So...black beans. Everyone has a recipe. Mine comes from the past. Got it a couple of years ago. Thanks, W. I cannot take credit for it or the writing that is about to follow. Hope you don't mind I am posting it...
"Soak the beans over night. Drain out water in the morning and rinse beans.
"Put the soaked beans in a soup pot, with about a finger's worth of water above the beans. Boil the beans for one hour.
"After half an hour, start sauteeing onions and green peppers in a shit ton of olive oil (as much as you can stand to add). They shoul be bathing in it. Cook them down until soft. AFter the beans have been boiling for an hour, add the onions and peppers and all the oil that they wre cooking in.
"After one more hour, add equal amounts salt and sugar and twice that of white vinager.
"I don't have particular amounts for any of the ingredients, because I always buy the beans in bulk, but I think my mother told me originally for every pound of beans add:
"3/4 c oil,
one medium onion and
one medium pepper,
2 tblsp of both salt and sugar;
4 tblsps vinager.
"I think that's it. Oh, after you've added the sugar, salt and vingager, cook for another hour. Make sure to watch the pot every now and then to make sure that the water doesn't boil all the way down. In the end, I like the beans when they're soupy, but when there's no broth apart from the beans. You can add as much water as you like, though.
"Let me know if any of this is unclear.
"bon apetit"
Things I have learned cooking this recipe:
I usually use about 1/4 cup or a little more of oil. I am a wimp I know, but it is all I can stand.
The vinegar makes it taste a little tangy. Kind of a poor man's substitute for using real lard or bacon. Great for vegans. Real nice flavor. When you don't add the vinegar, the beans have a nice, rich smoothness to them. Just depends what you are in the mood for.
Soaking the beans and then draining them is very important. It gets rid of the weird white foam that forms when you are cooking beans, and it helps break down the enzymes that cause excess gas (aka farting).
Using a red pepper makes the beans too sweet so you can use a red pepper and it adds a nice flavor but cut back or eliminate the sugar.
I like to add garlic. This time I added half a head and left out the vinegar. Very rich.
When I cooked the beans completely in a pressure cooker, I just use it to cut down on the time before you add the pepper, onion, etc. You could probably just add the pepper and all that fun stuff at the beginning and leave the beans in a little longer than an hour. I may experiment with a crock pot...
Wnari also taught me the beauty of freezing beans so I cook a whole recipe just for me and then I have beans for a month.
Salsa recipes to follow...
3 comments:
Wow - I can't wait to try this! You're right: everyone has a black beans recipe. Mine is just a tarted up can of beans for slightly more interesting burritos, or as a side with rice. I'll post it here for contrast. Or camping: it's kind of a good camping recipe.
1. In a small to medium saucepan, saute 1/2 cup finely chopped onion in adequate olive oil. Sprinkle with a little kosher or sea salt.
2. Once the onion is translucent, add one glove of garlic, minced. Saute until fragrant.
3. Add one can of low-sodium black beans. Stir and simmer until beans are warmed through.
4. Add 1 tbsp - 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro and salt to taste. Stir and serve!
Some people really like cilantro. I find 1-2 tbsp to be enough, but I could see someone really going to town. Fresh, minced chili peppers would also be good. I have also added spices in the past, usually with the following proportions:
4 parts cumin
4 parts chili pepper
2 parts paprika
2 parts oregano
1 part cayenne
1 part red pepper flakes
However, if you wanted to go for a more Thai flavor, you could experiment with lemongrass, fresh minced ginger and ground coriander. Or for a more Indian flavor: cumin, turmeric, curry, fresh minced ginger, cinnamon, sour mango powder... you could serve it with plain yogurt and mango chutney. However, I can't help the fact that they will still be ghetto canned beans and they will always have that slightly metallic canned flavor.
wnari always makes some good bean. same goes for her mother.
i got my black bean recipe from a cajun, cuban, and caribbean (yeah really, they said it was all three) restaurant i worked at in ohio. the owners were nuts but the beans are mighty tasty. i use the same ingredients with canned or dry beans. everything is to taste: black beans, tomato (chunked), cumin, garlic (big chunks), salt, bay leaf.
they used to serve it over rice (white i think) with chopped onions and maybe grated cheddar cheese (i was vegan then so i can't really remember if they usually served it that way or not. i use these simple seasonings anytime i make black beans now for anything.
Sydney sent this to me and I wanted to share it with the world. Thought it was brilliant...
PS You're welcome for my ghetto beans recipe! One of my favorite things are the similarities between Italian and Thai cuisine, and Mexican and Indian. Or Mexican and Italian, come to think of it. Sub cilantro for parsley, add minced ginger to the garlic, use sweet onion instead of yellow and a lot of the time that's all it takes. You can make a wicked risotto with ginger-garlic chicken and lemongrass shrimp. I like to call it "Thaitalian Fusion," but I'm not sure that name will ever catch on. Probably for the best. :)
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