Soup, Part 2

So it took more than a day, but I finally made that soup and polenta. It’s just as well, because fresh polenta doesn’t fry as well as cold, molded polenta does. Polenta, by the way, is just a fancy Italian way of saying corn meal mush. Massive staple for pioneers, and comfort food for my family. I’m particularly fond of frying cold cornmeal mush for breakfast and topping it with brown sugar or maple syrup. It’s also crazy easy to make:

1 cup cornmeal
3 cups water
¼ teaspoon salt

Boil two cups of the water with the salt in it. Stir the cornmeal into the other cup of water to make a slurry. When the two cups is boiling, pour the slurry in and stir until it thickens. No, keep stirring. Thicker. Yes, I know you have big huge bubbles and you’re afraid you’re going to burn it. Keep stirring. 15 minutes. You’re aiming for gloopy here. (it’s during this phase that fancy recipes will tell you to stir in some kind of cheese or spices. I don’t because I like the plain kind better for breakfasts)

Spoon into a greased mold (I used a loaf pan, but if you want circles clean aluminum cans work), cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate.

That had been in my fridge for a few days before I got around to making the soup. I had a couple breakfasts out of it, and still had more than enough left to fry a couple slices and top them with cheddar to go with the soup.

I received for my birthday a cookbook of soups, and this is part of what got me in the mood to make soup in the first place. The cookbook has a ton of really tasty-sounding recipes in it. The only catch is they’re all designed to serve at least eight to ten people. Mr. Bo and I will get bored with it long before we ever finish that kind of quantity of leftovers. Also, I don’t keep most of the ingredients on-hand. So I kind of cobbled this spicy black bean soup together from what I had, based vaguely on like five different recipes I looked at.

Spicy Black Bean Soup
Oil (whatever you like, you only need a little)
1 onion, chopped
½ t garlic
2 c water
1 bouillon cube (any flavor will do)
1 t cumin
1 t chili powder
1/8 t cayenne pepper
1 t oregano
4 large cherry tomatoes (1/3 to ½ cup) roughly chopped
1 16 oz can black beans, drained
Dash worcestershire sauce
Tabasco to taste
(cheese and crushed tortilla chips to garnish)

Sweat the onions in the oil with the garlic. Meanwhile, heat the water in the microwave and add the bouillon cube to the water. Once the onions are translucent, add the spicy spices and give them a moment before dumping in the water, oregano, and Worcestershire sauce. Add the tomatoes, and bring everything to a boil. Add the beans, and boil for about ten minutes longer, to ensure everything is good and cooked. Then puree in batches in the food processor or blender. I needed two batches in my food processor so as to not go over the “liquid fill” line. I made that mistake once. Hot soup all over everything! It was un-fun.

At this point, you might have soup. Taste it. Is it at the spice level you want? Is it thick enough? If the answer to the first question is no, add some Tabasco. Go easy on this. I didn’t, and we wound up with Fiery Death Soup. If it’s not thick enough, a low boil with regular stirring should evaporate some of the liquid.

Serve it with cheese or sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips, and the fried cheesy polenta on the side.

We solved the Fiery Death problem actually by crushing up a handful of tortilla chips into our bowls. Which also gave it nice crunchy bits in the creamy soup for contrast.