It's Thursday, let's do this.
Let me kick this off by saying that, personally, I think green beans and lima beans are great and all the other beans are gross.
With beans, as with most things, I stand with Diogenes:
“The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, 'If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.'
Diogenes replied, "Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king."
We need to get a time machine so we can get the Ben Shapiro/Diogenes debate we all crave.
I've never made the fermented beans and they're so hard to get around here. anyone know how to make them? how hard is it?
Pretty easy to make if you can buy fermented black beans, otherwise you have to have a bowl of beans fermenting for a couple of weeks. The sauce itself is basically just adding nice spices to it in a pot for a bit. Here is a tutorial video, mostly just waiting around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWV7JxGS1kI
But you can usually get some premade stuff from wherever you'd get the sichuan pepper corns anyway.
yeah, it's the fermented beans themselves that are hard to get here. we've been subbing oyster sauce to get a similar flavor but...
Black beans are a shockingly underappreciated addition to chicken tacos, particularly with rice and avacado.
Shoutouts to green beans for giving my kindergartener a source of fiber he'll actually eat without complaint.
Frijoles de la olla are incredibly delicious, very cheap, and easy to make.
Ingredients:
- 1lb bag of dried beans (I prefer pinto & black)
- buncha fresh herbs, whatever you have on hand or leftover: basil, rosemary, cilantro, parsley, green onions are my favorite, but yellow/white onion works too
- 6+ garlic cloves
- couple bay leaves (optional, but I like to include 'em)
- 5 quarts water
- 1 tablespoon salt (2 if you have diamond crystal)
Recipe:
- pour out beans onto counter and look through them, picking out any super fucked up, broken, shriveled up ones and any stones
- rinse beans under tap for a little bit, no need to do it for long
- fill up big pot with 5 quarts water
- add all your herbs, you can wrap them in cheese cloth or tie a little twine around them but after making these a few times now I like them straight in the water
- make sure you peel and crush your garlic before you toss it into the water
- add beans and stir a little bit
- heat uncovered and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer
- add salt now and stir
- simmer for 1.5-2 hours, this'll depend on how fresh your dried beans are, I usually start checking them around 1hr
- stir occasionally and make sure there's still enough liquid to cover the beans by a few inches, if it gets low add some more
- you don't want your beans to start splitting and breaking down too much, so once they start splitting and are tender, they're done
- if you put the herbs in directly, this is the only annoying part - you'll have to fish out the stems, skins, bay leaves, etc. don't worry about getting all of the herb remnants, just the stuff that's easy to get - you might want to use a strainer but if you do, SAVE THE LIQUID TO ADD BACK TO THE BEANS it's part of why they're so good
And there you have it - super delicious beans, I promise you'll be surprised at how good they are with this technique.
Also after they're cooked, you can always mash them with some of the liquid, add some fat (lard or butter) and you've got amazing refried beans.
Also highly recommend making your own tortillas, but I'll save that for another post.
highly recommend making your own tortillas
Seconding this. It's like an entirely different food from store-bought tortillas. When I found out I started using a tortilla dough recipe for everything for a while.
(Fried dumplings are the winner for weird hybrid tortilla recipes, by the way.)
add beans and salt
NOOOOOOOOOOOO
If you add salt before the beans are cooked they'll take longer and won't get as soft, ypu have to wait
if you put the herbs in directly, this is the only annoying part - you’ll have to fish out the stems, skins, bay leaves, etc.
pfft, herbs are edible. this is way too much work to avoid chewing bay leaves.
brb, going to make this.
I'm native spanish speaker and I read that like Beto trying to speak spanish.
I hate it when they're spillin in my lap when i'm watching cars 2
all the other beans are gross.
You're gross.
I love all beans. The only beans I hate are poorly cooked beans (Chipotle black beans are so hit or miss I stopped ordering them).
