Friday, February 19, 2010

BOILED BEANS

My original thought when I was thinking about blogging is that I would just blog what I prepare to eat, well, we are finally to a place / day / time to write about what I am specifically cooking and eating here.

I am about to mark my 49th year on God’s green earth next week – so one advantage of being older / sage is cooking gathering recipes I’ve tried over the years.

This recipe is from a 1984 printing of the 1975 edition of Joy of Cooking. That cookbook was a gift from my mother over a quarter century ago, I still use it as my main kitchen reference book.



This is a vegetarian dish I’ve made for years – the original recipe would be ovo-lacto-vegetarian since it includes butter. One could substitute the butter with 2 more teaspoons of olive oil to the adapted version in order to make the dish vegan if they so choose.

I often prepare dishes that I am able to take individual servings to work over a number of days. Since I live alone, it is economic for me to “cook once, eat all week.” My cook-once-eat-all-week dishes have to be delicious enough for me to want them every day – this is one of them! The dish of beans I am working on right now I made with dried small red beans. Nice earthy taste.

BOILED BEANS

Original Recipe

Soak (overnight) one pound dried beans: Kidney, Navy, or Marrowfat
Place them in a saucepan and cover with water
Add:
6 Tablespoons of butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
3 whole cloves
2 teaspoons of salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
Simmer beans covered 1 – 1 ½ hours. Stir from time to time
Add and cook for about 20 minutes longer:
1 cup red wine or stock
When beans are tender, serve hot garnished with chopped chives or parsley.

Adapted by my own experience over the years as well as with help from Chef Kenneth over at Taste of Thyme: Good & Good for You Food

Soak (overnight) one pound dried beans: don’t be afraid to try any dried bean – black works wonderfully
Place them in a saucepan and cover with water
Add:
2 teaspoons butter
3 teaspoons olive oil
1 Chopped Onion
3 Whole Cloves
1 teaspoon of salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
Simmer beans covered 1 – 1 ½ hours. Stir from time to time
Add and cook for about 20 minutes longer:
1 cup red wine or stock
When beans are tender, serve hot garnished with cilantro, ¼ cup fat-free sour cream, chopped scallions

adaptations in italics



SOLI DEO GLORIA

1 comment:

  1. Joe,
    Congratulations on creating this lenten opus.
    I will follow it with interest.
    Bob

    ReplyDelete