans first and then you'd only have to wait a week for the flavors to meld before opening the bottles.   I didn't have the time to blanch, but I do have the time to wait.

Pickled long beans

We've had fun eating the Chinese red long beans.   Normally, red vegetables turn green when you cook them, so we were really surprised when they turned black in our first stir fry.   

So, of course, I wondered what would happen if we pickled them.  

Here they are made into Dilly Beans.    [Recipe in the Ball Blue Book.]    I love that they stayed red.   

I just found a recipe for szechwan pickled beans.   I think I'll try those with the next batch.

Red Chinese Long Beans

The long beans are ready!    And they are really, really long.
They measured in at around 20" long.

These beans grow on vines that must be allowed to climb so we built a trellis for them.   The beans are on one side and the cukes on the other.   Everybody's happy.

The long beans shoot out little branches that end with a pair of flowers.   Red long beans have purple flowers.

Once that pair of flowers sets fruit, another set of flowers blooms off the end.   In the pic here, you can see the first pair of baby beans and the second set of flowers on this branch. 

Very symmetrical.

More baby beans and flowers.  You can see the right hand set getting longer and redder.

Almost ready to pick.   These were just over a foot long.

That's my lemon squash below them.

Finally ready.    The green beans in front look sort of inadequate in comparison, don't they.

Designer Beans

We love fresh green beans.

And we love fresh green beans that aren't green but are sort of a pasty pale greenish white with purple stripes. 

It makes for a nice change.

I grow our beans from seed.  It's one of the few veggies that I plant from seed that I never stress out over.

That's rare.

It's hard for me to grow things from seed.   You have to baby seeds.   I hate babying seeds.    You have to make sure they're at just the right temperature and watered just so.    I don't even make sure that I'M the right temperature and watered just so.  Seeds and me have a rocky relationship.  

But beans I shove into the ground, salute and walk away from and in a few weeks I have food.

It's awesome.

This year we grew two kinds of bush beans:  Blue Lake Bush and  Dragon Tongue Bush.    I'll let you guess which ones are which in the photo above.

I love bush beans because they stay short.   I don't have to build structures to support them and then take those structures down at the end of the season.     All I have to do is pick the beans.    I love that.

The Blue Lake beans are great beans.    They're reasonably bug and disease resistant.   They're great producers.    They have a beautiful white flower and smooth green flesh. 

No need to string them, just snap the stem end off and they're delicious.

These beans are my favorite beans to use for Dilly Beans.   They stay quite firm and have a bit of crunch and I like that in a dill pickle.

The dragon tongue beans are a whole different experience.




They have pink flowers.

This, of course, makes them far superior to every other bean on the planet.   Just ask K2. 

Dragon tongues are flat and have a rougher texture than regular green beans, but they are delicious!  We like them sauteed with garlic and olive oil.   It's too bad that those exotic purple stripes disappear during cooking.

I tried these beans in Dilly Beans last year, and they were fine at first,  but after a few months they turned soft.  They'd be great to pickle now to use for a Halloween treat [Yes!  Serve your kids Dragon Tongues for dinner!], but I wouldn't want to keep them much longer than that. 

I also planted some Chinese Red Long Beans this year, but they're not ready yet.  More on them later.

What kinds of beans do you grow?