Beans

Spicy Saucy Black Beans

March 27, 2009 by Rebecca 9 Comments

I know I promised the Spicy Saucy Black Bean recipe would be up in the wee hours last night. I did not get to it. When The Evil Genius got back to our lair we talked, laughed, tucked kids in, and ate our way through an indecent quantity of homemade mint ice cream with deadly chocolate syrup. And the black beans went and slipped my mind. But here I am, beans in hand, and I think you’ll find they were worth the wait.

This black bean recipe is the third installment (see one and two) of our bean series encouraging you to eat more of the musical fruit with every meal. Outside of ‘refried beans’, black beans are probably the most picky-eater friendly. They cook quickly since they are so small and they are wonderful in soups, dips, stews, and on their own. As with most beans, they freeze well for about a month or two when packaged properly. You can even prepare this entire dish and freeze it in individual serving portions. Reheat each portion in the microwave or in a covered saucepan over low heat with a tablespoon or two full of water. It’s fantastic for you and it’s delicious. That’s fast food that makes your heart swell with happiness, not clogged arteries. And it’s vegetarian friendly for the friendly vegetarians in your life. Hey! Whaddya know? I can cook something without bacon fat. (But I’d be lyin’ if I said I never make this with bacon fat in place of the olive oil. I am fallible…)

I make it using beans that have been rehydrated and cooked because, well, they taste better and they’re better for you. You can certainly use canned black beans in this recipe, but you will definitely want to cut way back on the salt. Canned beans come pre-salted, so just adjust salt to taste at the end of the cooking time.

Normally, I’d make these with petite diced tomatoes, but the vehicles are both out of commission. And as I mentioned before, Hambone, while huge, is not big enough to saddle up and ride into town. Time to improvise. Tomato paste mixed with water stands in beautifully here. If you want to prepare the beans with diced tomatoes, go for it… but don’t make a special trip to the store just for the maters if you have tomato paste in the pantry.

Please make this. I am not above begging. Once you’ve tried it you’ll find yourself wondering how something so simple can be so delicious and packed with flavor. You’ll be serving this over rice by itself, with fried chicken, on tacos, in burritos, on nachos, and on a spoon in the middle of the night. Beans. What can’t they do?

I just lurve these beans.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe, click here!

Spicy Saucy Black Beans

Ingredients:

4 cups cooked black beans
1 (14-18 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes ~or~ 6 ounces tomato paste whisked together with 1 1/4 cups cold water
1 yellow onion
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced, fresh garlic or garlic paste
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/8-1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
optional, fresh cilantro for garnish

Dice your onion.

Take the tip of the onion off so it will stand still on your cutting board.

Love that flat spot now, no? Slice through the center of the root down through the onion.

Peel away the outside layer leaving the rest of the onion intact.

Slice from within 1/4" of the root to the tip from one side of the onion to the other. Keeping the root end intact helps make the cuts to come easier...

Turn the onion 90 degrees and slice down across the slices you've already made for the perfect dice. And for the love of all that's holy don't throw away that root end of the onion. Keep it in a bag devoted to the purpose in your freezer. That has a ton of flavor. Toss it in when you're cooking dried beans and you'll never go back.

Drizzle the olive oil into a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan.

Warm the oil over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add the onions and sprinkle with the salt and crushed red pepper flakes.

Stir to distribute the salt evenly and cook gently.

If onions begin to brown lower heat and continue cooking until the onions are mostly translucent and soft, about 5-7 minutes. Add remaining ingredients -except the cilantro, if using- and stir well.

Like I said... You can use the tomato paste mixed with water OR the can of diced tomatoes. Both delicious, if different, in the final analysis.

Gaaaaaahlic. Mmmm.

You can stop the cooking process as soon as it's the thickness you desire. I like mine mighty thick... so I bubbled it away for another few minutes after this picture.

Cook the beans over medium heat until bubbly and thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Serve the beans, garnished with cilantro if desired, hot, warm, or cold.

Spicy Saucy Black Beans. Who doesn't love saucy beans?

It is finally Spring, both officially and otherwise. I sat on my porch with my bowl of beans and my feet up and ate the whole blasted thing. I think I may regret that later.

Filed Under: Beans, Rebecca, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: black beans, dried beans, Vegetarian

Provence White Bean Puree

March 20, 2009 by Rebecca 5 Comments

If you were around yesterday you may have a pot of beans hanging out in your fridge waiting for you. If you are scratching your head and saying, “Huh?” just click here and then rejoin us. It’s okay. We’ll wait…In the meantime, those of us who have beanpots in hand can enjoy this lovely ditty while we wait for the others to play catch up…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpgPJ1uMDsU[/youtube]

Alrighty. We’re all on the same page now? If you made the cannelini yesterday you are in for a tasty treat; Provence White Bean Puree (a.k.a. Mom’s French Bean Dip.) I can get my kids to eat almost anything by pureeing it and calling it dip. This is a trick that you are welcome to borrow to use on picky children or spouses. I promise your secret is safe with me. I prefer the lovely name ‘Provence White Bean Puree’, but when at home do as the homies. Donc* (that’s ‘therefore’ for the non-Francophiles out there) in my maison, it’s called “Mom’s French Bean Dip”. My kids get a real charge out of it when I speak to them in French.

*This is where ‘making my parents happy’ comes into play. In case you haven’t noticed yet I am going to liberally pepper, or poivre, this post with random French words and phrases so that my parents feel the money they put into sending me to France for my senior year of high school was l’argent well spent. How about that Maman et Papa?

If you’ve never been acquainted with Herbes de Provence, this seems like a good time to remedy that situation. Herbes de Provence is a blend of, well, herbs that are typically combined in the food of the Provence region of France. Voila! Herbes de Provence. Makes sense, non? The usual players in this blend are thyme, savory, fennel, basil, and lavender flowers and other herbs. Everyone has their own favorite ratio of herbs, but the two constants are that thyme is usually the dominant flavor and there is almost always lavender. Without it, you don’t really have Herbes de Provence. If you’ve never eaten lavender just be brave and try it. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

I wish you could smell this.

Get a good look at it.

This bean puree is incredibly versatile and it’s more sophisticated than your average bean and cheese spread. Clearly, it’s usually used as a dip ‘round these parts but don’t let that stop you from elevating it to another level entirely. It is equally good when warmed up and served as a base for a grilled firm-fleshed white fish that is simply dressed with salt, pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. It is wonderful when served hot on toast points with a grilled or broiled shrimp and crispy bacon on top. It’s a sublime touch when stirred into hearty tomato based soups both as a thickener and as a flavoring agent. You catch my drift, right? It’s so very good. C’est si bon.

As if all that wasn’t enough to recommend it, it freezes like a dream since there’s no dairy of any kind in it. You can freeze it in about any zipper top bag or other airtight container (so long as you lay a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the bean puree before adding the lid to prevent the puree’s surface from drying.) You can also freeze it in ice cube trays and then transfer the frozen cubes to a zipper top bag for single-serving convenience. Pop a cube of that in a bowl of soup or stew and you’re in heaven.

Lest we forget, this gorgeous stuff is insanely inexpensive to make and insanely good for you. Lookie! Olive oil, lemon juice, beans, salt, pepper and herbs. Delicious and nutritious. Can I get a ‘hallelujah’?

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of the recipe, click here!

Oh la la! C'est magnifique.

Provence White Bean Puree

4 cups cooked cannellini beans
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ Tablespoons garlic paste (or chopped garlic)
1 Tablespoon dried herbes de Provence
the juice and zest of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Use a slotted spoon to add the beans to the bowl of a food processor (No food processor? No prob. Just beat the tar out of the ingredients with a potato masher or the bottom of a heavy glass.) Using a slotted spoon allows most of the bean liquid to drain away without overdraining them. Did you know you could overdrain beans? You do now! Seriously, though, if you drain ALL the liquid away your dip will be too dry.

Add the garlic paste, herbes de Provence, salt and pepper, olive oil, and the juice of the lemon to the bowl of a food processor.

I'm in the middle of Amish country and it's March. There is very little good, fresh garlic to be had. This is the next best thing.

The eagle eyed among you may notice that I'm squeezing lemon into mighty smooth beans. I forgot to add the lemon juice before processing the first time. Whoopsie. Fixable!

Secure the lid and process until smooth. Try a small bite of the dip on bread or a carrot stick (or a spoon!).

Adjust flavor by adding salt and pepper to taste. Stir well and pour into a container with a tight fitting lid. Refrigerate prior to serving, at least an hour, but preferably overnight. This gives the flavors a chance to blend and bloom.

Garnish with lemon zest and finely chopped green onions.

Serve cold with vegetable sticks, pita chips, breadsticks, toast or crackers. You can also serve this warm as an accompaniment to grilled fish or chicken.

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Beans, Component Foods, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Snacks, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: Bean recipes, budget-friendly recipes, dip

A Tutorial on Using Dried Beans

March 19, 2009 by Rebecca 22 Comments

Ah wonderful beans. We all love them for their taste. I love them for their nutrition. My boys love them for their, er, musical properties.

UPDATE (12/10) :Since first writing this post almost two years ago, I have been experimenting with different ways to cook beans. While I still use the crockpot method most often, I have changed on something. I use salt at the beginning of the cooking time. Really! It doesn’t slow down the cooking of the beans a bit and leaves them much more flavorful than if you add salt at the end of cooking. I stand (or rather, I sit, at this very moment) corrected. Salt away!

Beans. They are the perfect budget food. They’re chock full of dietary fiber and nutrients, simple to store and able to leap tall buildings with a single bound. And they’re cheap! They’re so cheap (“How cheap ARE they?” screamed the crowd. “So cheap they’re on the dollar menu!”) that there is no excuse to be without them. Even if you’re so poor you can’t afford to pay attention, beans are still in your ballpark. But -keeping it real here- unless you’ve grown up eating them or have been making them for years they can be a little intimidating to prepare and use. And various well-meaning and well-researched cookbooks have you jumping through a billion hoops just to make a simple pot of unadulterated beans. Not so beginner-friendly.

Why bother with dried beans and the extra work when you can buy canned beans super cheap? Dried beans last close to forever when kept in a cool, dry cabinet. They’re less expensive per pound and taste better than canned beans. And -perhaps most importantly- they’re better for you than canned beans. When you reconstitute dried beans you control the amount of sodium in them and ultimately in the finished recipe. When you start with canned beans you’re already starting at a super high sodium level (which can be a major health concern for many people.) There is more, but I think you get the idea. If you’ve never made dried beans before just do me a favor and try it at least once. I am pretty convinced I can convert you…

Here’s my plan. For the next few weeks, I’ll share a bean recipe with you on Thursday or Friday. That will give you all weekend to try out your beanerific recipes. This week, though, I’m going to start you out with a tutorial on how to get the dried little beasties to the point where you can use them in recipes… And I warn you: My method is so easy that you may not want to prepare them any other way. You’ll need a slow cooker, but if you don’t have one, you can snap up a basic model for $15 at le Walmart, le Target or le Blue-Light-Special. Don’t let anyone tell you you need bells and whistles on a slow cooker. All you really need are a ”HIGH” and a “LOW” setting. Unless you’re cooking for one, get the largest of the basic slow cookers that you can afford. I always cook more beans than we can eat in one meal. You can portion them into individual servings and freeze them to add into soups and stews or make dips or refried beans with later. We loves the bean dip around here!

Because it’s what I’m going to be using in tomorrow’s bean recipe, we’ll start out with cannellini (white kidney beans) today, but feel free to kick it off your bean adventure with any dried variety that floats your boat; pinto, chili, black, lima, garbanzo… If you follow the method, you can make any kind of bean you want!

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this tutorial, click here!

Dried Beans: A Tutorial

Necessary equipment:

a slow cooker
a saucepan to boil water

Ingredients:

1 lb dried beans, (in this case, cannellini), or about 2 cups dried beans
2 bay leaves
2-3 frozen onion tops or 1 cooking onion, peeled and cut in half from root to end
2 quarts boiling water
salt to taste

Pour your dried beans into a colander.

Yes. I sit outside on my porch steps while picking through beans. It's the hillbilly in me.

Pick through to find grossly misshapen, discolored or otherwise nasty looking beans or small stones.

It feels nice to run your hands through dried beans. There's something therapeutic about it.

These are what Leif calls "Yuck beans." This is what you want to remove.

Because dried beans are about the size and color of some pebbles, it’s not completely bizarro to find little rocks, clumps of dirt or other natural bits and pieces occasionally tucked into the bags. After you’ve picked through and removed any undesirables, give the beans a good hearty rinse under cold water, rubbing them around in the colander as they’re being cleaned. This ensures that you remove any dirt your eagle eyes may have missed. This also gives you a chance to look the beans over one more time.

Add the beans to the crock of the slow cooker. Place the bay leaves and onion tops (or onion) on the beans. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of salt, give or take according to taste, over the top.

I told you to hang onto those onion tops. I may be cheap, but these things add a lot of flavor!

Pour in the boiling water. (It really does need to be boiling. That is key!)

Pretty please make sure your water is boiling. It is superdy duper important. Just take my word for it.

See? Two inches of water over the beans. This is perfect!

Quickly put the lid on the slow cooker, turn the cooker to “HIGH” and assess the situation. If your beans are covered by at least 2 inches of water you’re doing fine. If they’re covered by less than that, you’ll want to put some more water on the boil to add as soon as possible. Set your timer for 3 hours and go do a crossword puzzle or play a board game with the family.

When three hours are up, you’re going to do a test. Use a spoon to reach into the cooker and quickly extract a couple beans, replacing the lid immediately. Hold them a few inches from your face and blow on them gently. If the skins curl up off the beans, they’re most likely done. Carefully take a bite through the center of one of the beans. If it’s tender, you’re all set. When you cook black beans or pinto beans, it’s not unusual for them to be done that quickly, especially if they’re relatively new beans. If they are done, you can use them immediately, divide them into containers for the freezer or stick straight into the fridge -tightly covered- in their own liquid for use within four or five days.

If you’re cooking a larger (or harder) bean -such as cannellini, garbanzo, butter bean, etc…- you’ll likely find that the beans are not yet tender in the center. Turn the slow cooker to the “LOW” setting, add additional boiling water (if needed) to cover the beans, and allow to continue cooking for about four hours before checking again. Repeat the test; extracting a couple beans quickly and replacing the lid, blowing on the beans and biting them. If they’re tender, pull them from the heat and use immediately or store for later. If they’re still tough, give them a couple more hours -making sure they have water to cover- and repeat the test. Do this until they test done. The batch of cannellini beans I cooked in the photos for this tutorial simmered overnight on “LOW” before they were done.

Done! Not looking gorgeous, but tasting fi-ine! Pop a lid on this, stash in the fridge and come back tomorrow to make bean dip with me!

In my own experience, garbanzo beans (the stuff of my hummus dreams) have taken the longest time to cook by far. Just be prepared to let them cook away. And, for pete’s sake, don’t sweat testing it if you have to let it cook overnight. Beans are pretty resilient as long as you’re cooking them in enough water. And if you overcook them there’s always bean dip!

If you choose to freeze the beans for later use, divide the beans into one or two cup servings between containers. Be sure to leave enough room to ladle cooking liquid over them so they don’t dry out and to account for expansion of the liquid as it freezes. Make sure the lid of the container fits tightly and stash in the freezer for later use. (Alternately, you can carefully scoop the beans and their liquid into zipper-top freezer bags taking care to seal them completely. The bonus of this method is they lay flat to freeze and thus take up less room.) Frozen beans will keep well for about two to three months in the deep chill. After that they begin to deteriorate a bit in texture and in taste. Not the end of the world, but after that point they’re only good for bean dip. (All roads lead to bean dip in this house.)