But a good way to get used to beans is eat them at least once a week. DH is very fussy when it comes to legums, but he loves them cooked this way. I got the directions from a lady from Arizona who was visiting. Simple and good.
1 to 2 cups dried pinto beans
Water to cover
Sit over night
(rinse beans and refill with new water if you want to cut down gas)
Bring to a boil and add some ham, bacon or salt pork
1 tsp salt
Turn down to simmer and simmer from one to five hours until tender
My friend Joseph (from an old Mexican family) has a similar recipe from his grandmother. But in their family they added slightly browned onion and garlic (do not burn) along with the pork and salt. They also had a rule about turning the simmering pot on and off. Bringing it back to a boil after it had been off awhile until it went back down to simmer.
I thought the above directions were very weird, until I cooked beans on a turf stove for the first time. That's exactly the effect you get when you pull the beans onto the "hot" spot of the stove to get them warm, then push them back to simmer then pull them forward again etc. The only way to get the same effect on an electric stove would be to turn it on and off (along with up and down). The recipe was old enough to have been done on an old wood stove in Mexico.
My Native Elder friend has yet another version,
Same basic amounts, and use the lightly browned onion and garlic when you add the bacon or ham. But,
Replace the cooking water with chicken broth (after draining the soaking water)
Add pieces of shreded left over chicken if you have any, also good are cooked venison, buffalo, buffalo sausage, rabbit etc (pretty much any meat except lamb or fish).
Simmer for about an hour and add fresh pumpkin or winter squash (cut off the rind & chunk)
Add a few herbs, sage works well for a Native American/South Western Flavor, so does tyme
Simmer for a few hours, and just before serving add a can of corn or fresh corn taken off the cob. Do NOT add this until 10 minutes before serving or corn will flavor the soup and can become bitter.
This is also very good if you chill the soup (minus the corn if possible) over night, reheat and then add the corn.
Variations include adding tomatoes, tomatillos, summer squash, anything in season from the garden.
My friend tells me that this sort of soup-stew was pretty standard fare for the Cherokee before and after the coming of the Europeans, most long houses had a pot going day and night and people ate when they were hungry. He often does this at home and it is very good.
I'm allergic to mushrooms, but I think you can add those as well, and modern vegetarians often use them instead of meat.
So that's three variations of beans that are not chile (which my DH can't eat).
IMPORTANT NOTE: beans rinsed after they soak (or you fast boil them for an hour to soften them) will loose important vitemens. This is important during hard times, but you have to weight that against the fact that rinsing them makes them easier for people to digest with out "problems." Many people, like our Irish House-mate who did not grow up eating legumes, can tolerate them rinsed, but eating them unrinsed makes him get up and run for the out house. This sounds funny, but serious and painful cramps are not something you want to have folks experiencing during a crises if you can avoid it.
My advice, rinse your beans now (unless you family is already used to them unrinsed) continue to rinse if things get tight. But as you go from serving more and more meals with beans, experiment with serving them unrinsed afte while. Once people adjust, this is not such a problem, but until they do, better food that stays in the body long enough to keep you healthy, than a few extra vitemens that rush by to fast for the body to notice.
Also, I've tried every trick in the book to make beans less gassy, and the soak in one set of water, then rinse and cook with replacement water or stock works the best for me. Baking soda, bean-o (which I can't use but others can), etc., none seem to work as well as plain old new water. Experiment now, and see what works best for you.
Disaster Cat, who may have more pinto beans than anywhere in Ireland outside of a warehouse...(because almost no one else here thinks of them as food...)
expatriate Californian living in rural Ireland with husband, dogs, horses. garden and many, many cats
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Originally Posted by IRo
