The Comfort in Stockpiling Dried Beans

[elleng]

'I don’t fuss with souvenirs, unless you count the pounds and pounds of beans I traffic, auntie-style, rolled up in old plastic bags, concealed between the folded clothes in my suitcase. I recently came home with speckled pintos from Santa Fe, purple flor de Mayos from Mexico City and round cocos from Paris the color of baby teeth. They were all so glossy, so familiar, that I couldn’t resist them. Dried beans are among my most predictable impulse purchases, maybe because I was brought up in a family that considered them a quotidian necessity.

We ate beans simmered, sprouted and fermented — fava, mung, black gram, pigeon pea, cannellini — whatever the variety might call for. My favorite, when I was a kid, was a dish of red beans and rice cooked simply with crushed tomatoes and a mash of ginger, garlic and green chiles, with a glug of cream added somewhere near the far end of cooking and a pile of chopped cilantro on top. I remember being patient, intensely focused in a way that I’m incapable of now, eating the red beans one at a time as if they were individually wrapped candies, not caring how long it took and driving my family mad. When we moved, we took the pantry with us — dried beans are lightweight, they travel well and they form the ideal starter kit for a home-cooked meal in a new kitchen, in a new town. A few tall plastic containers of colorful beans and lentils were the first things to brighten our empty shelves, place holders until we could get to a supermarket.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/magazine/dried-beans-garlic-toast-broth-recipe.html?

Beans and Garlic Toast in Broth

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019241-beans-and-garlic-toast-in-broth

[Frustratedlady]

1. I agree with your purchase of beans. I love them and wish they didn't cause discomfort.

I always said that if I were on death row, my last meal would be beans on homemade bread (a few days old), but it would have to be made by my method which takes several hours. I also grew up with beans being a staple during lean times and is my comfort food. Such a simple commodity that gives such pleasure.

[Hortensis]

7. :) My last meal would once have been fresh pico de gallo

on good corn tortilla chips, with a few margaritas, but these days it might be pasta salad. I'm a pasta addict.

Did beans cause discomfort when you were a child? I ask because I've read that an answer to digestive problems such as gas is eating beans frequently enough that the digestive tract is accustomed to them. They don't cause me or my husband any problems most of the time.

[procon]

2. Try Peruano Beans, they are big and buttery delicious.

From Peru, the name for them here in Calif is, Peruano Beans, where they are in piled in huge bulk bins at most local supermarkets. Depending or where you live, they might be sold as Peruvian, Canary, Mayocoba, or Mexican Yellow Beans. They will work in any recipe that uses Navy, great northern, Cannellini or pinto beans for soups, stews, chili, dips, marinated salads or Hispanic dishes.

Soaked overnight, they take about 3 hours to cook for that creamy consistency, or 16 minutes in the pressure cooker.

[OxQQme]

3. Beans, beans, the musical fruit

the more you eat, the more you toot.

Mom used to poke a hole in each bean, before cooking, to let out the gas....

[trof]

9. Beans, beans, the musical fruit...

The more ya eat
the more ya toot.

The more ya toot
the better ya feel.

So eat yer beans at every meal.

[Wawannabe]

4. Kindred spirits

Growing dried beans feels like money in my “pantry”. So easy too! I brought black beans and black eye peas that I grew in mo with me to WA. Thanks for sharing.

[dem in texas]

5. Cooking Dry Beans right now!

Put some Great Northern Beans in the crock pot last night, set the temp to low and added a little piece of ham hock and 2 garlic cloves and this morning I had a pot of perfectly cooked beans.

Going for a good Ole Southern meal today. Simmering some fresh collard greens in a pot, have a meat loaf in the oven along with an apple kuchen, put it in a tart dish, so pretty.

Made some raw tomato relish, just need to add a little vinegar to it. My iron skillet is out to make cornbread. My son and his wife are on their way over for lunch and hubby has gone to the store to get some ice cream to eat with the apple tart.

Great Sunday meal!

[elleng]

6. REALLY great!

[Hortensis]

8. Yum! One of the few things I could cook as a child was

ham hocks and beans. Big hocks were really inexpensive in those days. Enjoy.

[trof]

10. Hah many beans in a canna po-ahk an' beans?

239.
Because if it had one mo-ah, it would be too fahty.
It's a Bahstahn joke.

[elleng]

11. :7