Saturday, September 6

How Do You Like Your Beans?

Jenni asked for bean ideas. I will share my *one* method of cooking beans, and then I'm going to have to beg the rest of you to chime in with your faves because otherwise, she's going to be on her own, here.

We eat pintos. That's pretty much it. And we eat the pintos cooked pretty much one way. It's delicious, and, obviously, we're okay with it, but since the question was about variety, this doesn't exactly answer the question. (I love other beans, and other methods of preparing them. But I'm the only one, really. Hillbilly Housewife's Baked Beans give me happy little daydreams. Nothing makes me smile quite like a navy bean and ham soup. Lentils, yum! However, for the day-to-day bean eatin', this is how it gets done around here.)

Sort your beans. Be sure to set aside the magic beans. (These are any that are significantly different from all the other beans in the bag. Might be a piece of corn or barley, a black bean, or just one of a different color or size than all the others. I like the mostly-white ones. James likes the darker ones. The boys all like the really large ones. Zorak and I get a kick out of the itty bitty ones. Make your own magic, it's all good.) Rinse. Cover with cold water.

Theoretically, you allow them to sit all night. (We never remember in time. So, we boil them for a while.) Then drain and rinse. Rinse well, as this helps counter the, erm, side effects of eating beans. Refill the pot, add chile powder, paprika (this adds an absolutely gorgeous color to it!), and a titch of garlic and salt. *Side Note: some people have severely erm, adverse reactions to garlic salt or onion salt. Use fresh to avoid that.*

I used to add bacon to the beans. However, I have a bad habit of not putting the pot into the fridge before I go to bed, and I got tired of having to throw out most of a pot of beans because of that. When cooked without meat, they can survive the occasional absentmindedness. ;-) I haven't really noticed much difference in the flavor, either, except that they're a little more flexible in adding to other foods, now.

Cook until done.

This recipe pretty well lends itself to whatever you want to add to it at the table. They're easily convertible to make an excellent side dish, or a main dish. Depends how you dress 'em up. Chopped onion, grated cheese, salsa, sour cream... tabasco, cajun seasoning, Greek seasoning... Eat it with cornbread, or tortillas... Add ground beef and call it chili. Add green chiles and tomatoes and call it... um, beans with green chiles and tomatoes. Mash them with a little lard or oil in a skillet and you have unbeatable refried beans.

What do you like to do with your beans?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

10 comments:

Kathy Jo DeVore said...

I quit cooking mine with meat, too. I hate using bacon-- it falls apart and gets everywhere, and eww, boiled bacon is just gross. Mama always used salt pork, but I never remember to buy any. And like you, I've never noticed a difference in the flavor.

We usually make a pot of mixed beans. They have a better flavor to me than just one kind. We sort and mix them together in big container so we'll have them on hand. (I not only don't remember to soak overnight, I also usually don't think about it early enough in the day to actually have time to sort beans before I get them in the pot since we don't like eating at 10pm.) 2 parts pinto, and 1 part each of all the other beans we have, usually: black, red, cranberry, lima, garbanzo, navy, etc. If I remember, we toss in some lentils about 30 minutes before dinner. I cook them the same as you (but I've never bothered to drain and rinse after the boiling; will have to try that), but I usually only add salt.

I have every intention of doing baked beans as soon as we have a working oven (and when it's cold enough to not mind the heat from said oven). They're a favorite, but I have yet to find a good GF brand, and if I did, each can would cost as much as four pounds of beans. :P

We had a garbanzo bean and pasta salad a while back that was really good, but I'll have to see if I can remember where I found the recipe. I know it was on the back of a BRM package. I think quinoa, or millet?

Okay, I had to go look. :) It's Millet & Pasta Grain Salad, and we just added a can of garbanzo beans. It was the tastiest way I can think of to eat garbanzo beans.

Melora said...

We don't. But every time we go grocery shopping and the bill is what our mortgage used to be, I point out to Ed that if he would only let me serve beans we could save money. His prejudice against beans is one of his few imperfections, and I actually Have a couple bags of beans in the pantry in case someday I feel strong enough to face the reaction I am nearly sure I would get if I served them for dinner. But now I'm thinking I'll try your recipe (which sounds so good!) and serve it as a Side. Then he could just Ease over his prejudice, the way he did over powdered milk.

Ritsumei said...

I just make refried beans out of mine, but if you peel a garlic clove & leave it in the water while the beans soak overnight it also helps with the "effects" of beans. Helps clear the air a bit...

Needleroozer said...

I cook mine basically the way Dy does, but didn't know about the rinsing part. Will have to try that.

Sometimes I cook them in the crock pot on low- this works whether you remembered to let them soak (I am pretty good about that) or not. It takes most of the day to cook them, but they come out nice. Most of the time, I cook my beans in water with the Dude's homemade chicken broth added to it, and throw in a bay leaf.

We use kidney the most, with the little white navy beans coming in second. We also like cranberry beans (big like kidney, but red and white speckled), black beans, and pinto beans. Which bean I use depends on what I want to do with it once cooked.

I also use a ton of red, yellow or orange lentils, split peas, and others for making Indian meals. I like these the best, actually, because you don't have to soak them, and they cook in the same time as rice. I often through them in with my rice. IF not, I make a dal from them- you basically cook them till they are mushy and indistinct, then flavour them strongly with Indian spices.

PS: Did you get the email I sent you last night?
LB

Jenni said...

Thanks, Dy--and everyone else, too. Though you say you always do the same thing, it seems that the additions at the end are where you get variation. I'm going to try some of these. And I'm going to try pintos. I almost always use black beans or kidney beans. I'm going to give that garbanzo millet salad thingy a try, though I'm a little scared of garbanzo beans any way other than mushed for hummus. (Bad childhood memories of being forced to eat them.)

This week I did try the black bean chowder that won Ree's recipe contest, and it's a definite keeper. I also made chilaquiles with some of the black beans and I mixed some of the black beans with canned diced tomatoes, cooked rice, corn, and carmelized onions for burritoes. Multiply those three meals by two (because I always make enough for at least two meals) and that's six nights of black beans. Unfortunately rinsing the beans really well after soaking has not helped according to Danny. I'm going to try the garlic clove, but I've been ordered to wait a week before making any more beans.

I notice a huge difference in the grocery bill when I'm using beans in place of meat (or to spread out the meat) more. This is the way I ate growing up. I remember Mom used to make something she called hot water bread to go with the beans, too. I'm going to have to ask her about that. I'm sure she made it because it was quick and cheap, but I remember really loving it.

momanna98 said...

According to Alton Brown (whom I adore ;-) ) rinsing the beans doesn't do anything.
I like mixing pintos, red and black beans together. I add garlic, onion, cumin and chili powder. oh and salt. We eat them with rice and cheese, on tortillas, or mashed for a side or burritos. I also tried a black bean casserole found on recipezaar that was good.

mere said...

Beans, beans, so near to my heart....

Okay. With my beans (pintos or black beans) I soak them in water with two tablespoons of whey. The enzymes and friendly bacteria (probiotics) in the whey take care of the musical effects of the beans. What is whey? Think milk plasma...Get some plain yogurt, preferably organic, and strain overnight with cheese cloth...the resulting liquid is whey, the resulting solid is Labnah, not to be confused with lembas, that you can spread on a cracker and call cream cheese. Anyway, soaking with whey really helps the nutrients in the beans to become more accessible.
I do this with any Legume. After an over night soaking I start the legume in the crock pot with nothing but three cloves of garlic. I cook until soft enough to squish against the side of the pot and THEN I season it with a mixture of chili powder, sea salt, cumin , paprika, black pepper, etc.
If I am using pintos I add sausage, usually a vennison or buffalo/pork mixture (locally made) and serve with cheese on top with corn bread and steamed & buttered squash. Black beans get the same treatment sans sausage, but with white cheddar or monterey jack cheese, salsa, and avocado slices on top and served with tortilla chips and salad. Mmmmmmm, yummy!

mere

J-Lynn said...

We make 2 wonderful Cuban family recipe bean dishes, Black beans & rice and Red beans and rice. We usually serve the black beans with thin breaded lemon steaks. YUM! I can't wait!!!

Jenni said...

Ooh! More wonderful ideas from Mere! I'm copying and pasting all these into a Word file.

Anonymous said...

I boil my pinto beans for 5minutes, then rinse them in hot water, and then add hot water to simmer on low heat. I add cooked bacon, cumin, peppers, and other spices after they simmer again(for several hours). I like my beans really soft and lots of thick juice. Then ya gotta have cornbread with REALLY REAL BUTTER! YIPPEE! Enjoying the blog!! Kel in Tatum!