Beans, beans, the magical fruit...

...the more you eat, the more you toot. Tooting aside, they say black beans provide a wealth of health benefits, including cancer prevention and cardiovascular health. So you'll be happy to know that now, you can enjoy them not only in savory dishes, but in your cake, too! Say what? Yes, you heard me right. And not just in any old cake, but chocolate cake.

I got this black bean chocolate cake recipe from a book club acquaintance. Those of you who know me well can attest to the fact that I'm not much of a cake fan, but the idea of chocolate cake made out of black beans was so intriguing that I just had to give this recipe a whirl. That's what happens when you grow up in an Asian family--your taste buds are conditioned to accept red bean cake and sesame paste as delectable treats. Picture me as a five year old, running around and beaming that I get to have a red bean pastry for dessert. So, given a choice between chocolate cake and red bean cake, for me the red bean cake wins hands down. But with this recipe, I don't need to choose; I get two yummy flavors into one. And, did I mention that this is far healthier than the flour version?

I was a bit nervous about how it would taste. But after just one bite, I knew that this one was a winner. It was moist, slightly sweet, and most of all, I did not have to feel guilty about eating it, because beans are good for you, y'all! This picture doesn't do the recipe much justice since the beautiful sprinkling of confectioner's sugar kind of melted away, but it was especially good with a dollop of home-made whipped cream. Even K, who is more of a traditionalist when it comes to desserts, asked for seconds and thirds. EB gobbled it up as well.

Here is the recipe, in case you are interested. For all of you calorie counters, I also put together nutritional content as well.

I will most likely try a version sweetened with stevia or Splenda. Let me know if you end up trying the recipe, and how you like it!

*****
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
5 large eggs
1 tbs vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbs butter
3/4 cup demerera sugar
6 tbs cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbs water

Preheat the oven to 350º and grease a 9″ cake pan.
Mix together the cocoa, baking powder and baking soda in a small bowl.
In a larger bowl, beat the butter until it’s soft and fluffy. Add 2 of the eggs and beat well after each one. Put the beans, 3 of the eggs, vanilla, sugar and salt into a blender or food processor and blend/process until the mixture is smooth. Add this mixture to the butter/egg mixture, further mix to combine. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients and the water and beat on high for 1 minute until smooth. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 30-35 mins. The top of the cake should be rounded and firm to the touch, and the cake should be pulling away from the sides of the pan.

Total number of calories per serving (assuming you feed 8 people): 232 calories

Random stuff from my visit to NYC

I was in New York City for work last week, and stayed at The Club Quarter Hotel in downtown Manhattan. The hotel was nice, business-oriented and clean. However, there were two drawbacks: (1) My room directly overlooked the old World Trade Center site—a bit creepy and very sad; (2) They stuck me on the 14th floor. There's nothing wrong with the number 14, but there's plenty wrong with the number 4, if you are Chinese. This ominous number symbolizes death in the Chinese culture, so between the view and the location of the room, I almost requested a room change.

But...I ended up getting distracted by the water unit that was right outside of my room. It was a purified water unit with a rack of empty plastic bottles for the guests to fill up and take to their room. Pretty cool and convenient. But, I wondered if these bottles were actually clean. Do they re-use these bottles, and even if they don’t, what’s to keep the other folks from putting their dirty bottle in amongst the clean ones? While I liked having access to clean drinking water without having to pay the rip-off fee of $4/hotel-room bottle, I couldn't get over the fact that I could be drinking out of someone else’s saliva/germ-filled water bottle. The solution? I used my own bottle that I had brought with me on the trip. Here’s to thinking ahead.

Are the bottles clean? Dirty? No one will ever know...

Every time I’m back in the City, I realize how much I miss its energy and its different neighborhoods. And the food. Over a dinner meeting, a co-worker mentioned that the downside of living in NYC is the cost of living and the cost of food. The latter puzzled me, because when I lived in NYC, I was always able to find great food for less than $20. To be fair, I did not dine in expensive, see-or-be-seen restaurants. Rather, I loved going to different ethnic neighborhoods and eating at a little hole in the wall where the focus is not on the atmosphere but rather, on making their food well. I didn't have a lot of time this trip, but I did manage to stop in at a Japanese noddle shop for a nice bowl of Udon ($5.75), and swing by Chinatown for some of their pastries (two for less than $5). I was in heaven.