Tucson Breakfast of Champions

Anasazi beans, chopped green chile, oregano, cheese, green onions.

October Beans

We stopped last week to buy apples at a big farm stand near Hendersonville, and among all the lovely apples and beets and ornamental squashes and tough, late-season green beans were a few bags of dried, shelled beans marked "dried October shellies." They were available in pods, too, by the handful: half-dried, twisted pods, beautifully mottled with pink and creamy white swirls. The beans, too, were pink and white. I cannot resist beans, so I bought some.

I did some research at home. My cookbooks were little help; the only people writing about these beans (which go by the names October beans, shelly beans and -- get this -- horticultural beans) seem to have ties to Appalachia and heirloom seeds. These beans seem to be grown mostly in parts of the rural, mountainous South and Midwest. They can be eaten fresh or dried. The pods are edible, too -- people chop them up and put them in soups for flavor.

I cooked them very simply, Southern-style: a few hours of soaking, followed by cooking with two slices of chopped up, rendered bacon, a dried red chile, water and a drizzle of honey. They cooked more quickly than older dried beans.

Surprisingly, they taste very much like pinto beans. I expected a more crowder-pea-like, brassy flavor, or maybe something creamier and lighter like an Italian cannellini.

We ate them mostly plain with cornbread and sauteed spinach that night. We had them left over for lunch. And yesterday -- five days later -- I cooked the rest of them with some tomatoes, rosemary, dried red chiles and garlic and such and served them over linguine. I like Italian bean pastas a lot.

Basic Beans

I had to post this because for a while we couldn't find the recipe card--we worried that it might be lost to posterity. Dad makes these.

And I have to tout Anasazi beans again: they are less gassy than pinto beans, and they cook in about half the time without pre-soaking. This is a slow crockpot recipe, but on the stove top they become tender in a little over an hour.

Crockpot Anasazi Beans

1 pound Anasazi beans

Water to cover by about 1 ½ inches

Place in crockpot in the morning and cook on High for half a day.

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 small dried red chile

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons olive oil

Add the remaining ingredients and cook on Low until dinnertime.

Kidney Bean and Celery Salad

This is an absurdly refreshing dish for summer--no cooking, and it uses ingredients I usually have around the house. It's from an old Sunset Mexican cookbook and I don't believe for one minute in its authenticity.

I have kept coming back to it over the years, though. It's not overly sweet like other bean salads.

Kidney Bean and Celery Salad

1 can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2 stalks celery, finely diced
2 green onions, sliced, or ¼ cup finely chopped red or yellow onion
½ cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons pickle relish or chopped sweet pickles
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

Mix and chill.

Fancy Nachos

Trying to use up food from the fridge, I made pretentious fancy nachos with:

• homemade corn chips
• bourbon-tomatillo black beans
• goat Brie
• white cheddar
• roasted red peppers
• cilantro
• chives

I made the corn chips by cutting up corn tortillas and frying them in a small amount of peanut oil.

I made the beans by opening a can of black beans and cooking them down with some Herdez green salsa and 1/8 cup of bourbon. No kidding.

I compiled the whole thing and baked it for 10 minutes or so.

No meat here...maybe something like leftover roasted duck or homemade wild boar sausage might have been silly enough to match the rest of the dish.

Not Yet Assembled Breakfast Burritos

I've been having intense cravings for breakfast burritos all week. I don't know why. On Monday they were quite strong, so I made some tortillas, but like all my tortillas they were too small for a big serious burrito and too thick to wrap happily around a bunch of filling.

This was my compromise: a plate of burrito fillings served with a basket of small tortillas.

The beans are just canned beans cooked down with a little olive oil, some chopped cilantro, a smashed garlic clove -- I cooked them until they were less wet. The potatoes were cubed, microwaved for about 5 minutes, and then sauteed in olive oil and salted. The eggs were soft-scrambled. The avocado and lime were sliced. And I served some habanero-carrot salsa on the side.

Poblanos

We had stuffed poblano chiles again tonight. I love them because they're not battered or fried--more like a stuffed bell pepper. I served them with soupy beans and a Dad salad. Life is good.

Do you realize that we have 22 posts with the label "beans"? That's a good thing. I made a traditional bean and vegetable soup last week (with the addition of some boiled ham) for Grandma, and for Mary Ellen, who had a cold. They both seem better now.

Eating in the New Year

This whole January 1st meal was a New Year's resolution: pasta e fagioli (I used black-eyed peas for good luck); low-gluten bread; and a very fresh green salad.

Recently I've been making a very satisfactory bread of 1/3 unbleached wheat flour, 1/3 whole spelt flour, and 1/3 gluten-free baking mix and cornmeal. This recipe wouldn't work for anyone actually allergic to wheat, but it's a very digestible compromise for us.

And aren't Dad's winter salad greens gorgeous?

Crockpot with a View

I have used Peruano beans a few times lately. They are a lovely pale yellow-green, shaped like Great Northerns but they cook slightly faster and are less gassy. I can buy them in bulk for a dollar a pound.

Tonight I cooked them with ham hocks, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, bay leaf, and a sprig of fresh thyme. (I covered them with water by one inch this morning and boiled them for 10 minutes, then turned them off and went for a walk. Then I put them in the crockpot. Most of the year I use the crockpot outside so the house doesn't heat up. Soon it will be winter and I'll plug it in inside.)

We had them with cornbread and a salad of tomato, avocado, and olives.

Vegetarian Southern Food

Our pal Mark was in the US last week, and because he is currently not eating meat (long story), I got to cook some vegetarian food. It was fun. I think it's been about five years since I gave up my 12-year vegetarian spell.

Because Mark lives in Kyoto but is from around here, I wanted to make him some Southern food. These are lima beans, cooked very simply overnight in a crockpot, with olive oil and salt added in the last several hours. I experimented with the mustard greens, sauteeing a few chunks of red miso paste in some olive oil to see if I could get a meaty, salty fullness for a base the same way I would from a ham hock or some bacon. It was delicious and did have a full taste and a brownish pot liquor, but I don't know that it was that brilliant.

The grits were fermented. I interviewed Glenn from Anson Mills several months ago, and he told me that during the summer one can pre-soak grits at room temperature and get what he called "pinpoint ferment," which completely changes their taste and texture. I could never find any other information on the phenomenon, but when I soaked some grits Glenn had ground coarsely from John Haulk corn, they did indeed ferment rather quickly. It was a sweet, mild ferment, never sour, and after I let them do that overnight I rinsed them thoroughly and cooked them like normal: 1.5 or so hours on the stove, gently, with salt and butter and a little cream at the end. The fermented flavor was strong, but sweet and corny and smooth. Very strange. Lawson and Mark loved it, too, although they'd never heard of it, either.

Spinach Quesadillas

There is no easier, more comforting meal for me than a quesadilla.

Ever since I learned to make microwaved tortilla-and-cheeses as a kid (open-faced -- just grated cheddar on a white flour tortilla: I would nuke it until the oil separated from the cheese and I could pour and blot it off, then microwave it some more until the degreased cheese became hard and crunchy) this has been a standard meal.

Anyway, this dinner took 5 minutes to make.

The night before, I started a batch of beans in the crockpot, adding the seasonings the next morning before work. They were steamy and soft and delicious by dinnertime.

The quesadillas consisted of:

• whole wheat tortillas
• chopped fresh garden tomatoes, drained in colander
• fresh spinach, lots of it, since it cooks down so much
• slices of queso fresco. I don't grate the cheese, because I hate washing the cheese grater, so I just cut slices and they melt just fine.
• a sprinkling of grated Parmesan. I love cotija, too, but when I don't have it, feta or Parmesan works well.

I usually just heat up a pan on medium, put the tiniest bit of olive oil or butter in the pan, and toast the quesadilla on both sides. I'll put a lid on during the early part to help the cheese melt, but too much of that will make the tortillas too soft.

We ate the quesadillas and the beans with some fresh chiltepin and ordono chiles from the garden. Salsas are nice, but they take time, and this was supposed to be a fast dinner.

Other things I have put in quesadillas:

• scrambled eggs
• leftover pork, chicken, or beef
• chorizo
  
• leftover grilled fish
  
• sauteed shrimp
• black or pinto beans from a can or homemade
  
• any kine cheese
• leftover cooked collard greens
• arugula
• mixed lettuces
  
• avocado
  
• roasted green chiles or red bell peppers
• fresh chopped bell peppers
• a chopped chipotle, preferably mixed with beans or something to distribute the heat
  
• caramelized onions
  
• chives
• cilantro
• watercress
• lime zest
  
• Herdez salsa verde

What have I missed? Anything else I should try?

Carnitas, and the Evils of Too Much Entertaining

We have been cooking up a storm around here. There were people we wanted to see after our long trip, so we started inviting them for dinner.

We had a nice menu on Saturday:

Guacamole

Homemade salsa

Chips
***
Guisado de Pollo

Flour or spelt tortillas

Steaming Soupy Beans

Spinach Salad with Apples, Pecans, and Blue Cheese

***

Fresh Pineapple

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Ice Cream

That cake was great, by the way. I spread the calories around the neighborhood, giving away several pieces. I used 2/3 cup each of whole spelt flour, plain white flour, and Bob's Red Mill Baking Mix. It dried out a bit the next day, but ice cream helped with that.

For general information, I make guacamole in the food processor, using 1 clove garlic, 4 fresh roasted green chiles (or a can), 2 green onions, 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, 2 avocados, seasoned with juice of a lime and salt. All to taste.

Then Dad requested carnitas for Sunday dinner with Grandma. I've had good versions in restaurants, but my favorite Mexican cookbooks basically directed me to boil pork chunks in lard until tender and brown. Not really my style. I ended up with an internet recipe which simmered the pork until tender, then browned it for a half hour in the oven. Not too bad--perhaps a little more fat was called for, but good.

Oh yeah, the evils of entertaining: it makes you fat. I tend to make lots of food and show off, and enjoy myself and eat dessert, etc.

Making Menus

I love making menus. I feel so happy when the balance is just right, using ingredients I have on hand—menu-making is not a success if I have to run to the store. Yet I don’t care to do too much meal-planning in advance, preferring to await inspiration as I get hungry or the important guest meal approaches.

I have a friend who wanted a menu cookbook, because she could never decide what to serve with anything. Wow. I like menu suggestions, they’re fun, but of course I always change them.

Katherine told me about an extended-family backyard picnic she served a few weeks ago. This seemed just perfect for that kind of summer occasion:

Pulled pork
Ciabatta rolls
Green chili macaroni and cheese
Baked beans
Pea and peanut cole slaw
Cucumbers and onions in sour cream dressing
Brownies and a heaping bowl of fresh, cleaned strawberries

I was pleased with last night’s dinner menu:

Cold Poached Salmon with Mustard Sauce
White Bean Salad
Cucumbers in Vinegar
Blueberry Tart

White Bean Salad

1/2 pound dried white beans (or canned cannelini beans)
1 teaspoon salt
2 bay leaves

Soak beans in water to cover overnight. Drain and rinse. Add fresh water and cook beans with bay leaves until tender. Drain; discard bay leaves; salt to taste.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, cut in 3/4-inch cubes
1 white onion, cut in 3/4-inch cubes
4 cloves garlic, chopped

Heat olive oil in large skillet and sauté onions and garlic until brown and very tender, about 30 minutes.

4 plum tomatoes, cubed
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Gently combine beans and onion mixture with tomatoes, lemon juice, and basil. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve at room temperature.

White Acre Peas

Lately I've been learning more about Southern peas, which are beans, and include things like black-eyes peas, crowder peas, field peas, and these white acre peas. I think. I'm having a hard time sorting out the taxonomies and the regional variations and figuring out what's going on from my halfhearted internet research. This might need to become a real, carefully researched article.

Anyway, all these pea-beans have been amazing so far. This batch I cooked with just a little bacon, a few garden okra, and some water. I rendered the bacon, added the water and peas and okra, and gave it about 25 minutes at a half-covered simmer. We had it with grits and tomatoes.

A Good Dinner Party

We had our friends Ken and Melanie and their baby Andrew over for dinner last Sunday (you can see Andrew's foot in the top left of the picture above). We didn't make plans until Sunday morning, and I happened to have bought enough food during my big weekly Saturday grocery run to cover dinner. It was a fun, spontaneous meal, and much more tasty and successful than dinner parties I've spent all week planning.

Here's what we made, clockwise from top left:

• Salad with fresh orange sections, walnuts, cinnamon, and an orange juice vinaigrette, modeled entirely after your own Moroccan salad. I don't have your recipe, but I guessed, and it turned out very well.
• Chicken wings marinated by Lawson in a mysterious blend that contained star anise and honey and who knows what else and then grilled slowly over charcoal.
• Those white beans with rosemary that I continue to be obsessed with.
• Shrimp, red and yellow peppers, and onions marinated, grilled over high heat, and then tossed with cilantro, more lemon, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

We didn't even miss the starch, because the beans seemed to fill that gap. Even Andrew the Baby tried a bite of beans. He also ate mashed avocado that his parents brought from home.

Something Is Terribly Wrong Here

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2008/03/19/smoky-slow-cooked-roman-beans/

Okay, it's great to make a vegetarian main course instead of ham for Easter dinner. But what went wrong here? I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the concept of a bean dish that contains all three of these ingredients: truffle oil, Liquid Smoke, and a half a cup of honey!

Southwestern Brunch

I made this brunch for Eva and Lawson before they got on the plane to go home. The menu was poblano chiles stuffed with goat cheese; Anasazi beans; and fresh pineapple.

Pierce the chiles and put them under a preheated broiler, turning halfway through, until they are brown and blistered all over. It takes about 10 minutes in my oven. Put them in a plastic bag to cool, and in half an hour the skins will slip off easily. Lay the chiles in a baking dish. Make a stuffing by mixing half softened goat cheese and half grated Cheddar-and-jack cheese, adding 1/2 teaspoon oregano. Fill the chiles, then bake at about 375 degrees until the cheese is melted.

Serve in a pool of this sauce:

Tomato Sauce for Chiles

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic

1 pound canned tomatoes

1 canned or fresh jalapeno, seeded

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon salt

Put these six ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.

Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a sauce pan and cook the puree in it for 10 minutes.

Power Outage Food

Our power was off all day Saturday. We never figured out why. The power company said the outage only affected 138 customers.

The fridge was full of newly bought fish and milk and delicate local green things, so we had to be extra careful not to open it. And we couldn't use any electricity, of course. So once we tired of fruit, I made beans vinaigrette: a can of black beans with olive oil, vinegar, lots of black pepper, and the first garden herbs of the year, some chives that poked up the week before. It was pretty good. I might make it again even with the power back on.

Kale, Potato, and White Bean Soup II: An Actual Recipe

I've made this soup several times since I first posted about it, so I thought I'd post the recipe. It's easy, quick for a hearty soup, and healthy (especially if, like me, you think a little bit of pork fat will probably be found someday to have secret health benefits).

Today a friend brought me three bunches of collards from her father's winter garden. The first bunch I cooked quite plainly in olive oil and seasoned with salt, dried red pepper, and vinegar, but perhaps another bunch will make its way into this soup.

In a Dutch oven, cook 4 strips of meaty bacon cut into smaller squares with scissors. Remove and drain on paper towels. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of bacon fat.

Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Saute 1 or 2 chopped onions until translucent.

Add 1/2 cup white wine or 1/4 cup vermouth, scraping up any browned onion and bacon bits.

Add and bring to simmer:
-2 potatoes, cubed
-1 large can cannellini beans, with goo
-a few big sprigs fresh thyme
-2 bay leaves
-chicken stock to cover (stock from a smoked turkey is also perfect)
-salt and pepper

When soup is simmering, add bit by bit, stirring as it cooks down:
-1 medium bunch kale, collards, or other greens, sliced

Simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, until soup is thick and whitened. Stir in 1 teaspoon lemon zest. Add bacon back in and serve.

White Bean, Sausage, and Vegetable Soup

I celebrated the impending expiration of my Cooks Illustrated subscription by actually preparing something from the magazine. Usually I just skim the articles, think "Hmm, if I ever want to make classic American lasagna, I guess I'll read this more carefully," and add the issue to the stack on the back of the toilet. Like any magazine, the first few issues were exciting, after which they quickly got old, because as it turns out I don't really cook things like mashed potatoes and yellow cake.

This recipe was part of an extended discourse on cooking the perfect white beans. I tried their method, which involved soaking the beans in salted water, but detected no difference from my usual bean soaking (or, often, not-soaking) methods. And, needless to say, I changed the soup recipe a bit. You could make a perfectly wonderful version without reading the article, simply by compiling the following into a soup using normal methods of soup compilation: a pound of soaked white beans; a pound of sausage; onions, carrots, turnips, and celery; water; a pound of diced tomatoes; fresh sage, fresh rosemary, bay leaves, and lots of black pepper.