Beans, a most humble food, get a bad rap as a “poor mans food”, which is totally underserved. Yes, they are cheap, and thank goodness for that. Lets keep it that way.
They also get a bad rap because they can wreak gastrointestinal havoc, i.e. cause gas, if they are not cooked properly. Unfortunately this stops people from cooking with them at home, because who has the time to cook beans when you’ve got a half hour to eat?
I’m not going to go into detail about all the advantages to eating beans, all the proteins, phytochemicals, and nutrients they have. If you are really interested you can google it. I’m just going to praise them because they taste good and they are a perfect winter food.
I still recall one of the many food conversations I had with my Cuban friend, in which she explained that one of her favorite foods were black beans. That’s interesting, I thought. It just would not have occurred to me to ever put black beans on the top of my list. But I had never tasted Cuban black beans! Or Brazilian feijoada!
The first secret to a great relationship with beans is to buy a PRESSURE COOKER. A pressure cooker is a pot that has a lid that seals and locks, and cooks on a regular gas stove. It’s easy and safe. By cooking your food under high pressure it dramatically reduces cooking time and saves fuel. Back in 1998, when I told my Cuban friend that we don’t use a pressure cooker, she looked at me like I was crazy. Its true, I was. My beans would sit on the stove for about an hour and often char to a crisp from forgetfulness. Another pot ruined. Cubans just don’t do this. They don’t have the beans, pots, and fuel to spare so they can be spaced out in the kitchen. If beans and rice are what they have, they are going to prepare them carefully, efficiently and deliciously. And their old pressure cooker looked like it was from the 1950's too, just like those beautiful but well-used cars that Cuba is famous for. Cooking pre-soaked beans in a pressure cooker takes about 10-15 minutes. Don’t ever think about buying those cans again. I pre-soak the beans (black, kidney, garbanzo) for about 8 hours while I am away at work. My favorite beans are KIDNEY beans, because the color is lovely, they hold their form, and they are flavorful on their own. All I add is salt, cumin, and a bay leaf. And they are perfect with a cooked green like collards or kale.
6 comments:
Thanks for the reminder - I tend to forget about soaking. Only takes a few seconds to do and saves so much time and energy. I had black eyed peas tonight and was reminded of what a great winter food it is.
Thanks Creyde. True, I buy beans with good intentions, and then they sit on our shelf for years mostly due to the time requirement, difficulty of making them well, and exceding my daily gas quota. It sounds like adding a pressure cooker to our new kitchen could be the ticket! I got a similar confused look from a Taiwanese friend who saw me cook rice in a pan. Is a pressure cooker and rice cooker one in the same?
r2p,
Don't exceed that quota! Pre-soak!
The difference is a pressure cooker is a stainless steel pot you put on the stove, and I believe most rice cookers are self-contained electric units. I have a 4 qt. Fagor pressure cooker.
Would you believe that the first time I ever enjoyed Black Beans was when we went to NYC with Salina back in 1987 at the age of 20? I am Cuban and I spent all of my life rejecting beans. My mother, bless her soul, is from Havana and can cook up an amazing Cuban meal, but her beans were awful. Her bland recipe for beans was handed down from my grandmother, who was confined to cooking them "blah style" because that's the way my grandfather liked them and my mother knew no other way (no pork fat, no salt). Finally, in NYC we went to a Chino Latino restaurant (we don't have those here in Miami) and you had a Black Bean Soup with Sour Cream on top and I decided to try some and I saw the light. I went back home and asked my mom why her beans were so overcooked and bland and she said thats how she learned how too cook'em. We got another recipe and I've been loving them ever since.
And that's the story of how a little dutch girl taught a little Cuban boy how to eat Black Beans.
In Taiwan and China, we prepare varies beans as sweet treat or a dessert after meal. Sweet soup of red bean cooked with peal barley, served warm is my favorite winter snack. Although I often found westernor have hardtime to accept SWEET bean soup. I guess we just have very different expectation from beans.
hey W, check it out:
http://www.ranchogordo.com/index.htm
I'm kind of a NO pre-soak guy, after much experimentation and consulting.
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