lamb and gigante bean stew, with plum and pumpkin

 

I'm continuing my Rancho Gordo bean kick, using the Royal Corona beans that came in my bean club box. It's my first time eating these beans, they are very creamy! Not at all vegetal the way I remember butter beans to be as a kid. 
The three day heatwave is over, the first of many this summer, I'm sure. With the cooler, rainier weather came the desire for soup. I had some lamb from The Meat Hook in the freezer and sweet kabocha pumpkin replaced the usual potato/carrot combo. I had also bought a huge bag of plums that were on sale at the store, but should have known they weren't going to be great at such a low price. They weren't mealy at least, they were just very bland, with no sweetness, and just a hint of floral favor. I threw in about five of those and turned the rest into chutney (recipe to come). The stew turned out light and perfect for this temporary heat reprieve. 

seared shrimp with beans and quinoa

 

I FINALLY got into the Rancho Gordo bean club. It took 3 years. I'm not going to even bother expressing my excitement, I will let the slew of bean recipes I post moving forward speak for themselves. My first quarterly box arrived with 6 kinds of pulses, one I'd never heard of before: Good Mother Stallard, which turns out to be THE bean of beans: Firm skin, creamy interior, a broth you can drink on its own...what more is there to say??

look how pretty the dried ones are

I pressure cooked one cup of these dry beauties in the instant pot with some aromatics for 30 min, did a natural release, and they were perfect. I tried some just in the broth, which was astonishingly full of flavor and had none of that typical "beany" flavor. Then I simply threw the rest in with some quinoa, blistered corn and seared shrimp. Salt, pepper, lemon juice and parsley. Dinner. 

I'll never get over this bean, don't hesitate if they're in stock. 

An Ode to Wedge Salad

behold, my latest food obsession

Of all my 33 years on this earth, I have never ordered a wedge salad. 

black caviar lentil stew

 

Rancho Gordo Forever!

I made my first youtube video for this recipe, nothing ambitious but I've really wanted to start uploading for a while. I have plenty of footage, this is just what I happened to edit and get around to posting today. I'd eventually like to do an Imamu room-style video with little talking but subtitles to make a hybrid vlog post, I've always found her videos very calming.

Anyway this is a great recipe to make to incorporate more pulses into your diet. Fake meat sucks, legumes is where it's at.

Winter Beefshank Stew

I was a vegetarian for 10 years and fell off the bandwagon during the pandemic for..."ah fuck it" reasons. I cook almost every day of the week and when I use meat, it's as an ingredient like any other, not the star of the dish, which is common in a lot of Chinese cooking, which is what I learned from my mother at home. This last September I finished reading Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk and decided it may be time to revisit vegetarianism. G isn't picky and never been a steak kind of guy. I'd only really miss the ground pork in mapo dofu, but I did a decent shiitake version for years.

Anyway, here's a beef recipe for the winter. You'll need an instant pot or pressure cooker and 3 hours of your time.