Yellow Indian Woman bean salad

I was looking for a recipe to use up the half-pound of Yellow Indian Woman beans from Rancho Gordo when I came upon this Moroccan-inspired salad in Heirloom Beans. It seemed the perfect follow-up to our chicken tagine earlier in the week because it used up the other half of the preserved lemon as well as using some of the newly opened jar of harissa paste.

It turned out to be delicious. And it was a stroke of genius, I say in all modesty, to pair the salad with grilled merguez from Broad Branch Market.

Steve Sando's beans once again proved their worth. I soaked these overnight then cooked them with a mirepoix. In order to use the bean pot, I sautéed the mirepoix in olive oil in a skillet and added it to the cold beans and soaking water to heat up gradually in the clay pot. It took a good hour or so to come to a boil and then simmered for another good hour. I added a tsp salt in the last quarter-hour of cooking then drained the beans. Per Sando's instructions, I heated up the 2 c. beans in the microwave at the time of assembly.

The other essential ingredient in this salad was 1 c. bulgur wheat. You simply add 2 c. boiling water and let it sit for an hour. The grain absorbs all the water, but remains moist and you fluff it up with a fork. It looks a lot like couscous but has a different, wheatier flavor.

Other ingredients were 2 Tbl chopped preserved lemon, 1/3 c. chopped scallions, and 1 c. chopped parsley. The dressing was 1/4 c. lemon juice, 3 minced garlic cloves, 2 tsp harissa, 1/3 c. olive oil and salt and pepper. You put the salad ingredients in a bowl, pour over the whisked dressing and toss to make a healthy, well-balanced salad.

The merguez was great, though it created huge flames on the grill as the fat escaped. I also put on a couple of the thicker sweet Italian sausages from Broad Branch but the merguez really matched the salad best. We drank a Gruner Veltliner with it, though I think a red would have been a better match.

Pulses

The past weekend was a healthy one for eating with two homemade pulse dishes. Pulses are largely synonymous with beans, though referring to dry beans that are cooked as such.

In any case, we had a flageolet and lamb stew from Steve Sando's Heirloom Beans. You soak a pound of beans overnight, then brown lamb shoulder steaks (I used a scant 3 lbs bone-in, though the recipe says 2 lbs), sautee a mirepoix, add the beans and the soaking water, add back the steaks and cook for a couple of hours, until the beans are tender and the meat is falling off the bone. Remove the lamb from the stew and cut meat into bite-sized pieces (discard bones and excess fat) and put the meat back in the pot. To thicken the stew, you can take a cup of beans and broth and puree them and add back to the stew. Serve with a cilantro gremolata of chopped cilantro, garlic and lemon zest. It's a lovely way to transition from winter to spring.

On Sunday, we had a simple dish from Sara Jenkins' Olives and Oranges. You soak chickpeas overnight with a couple cloves unpeeled garlic and a sprig of rosemary, then cook for a couple of hours until tender. Separately you sautee two cloves of minced garlic in olive oil for 1 min., then add 1/4 c. water and simmer for 4 min. (Jenkins says this takes some of the bite out of the garlic), then add a 2 lb. cabbage cut into narrow strips, with 1 c. of water and cook until tender. Then add in cooked chickpeas and blend flavors. This truly does bring out the nice vegetable flavor of the cabbage and chickpeas cooked from scratch are always good. But the broth is thin and this may be too bland for some people. Jenkins does say to doctor it up at will, with harissa or Parmesan, whatever.

Bean dishes always leave me with a nice balanced feeling, never too full. Always ready to try a new recipe for beans.

Eye of the Goat beans

This has nothing to do with Men Who Stare at Goats. It is a pinto-like bean from Rancho Gordo and I used a pound in two more wonderful dishes from Steve Sando's Heirloom Beans.

The first was Posole with Eye of the Goat beans and chicken. I also got the posole -- husked, dried kernels of corn -- from Rancho Gordo. I soaked the beans and 2/3 c. posole (separately) overnight. I cooked the beans for 1-1/2 hrs with chopped onion and garlic sauteed in lard. The posole, following this recipe, I cooked 1/4 chopped onion for a little over 2 hrs (recipe said 3 hrs but they were plenty tender before that). Meanwhile, I slit 3 New Mexico chiles (next time maybe something a little hotter) and removed stems and seeds, roasted them in a skillet then poured boiling water over them and let them soak 30 min. Afterwards, I pureed them with some of the soaking water to "the consistency of buttermilk."

For the final assembly, I thinly sliced 2 more onion quarters and sauteed 3 to 4 min. in 2 Tbl oil with 2 chopped garlic cloves. I added 4 c. chicken broth, 1-1/2 tsp. Mexican oregano, the pureed chiles, and 4 canned tomatoes, chopped. Then I added the posole with 1 c. of the cooking liquid, brought all that to a boil, checked the salt, added 2 c. of cooked beans and simmered 20 min. to blend. Then I added 2 c. (recipe said 1-1/2 c.) of shredded chicken from a rotisserie chicken and warmed through. The stew was served with chopped onion, cilantro leaves, limes, and diced avocado on the side, accompanied by warm corn tortillas. Very satisfying.

To use up the other 2 c. of beans, I used Sando's Chili verde with Anasazi beans, where Eye of Goat beans were listed as a suitable substitute. This was even better. I husked 8 tomatillos (first time I've ever cooked with these little green tomatoes!), boiled them for 5 min. and chopped them. I roasted 8 poblano chiles under the broiler for 15 min., turning often, put them into towels to steam for 10 min., peeled, seeded and cut into strips. In a large Dutch oven, I sauteed 1/2 chopped white onion in 2 Tbl oil, 3 chopped garlic cloves, and 1 tsp. of toasted, ground cumin seeds for about 10 min. Then I added 3 lbs. boneless pork shoulder cut into 3/4-in. cubes, chiles, tomatillos, 1/2 c. cilantro leaves and 1 tsp. Mexican oregano, and poured in chicken broth to cover. I seasoned with salt and pepper and simmered for 1-1/2 hrs. until pork was very tender, added 2 c. cooked beans and simmered another 30 min. Served with chopped cilantro. The green chiles lent a very satisfying heat to the tender, slightly fatty (I'd cut off a good deal of the fat) pork. Sando continues to astonish us.

Bean salad

Beans aren't only for cold weather, as these lovely salads in Steve Sando's Heirloom Beans demonstrate (see my blog from last year on these beans). I forgot the volume that a pound of dried beans swells into, so I had a chance to try three salads in quick succession when I cooked up a pound of Rancho Gordo's Mayacoba beans.

I cooked the beans per Sando's instructions with a mirepoix (one carrot, one celery and half an onion) and a crushed garlic. After soaking overnight, they only required a little over an hour to get soft. Sando encourages you to make the salads with the beans slightly warmed so I brought them to room temperature and briefly warmed them in a skillet with a couple tablespoons water in it before making each salad.

With a cup and a half of the cooked beans, I made the Fennel and Radicchio with Mayacoba bean salad. Two fennel bulbs sliced lengthwise are tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper and sautéed until golden brown and soft. These are mixed with sliced radicchio, 6 slices of bacon fried and crumbled and the beans and tossed in a dressing of 1/2 chopped shallot, 1 tsp. dijon mustard, 1 Tbl. fresh lemon juice, 1 Tbl. red wine vinegar and 4 Tbl. EVOO. Shaved parmesan is added to the tossed salad. (Sando's recipe also includes hazelnuts roasted and rubbed to remove the skin, then chopped -- but I omitted these. He calls for radicchio di Treviso, but I had to make do with California radicchio and it still tasted excellent.)

With another two cups of the cooked beans, I made the Mayacoba bean salad with pesto and shrimp. A half pound of medium shrimp are peeled and deveined and then cooked 30 seconds in a court bouillon of 1 bay leaf, 1/4 tsp. fennel seads, 1/4 tsp. coriander seeds, 4 to 5 peppercorns, 1 crushed garlic clove, a 1/3 c. dry white wine, 1/2 lemon, and 1/2 tsp salt simmered in a small saucepan of water for 10 min. The pesto, which expressly omits the usual parmesan and pine nuts, is made from 2 c. loosely packed fresh basil leaves, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/3 c. EVOO processed in a food processor. To assemble, toss the beans and shrimp together with 1 c. cherry or grape tomatoes cut in half, pour over the pesto and toss again, then season with salt, pepper and the juice of 1/2 lemon. Very tasty.

With the remaining 2-1/2 c. of Mayacoba beans I made the Italian marrow bean with tuna salad, a variation on a standard Mediterranean dish. Sando specifies that you use imported tuna packed in oil (standard 5 oz. can). You break this up with a fork in a salad bowl, add the beans, 1/2 thinly sliced medium sweet onion, 1 celery stalk half lengthwise then sliced on the diagonal, 1/3 c. chopped fresh parsley, and then drizzle with 3 Tbl EVOO, 2 tsp red wine vinegar, and toss with salt and pepper.

Believe it or not, I didn't get tired of beans. Each salad is so different and has such a nice balance of flavors, you forget that they're all made from the same batch of beans.

Beanpot

It's hard to strike the right balance between furnishing your kitchen with special equipment and avoiding clutter. It's been easy to resist a pannini grill, but I bought a cazuela from La Tienda and regret to say I've gotten little use out of it.

But a recent Epicurious recipe for Tuscan beans included a whole discussion about the merits of a terracotta beanpot. Though the beans tasted great cooked our Le Creuset dutch oven, I took the plunge and got a 5-quart Piral beanpot from La Cuisine in Alexandria. We've been getting these nice heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo and we really like bean dishes. Plus, the plain terracotta version I got is decorative enough to sit out of the way on the top shelf of the hutch.

Seasoning consisted of simply immersing it in water for three hours. So the maiden dish for the new beanpot was Red beans Basque style from Janet Mendel's My Kitchen in Spain. I used the Santa Maria Piquito beans from Rancho Gordon -- little pink beans that are supposed to hold their shape well.

RG's beans in general do not have to have an overnight soak. Putting them in to soak the same morning and leaving them for four or five hours will generally cut the cooking time to an hour or so. As with the Tuscan bean recipe, though, this one just suggested putting the beans on a slow simmer for two or three hours.

For this recipe, you put 1 lb or rinsed beans into the pot with 6 c. of water, add an optional ham bone (which I didn't have), 1 large carrot cut into chunks, 2 bay leaves, a small green pepper chopped, and a half onion chopped. You bring the water to a boil and add a Tbl of olive oil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pot and cook for an hour.

You then add a cup of cold water to "shock" the beans and cook for another half an hour. Then add another cup of cold water and 1 leek white and tender parts chopped, 1 lb potatoes peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes, 1 Tbl salt and 4 oz of chorizo or any pork link sausage (I used hot Italian sausage from Broad Branch). You cook for another hour or so until the beans are tender. Three optional condiments to serve with it are cooked cabbage, sauteed red onion slices, or mild pickled green chiles (I opted for the red onion).

The stew was delicious. The spicy sausage added just the right amount of heat, but I would probably add a bit more sweet sausage, especially in the abscence of the ham bone. I'd love to try it another time with the ham bone, though, if anyone can tell me where to get one. I got several meals from it over the week and never tired of it. We sauteed more sausage one time and more red onion. Another time for lunch I just sprinkled cubes of feta cheese on top and that worked.

Did I have to have a beanpot to cook this recipe. Probably not, but it certainly came out nicely and was fun this way.

Rancho Gordo heirloom beans

Steve Sando has cultivated a number of native bean varieties and sells them online at his Web site.

He has an astounding variety that run about $5 for a 1-lb. package. We order about half a dozen varieties each shipment.

These are dried beans, but very fresh, so it's usually enough to soak them the same day for four to six hours before cooking. Sando suggests cooking them together with a mirepoix to start the flavoring process.

Beans are a healthy vegetable protein that hot or cold can absorb many wonderful flavors. Sando also has a Heirloom Beans cookbook and as part of our Labor Day Colombian barbecue (see separate post) we made his three-bean salad. It was delicious, bursting with flavor, and well-suited to the flank steak and chile sauces.

Any bean that stays firm when cooked can be used (he suggests a number of them). We used a half-pound each of yellow Indian woman, cranberry and flageolet beans.

We cooked the beans separately with mirepoix. In a 400-degree oven, you roast plum tomatoes from a 14-oz. can, drained and drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt, until they start to brown and caramelize, about 20 min.

Meanwhile, you saute 1/4-lb. diced pancetta until golden, about 8 to 10 min., then drain on paper towels.

You chop the roasted tomatoes and put them in a large salad bowl. You add 3 celery stalks, cut in half lengthwise and then on the diagonal into 1/4-inch thick slices; one small sweet onion cut into quarters and then thinly sliced; 1/4 c. chopped flat-leaf parsley; and the cooked beans, still a bit warm.

For the dressing you whisk together 2 finely chopped garlic cloves, 1/4 tsp. dried oregano, 1/4 tsp. dried thyme, 1 tsp. Dijon mustard, 3 Tbl. red wine vinegar, and then drizzle 1/2 c. EVOO in while whisking to form the emulsion, add salt and pepper. Toss the salad with the dressing, check salt and pepper and serve.