Questions about bean varieties

[Shel_B]

31 minutes ago, rancho_gordo said:

I just made this with the domingo rojos. 
Truly weak in the knees time. 
Coconut Brown Rice and Domingo Rojos. 

Massa organic brown rice and our red beans, cooked in coconut milk. 

 

How about a recipe?  FWIW, I'm a big fan of the Massa brown rice.  Been using it almost exclusively for several years.

[SLB]

This week's bean is RG "San Franciscanos".  They are not 100% done, but they are 90% done and they are good!  

[Alex]

On 3/25/2016 at 8:55 PM, rancho_gordo said:

I just made this with the domingo rojos. 
Truly weak in the knees time. 
Coconut Brown Rice and Domingo Rojos. 

Massa organic brown rice and our red beans, cooked in coconut milk. 

 

 

Tell us more, please, Steve. How long did you soak the beans (if at all)? Did you cook them separately from the rice? (I assume you did, but one never knows, do one?) How long was the cooking time for the beans. Did you cook both the rice and the beans in coconut milk, or just the rice? Did you use just coconut milk or did you dilute it with some water? Etc., etc.

 

As a side note, I've used Massa Organics brown rice exclusively for the past seven years or so. Given a choice, I wouldn't use anything else now.

[blue_dolphin]

Hey @Alex, obviously, I'm not rancho_gordo but I think it would be OK for me to share the recipe that was included in the recent email newsletter from Rancho Gordo.  It sounds really good and I'm dying to try it.  No detail on the bean cooking spec but this should at least get you started:

 

Coconut Brown Rice and Beans (From Rancho Gordo March 25 eNewsletter)

Note: to make the dish more Caribbean, you may wish to add some fresh, minced habanero chile.         

Serves 4 as a side dish

 

3/4 cup cold water
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1-inch piece Rancho Gordo canela
3 cloves
1 cup Massa Organics Whole Grain Brown Rice
1 teaspoon Rancho Gordo Sal de Mar sea salt
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger 
1 cup cooked Rancho Gordo Domingo Rojo beans
Cilantro or watercress for garnish (optional)

 

In a pan, add the water, coconut milk, canela and cloves. Bring to a boil and then turn off heat, allowing it to steep for 20 minutes. Strain, reserving the liquid and discarding the solids. 

In a medium saucepan, add the rice, the reserved liquids, salt and ginger and bring to a full boil. Allow to boil for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to very low and cover. Cook for 45 minutes, undisturbed, until the rice has absorbed the liquid. Turn off heat and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Fluff cooked rice with a fork and gently add the beans and cilantro or watercress, if using.

Edited March 28, 2016 by blue_dolphin
to add links (log)

[Alex]

10 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Hey @Alex, obviously, I'm not rancho_gordo but I think it would be OK for me to share the recipe that was included in the recent email newsletter from Rancho Gordo.  It sounds really good and I'm dying to try it.  No detail on the bean cooking spec but this should at least get you started:

 

Thanks, b_d. I searched their website for the recipe but didn't see it. Maybe it's time I got on their email list...

[Katie Meadow]

Just want to report that I cooked my Marcella beans from RG and served them mashed, on toast. I cooked them pretty much the way I cook most beans, sautéing onions, carrot, celery (all finely chopped) followed by garlic. Beans go in, get tossed gently. Then liquid goes in (in this case I used a very diluted home made chicken broth). This gets boiled for about five minutes, then the flame is turned way down and aromatics (or what ever you call them)  are added: bay leaf, fresh thyme, a little rosemary, a little cumin and just a shake of dry harissa. Cooked them close to 2 hours, salted, cooked another fifteen minutes. 

 

We mashed them coarsely, and spread them on toasted rustic bread rubbed first with raw garlic, then buttered. Very very good with a little extra sea salt sprinkled on. Tomorrow I'm planning to put the rest of the beans and their broth in a soup with farro and Tuscan kale. Cin cin, Marcella!

[rancho_gordo]

Thanks for reposting, blue_dolphin! 

[kayb]

I'm making red beans and rice tomorrow, and just learned to my despair that I have no domingo rojo beans in my pantry. I do have Scarlet Runner. Will they work, do you think? My red beans and rice are not the traditional NOLA style -- they're more of a stew, with ham and chicken along with the andouille, and tomatoes in the broth. 

[SLB]

Folks, I bought some lupini beans some time back without realizing what I was getting myself into.  What drew me to them was the reported high-protein content.  I only accidentally looked at the strange directions on the package, which indicate five days of soaking with regular water changes.  Then I googled, only to discover the lethal risk of not going through alla that.

 

Sigh.

 

So, given that I'm about to begin a multi-day prep for some dang beans; does anybody have a delicious lupini recipe that will make feel rewarded???

 

Also, any tried and true shortcuts on the prep would be totally appreciated.  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

One can buy lupini pre-detoxified (I have) however one should still not serve them to children, because of the neurotoxin.

 

If you have a swiftly flowing stream near you (that isn't frozen over) you can try placing the lupini in a mesh bag weighted down with rocks for a couple weeks.  Personally I thought the lupini tasted OK but not great.  I eventually pitched mine.  Monty Python not withstanding.

 

But should someone come up with an outstanding lupini recipe I may try again.  I am past the age of offspring.

[SLB]

I'm not worried about offspring either, but I don't have a lot of neurons to spare; all my surplus neuro-functioning has been allocated to alcohol.  

 

I'm not too sure about this lupini experiment.  In fact, I think I might violate the first rule of my upbringing, and throw these things away.  Which is a whole different thread, I know, I know . . . .

[scubadoo97]

I've got 2 lbs of black beans in the oven at the moment.  Beans are soooo good

[scubadoo97]

Black beans and rice and roasted garlic on seasoned Cuban bread.  My red light food.  Simple but so delicious 

 

 

[pbear]

Had some leftover hominy from Rancho Gordo, and also some beans, so decided to tackle a recipe which has been on my to do list for a while, to wit, Algonquian succotash, i.e., the dish which inspired the one we know by the name.  Really pleased with the result, so thought I’d share.  Didn’t try for a literal reproduction, which probably isn’t possible anyway, but rather for something which hits my palate the same way the original hit theirs.  This picture doesn’t do the dish justice, but it’s the only digital camera I have.

 

 

Don’t think exact proportions matter, but here’s what I did.  Cover 1/2 lb dry prepared hominy (225 g) with water and soak overnight; bring to a simmer and cook until it blossoms like a flower, 2 to 3 hours.  Meanwhile, combine 1/2 lb dried beans (225 g) with 4 c water (960 g) and soak overnight; bring to a simmer and cook until tender, about 1‑1/2 hours.  Chop 1 med onion (170 g), 1 med carrot (140 g, 100 g net) and 1 stalk celery (50 g net); saute in 2 tbsp vegetable oil (27 g) until just tender, about 10 minutes.  Add saute mixture to beans; also add hominy (drained), 1/4 lb pork shoulder (113 g) diced small (may be omitted), 1 tsp salt (6 g), 1/2 tsp black pepper (1.25 g) and 1 sm bay leaf (0.12 g); simmer covered one hour. 

 

Note: For this batch, I used San Franciscano beans, as that’s what I had on hand.  Almost any bean may be used, except I’d avoid light colored ones, for the dish benefits a lot aesthetically from a visual contrast between them and the hominy.  Also, that’s how I did the beans this time, one of several methods I use, but another would work just as well.

[pbear]

By the way, discussion today with a friend raised an issue I’d like to clarify.  The above is a reconstruction.  AFAICT, no recipe for the original dish survives.  So, succotash derives from an Algonquian word, msickquatash, which is variously translated as cooked corn or cracked corn, but generally understood to mean a dish of starchy corn with beans.  Most sources agree the corn was treated with wood ash to remove hulls and that the beans would have been something like cranberry beans as limas didn’t grow that far north.  Other than this, no one agrees on anything and I’ve been unable to locate a primary source giving a detailed description, much less a recipe.

 

So, I imagined myself working up the recipe had I lived there at the time, for which this article about native American horticulture gave me a good frame of reference.  Then I translated that concept recipe to modern terms, as I’m not trying to feed a homesick Wompanoag (the tribe which introduced the dish to the Pilgrims).  In particular, where the original probably included foraged vegetables and/or herbs, I went with the conventional modern base of onion, carrot and celery.  Also, where the original apparently generally was flavored with venison or fish, I went with plain pork shoulder.  Or, of course, the meat can be omitted for a vegetarian dish.  In fact, it probably was often prepared that way of necessity, as this was one of the ways they got through lean winter months.  And I added salt, which may not have been typical, plus black pepper and bay leaf, which certainly would have been unknown.  Finally, where this probably was prepared in a single clay pot, I cooked the hominy and beans separately so I could be sure neither overcooked.

 

This turned out to be one of the more interesting new recipes I’ve tried in a while.  Perhaps most surprising is that I can’t think of a way to improve it.  Really wants to be a simple combination of hominy and beans, with only the lightest touch of supporting flavors.

Edited May 22, 2016 by pbear
fix formatting (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Seeing this I'm minded I'm cooking up a new RG variety for me, Midnight Black.  The beans are for dinner tomorrow, or perhaps the next night, depending on how things work out.  Have to say I wish I had a larger pressure cooker.  The first half pound are cooling now, and even that is chancy.  Wondering what I'll find when I lift the lid.  I have my bean cookery down pretty well -- as long as I'm doing a quarter pound at a time.

 

While I'm at it I wish I had an induction hotplate.  So that I could be cooking up the beans in the large pressure cooker I don't have, and have the stove for fixing dinner...which eventually tonight should be chicken marsala.

[naguere]

I picked up this tip a while ago on hydrating dried beans.

 

Soak them overnight in COLD water, it does the job better than immersing in boiling water.

 

It seems to work.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

To follow up from my last post, dinner tonight was black bean cassoulet -- with RG midnight black beans.  Black bean cassoulet is a recipe I've been making since the 1970's and if I could recall the original source I would happily give credit.  I'd make it a lot more often but like a traditional cassoulet it is a debilitating amount of work.

 

The meats are beef chuck and pork sausage, in this case Andouille -- from a heritage breed of pork.  The trick is that the black beans are cooked in red wine, and the acid prevents the beans from falling apart after an insane amount of braising.  Did I mention that I like red wine?

 

Served with a baguette baked while the braise was still on the stovetop before being transferred to the oven.  The recipe makes enough that I'll be eating it for days and days.

 

I do not mind.

 

[SLB]

I wouldn't mind, either, shew.

 

My bean this week is RG bayo chocolate.  I made the first half of the bag some time ago,and didn't love them, and I'm not totally loving these either.  Kinda bland.  But I've been curing that problem with some pickled onions added in as served.  Which certainly works.  

Edited May 23, 2016 by SLB (log)

[SLB]

Hello folks, long time no bean-posts.  

 

I'm looking for ideas of what to do with pigeon peas besides Caribbean-style rice-n-peas.  I find pigeon peas to have a distinct (and kind of funky) taste, so I never want to eat them plain as a side.  I do like rice-n-peas quite a bit, but I have a pound of the beans in my cupboard, and another half pound cooked up in my freezer; I thought maybe I could branch out.  

 

Who eats these?  What are you doing with them?

Edited February 10, 2018 by SLB (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I still have pounds and pounds of Rancho Gordo that aren't getting any younger.  Tomorrow has to be beans.  Any suggestions?  When daylight comes I may post my inventory.

 

What I want is a simple batch of beans to accompany a Mexican meal.

 

[heidih]

Do you have Diana Kennedy's Oaxaca al Gusto?  Beans every which way.  https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/kenoax

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

Do you have Diana Kennedy's Oaxaca al Gusto?  Beans every which way.  https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/kenoax

 

I've had it from the library but I do not own a copy.  Many of the ingredients were a bit too exotic for me.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Oops, apparently I was not clear.  I am not looking for recipe suggestions.  I am looking for Rancho Gordo bean variety suggestions for a simple pot of well flavored Mexican style beans.

 

[Lisa Shock]

I like the Moros and both of the black beans. For a simple, peasant type dish, IMO Ayocote Morado is good -it has a thicker skin and just seems more old fashioned to me.