Secret Beans

Back in the early 90s I was making a batch of marinara sauce and something prompted me to add some anchovy paste to it. I’m not sure why. I wasn’t an anchovy fan, but I followed my gut and ended up producing the best marinara sauce I’d ever made. I couldn’t taste the anchovies directly (I only used a tablespoon or so) but the addition added both depth and richness to the sauce. Since then I’ve learned that what I was really doing was adding umami (MSG) to the sauce. When I began sharing my “secret ingredient” with others I learned it’s an old Italian trick. So much for my originality.

But I have another trick I thought I’d share and so far I haven’t found anyone else using it. It has to do with beans.

Acid makes beans tough by binding with proteins in the shells so avoid adding acid to beans before they’ve softened completely.

Most recipes for dried beans involve either soaking them overnight or boiling them for an hour or so, and then throwing out the liquid. The purpose is to rehydrate the beans and the excuse for throwing out the liquid is to get rid of the oliosaccharides that cause gas. But these carbohydrates are broken down by long, slow cooking so given that most dried beans are cooked long and slow, throwing out the liquid does little beyond eliminating the water-soluble nutrients that are leached out and does nothing about the flatulence factor.

Second, many recipes argue against adding salt to beans before they’re done with the claim that salt makes them tough. Sorry. No. It doesn’t. Acid makes beans tough by binding with proteins in the shells so avoid adding acid to beans before they’ve softened completely — but salt is another matter. So here’s my secret for great beans: treat them like rice, specifically risotto.

Risotto is cooked slowly in a flavorful broth so that the rice soaks up the flavor of the broth. The addition of salt not only provides taste on it’s own, but through the process of osmosis salt draws flavor of the broth into the rice. With beans I cook them in broth or stock from the beginning. This means the flavors get sucked into the beans producing a much more savory result. I also salt the beans well at the beginning to enhance this process and get salt into the beans.

This past week I made a batch of red beans and rice. I’m providing a recipe, but pay more attention to the technique than to the ingredients. These beans were almost literally bursting with flavor.

Red Beans and Rice
Serves 6.

Broth:
Roasted ham shank
2 bay leaves
12 peppercorns
1 lg onion — peeled and quartered
2 carrots — broken up into 3 or 4 pieces
1 lg celery stalk — broken up into 3 or 4 pieces
handful of parsley
Beans:
1/2 lb red beans
~2 tbsp salt
Creole seasoning
1 tsp baking soda (optional)
1/2 lb Andouille sausage — slice 1/4-inch thick
meat from ham shank
1 md onion — finely diced
1 md stalk celery — finely diced
1/2 bell pepper — finely diced
2 lg garlic cloves — minced
2 tbsp oil or lard
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp Cajun seasoning
Serving:
3 c cooked long-grain rice
Diced red onion
Diced bell pepper
Cider vinegar
Hot sauce

Broth:
Place ham shank in six quarts of water with pepper corns and bay leaves. Bring just to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer gently for six hours — covered. Skim off any foam that rises to the top. Top up water as needed, you want to cook some away but you should end up with about 4 quarts of broth.

For the last hour of cooking add the onion, carrot, celery, and parsley. Again, skim off any foam that forms. Strain broth through a sieve and discard all solids except the shank. Allow the shank to cool, remove fat, cube the meat, and reserve. Because the shank was already roasted the broth shouldn’t have much fat.

Beans:
Taste stock and add salt — it should be fairly salty because the beans will absorb so much of it and can stand a lot of salt. Add beans and Cajun seasoning and bring just to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook for at least three hours.

Again, you will have liquid evaporating. You want to end up with mostly beans but with plenty of sauce so add water as needed.

Taste and check the beans texture. They should be fairly tender at this point, if not add the baking soda (the soda is caustic and will soften the beans — cook another hour). Add additional Cajun seasoning if needed.

Once the beans are tender, heat the oil or lard in a skillet over medium heat and sauté the onion, pepper, and celery until translucent. Stir in the garlic, tomato paste, and Cajun seasoning and cook another minute.

Add vegetables, reserved ham, and sausage. Simmer for 30 minutes while you cook the rice.

Serving:
Spoon rice into a bowl, add beans, garnish with peppers and onions, serve with vinegar and hot sauce on the side.

Cornbread and beer are good on the side.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | paisano | cajun | beans

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