Peeking into the rock

So often when I have an idea for a perfect bean stew the result is less magnificent than I imagined and I am stuck with a large pot of only-okay food to eat up before I can make something else. Today I am eating a very nice pot of adzuki bean stew and I can only say I am quite relieved (also the pot isn't so big that the flavors will go flat before I finish it).

So in the interests of remembering hjow I did it and what went into it I am recording this for later on.

first, contrary to usual instructions, I soaked the adzuki beans overnight. I started with a cup and a half or so: half the jar, which was a 24-oz jar. I didn't buy them in a jar, I put some in a bag from the bulk bin, but I got the amount that sort of fills that jar. Lately I even soak lentils. My reasoning is that I am also draining them and hopefully removing some of the stuff that makes bloating happen. I'm not always afflicted when I eat legumes, and I'm trying to turn that into "almost never" because I love legumes and they're cheap protein, high fiber, high iron, and low-glycemic starch, what more can you ask of food than yumminess and appropriate nutrion and afforability? I think that covers everything. Adzukis aren't the cheapest beans, but they aren't the most expensive either, and the most expensive beans are still half the price of the least expensive meat, so there you go. Did I mention I love the taste and texture of most beans?

So then I cooked the beans in new water while I cut up a pile of vegetables. These were a special combination that I wouldn't put with just any bean: only ones with a red color or a flavor like red beans. I'd do something else with whiter beans or black beans or garbanzos (which are the pinnacle of beans to me, ordinarily)

The vegetables I used were the least-warty fifth of a medium-large kabocha squash with the peel left on (that's why the least-warty part): three inches of a thick carrot: half a large turnip: a medium yellow beet: a half a large onion (about the quantity of a medium onion): only one large clove of garlic (because this was shaping up to be a kind of sweet stew: normally I use four or more because I hunger for garlic): and a bunch of dinosaur kale. I did not have any chile: I would have liked to put in a red mildly piquant one, like some frying peppers. No tomato in this one. Also no mediterranean herbs. I did put in a bit of soy sauce, probably not enough to make a difference, and a spit of salt and a splash of Tapatio (chile). If you need more sweet to notice that it is sweet, you could add honey or sugar or something, but I didn't need it. No broth, just water. I don't usually use broth anymore unless I have recently made some kind of meat with bones, and even then not likely because I mostly make stews when I have meat.

So then I put the veggies in all at once and I didn't sautee them, I just added them to the cooked adzuki beans and I cooked them altogether for a bit over forty-five minutes, to when the veggies seemed tender, then I let it cool, and put it in a bowl in the refrigerator. First ate it for breakfast today, which is the next day.

It is not the sort of food that makes you cry with pleasure. It is very pleasant and nourishing-feeling, and it makes me happy. Also the pumpkin bits are really, really nice. Did I ever tell you how much I adore kabocha squash? I only tolerate other kinds of squash. A nice sugar pie pumpkin is pretty good, and butternut squash is adequate, acorn squash is usually edible, but the others only exist to fill in the gaps when there's no kabocha squash to be had.

On another front, I have inherited my father's CD collection. My brother got the tapes. I think he chose the tapes because he thought there were fewer of them. He was wrong.