Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics Food, Drink and Cooking What's for dinner?

Maybe throw some straw on top of them for over-wintering? Might keep them from freezing so hard when the snow comes. I assume global warming has not progressed to the point you are frost-free. I've only seen it snow here for a few minutes twice in my life, but I did spend a year in West Lafayette, Indiana. And I've skied some of the best Eastern Sierra slopes when I was young.

I've decided to try and duplicate Popeye's Red Beans & Rice. Found some recipes to try. One interesting factoid is they don't use ANY ham, sausage, or any other meat at all. They use bacon grease and liquid smoke! One experiment I used Great Northern beans, roast pork fat, and liquid smoke. Okay, but no cigar. I want to try authentic small red beans, but with olive oil and liquid smoke. That would make for a healthier version, but if doesn't pass my test I will get some bacon to render.

Biscuits and ham gravy tonight, with little sausage cubes in the gravy.

The Majick of biochar! It has been used as a feed supplement for poultry and livestock in Southeast Asia for years, though it’s still not approved by the FDA in the U.S. There was a NRCS CIG grant funded project in Nebraska a couple of years ago that had the objective of paving the way for legal acceptance of biochar in feed, but I haven’t heard anything about the results. We make it available to our chickens.

I don't know exactly what a "red bean" is. So I looked it up and found this article:
The Difference Between Red, Pinto, And Kidney Beans

If you click on that you will see a picture of Kidney beans and Pinto beans. But no "Red Beans".
Great Northern beans are white beans and I seriously love them.

But for beans and rice I've always used Pintos. Canned is fine, they need at least another hour of cooking anyway.

And you probably already have it in your mise but the next ingredient is Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning. If you don't have it get some! It's the secret ingredient of chefs and home cooks worldwide.
(So is Red Boat Fish Salt, but we won't go there so's not to make the kitty puke)
Popeye's probably has a proprietary blend but Tony's is the industry standard.

Save yourself the bacon rendering and just buy a little pack of pre-cooked bacon and chop it up.

Due to the Pandemic and global supply issues there is a glut of Tunesian Olive Oil right now and it can be had for cheap! Tunesia is on the southern shore of the Meditteranean and produces some of the world's finest.

Light Red Kidney Beans

Adding to the confusion and ambeanuity are these Light Red Kidney Beans that I carefully selected from my beaner stash as they were smaller and more likely to cook quickly than the only other colored choice Red Kidney Beans,
Red Kidney Beans
which were larger and redder. I also had white northern beans, but I thought they would not have a nice color contrast with the rice, though brown, not white on rice. I failed to consider another contrast option, white beans on black rice, kind of a reverse of Ebony on Ivory, which was never well received in Southern cuisine.

I rinsed them minimally, and covered them in my aluminum pressure cooker (a weddding gift) with about 2 inches of water with a generous rounded teaspoon of MSG and a similar amount of salt. I brought them immediately to jiggling temp for 2 minutes, and turned off the stove and left them on the glass non-induction cooktop that has considerable latent heat, and left them there for an hour or so. I was going to go with gas in the kitchen remodel but ran out of time to run a gas line, and didnt want to rush it cause what could go worng with a hasty gas job and no permit for it? The beans could have used another 1/2 of water but were almost done, and did take up most of the MSG brine, which was the experiment da jour. All they needed was a 30 min simmer with the other ingredients. I did NOTpour off the bean broth or sell it to Vegans.
We can discuss bean pressure cooking that is a real time savor particularly with added MSG. I rarely plan far enough ahead of time to soak beans overnight, and after doing the quick boil and rest for an hour before pressure cooking, I though I would try this way and it worked. Some beans, like chickpeas, need more time to soften their peafowl consistency
TAT

Canned beans are fine. No need to gum up a pressure cooker in an attempt to save time and rush through the cooking part. Just open a goddam can of beans.

Red Kidney beans are still kidney beans and are not traditionally used in beans and rice.

They work fine for chili and a few other recipes but fail to provide the creaminess of red beans or pintos. Red beans are available online and at some(better) grocery stores.

No matter what you're cooking substituting the wrong ingredients will never yield the best results. Rushing through a recipe, failing to plan ahead, and taking shortcuts will also lead to less than optimal results.

I've been thinking about savory pancakes for a long time...I think there's a variety of different Asian versions that mostly involve scallions.

Finally tried it this morning and it was a come to Jesus moment!

Sauteed a chopped scallion, some mushrooms and a small colorful pepper in butter for a few minutes, added a handful of chopped spinach just long enough to wilt, then added it to some Kroger brand pancake mix along with some herbs and spices and poured the batter into a pan of hot herb and garlic infused EVOO.

It was breakfast so I served it with two Sunnyside eggs on top and sliced tomato.

Glorious!

I suspect that all the MSG, yeast, schroom and Umami chatter around here has subliminally lead us down the savory path. Yesterday while eating more "red" beans with rice I was running through masa based shortbreads that go so well with beans that reflect light around the 700 nano meter wavelengths. I found some savory corn breadish cheesy muffins, but was looking for something that didnt require baking. I found Savory Masa Corn Cakes with Green Chile, Cheese, and Lime Crema that looked like a good start for something to mix with the beans or use as layers between bean strata. Think blueberry pancakes except with beans.

I hesitat to get into the very controversial subject about the only authentic or traditional way to make cornbread, for today, but I'm feeling a bit of a deja vu re cornbread here. I will look it up and see who won.

The Hell with unsavory! Though some purrsist in leading us into temptation, which isn't so bad,
if only they could deliver us from EVOO!

I's repentin Lawd
TAT

Oh ok....

Beans and peas are a big part of our diet. I love them! I cook almost exclusively from dried beans/peas and I like to do it in a small slow cooker. No pre soaking or fast boil. The creamiest way to make them. Anywhere from 3 hours to 6 depending on the bean.
I always keep on hand, red beans, pinto beans, navy beans, great northern bean, black beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans (great in soups and salads) and last but no where near the least, black eyed peas, my very favorite.

I have a fantastic red beans and rice recipe....red beans, onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic, bag leaves, cayenne, Cajun seasoning (see Greger's suggestion above), parsley, and most of all sage...in my opinion, the most important. I've made it with andouille sausage and with no meat at all. (we were meat free for a long time, now we're meat less). I also might put a splash of sherry in.
I cook this in the slow cooker. Toe curling good!

Hey Tat, I grow collards year around here too. What you say, so right about wintertime collards!

Hi Olyve,
I knew there had to other beanophiles out there! I have considered starting a new thread, but have been looking for just the right title for it. Should it be "You don't know beans!" or "KILLER BEANS, RED KIDNEY ALERT!!"?
Having been unjustly accused of or even worse purrhaps it would be better to take it elsewhere, but since the actual topic is explicitly "What's for dinner?" it would be appropriate for me,
it happens, to continue here as beans are very frequently included in my dinner, particularly with dried beans that provide so many leftovers compared to cans.
Re: Killer beans, there were 50 or so cases of kidney bean poisoning/toxicity reported in Britain between 1980-90 that were recognized to be due to raw or under-cooked kidney beans. This wont kill you, but can cause GI distress, from end to end, with possible dehydration needing IV fluid replacementKiller beans toxicity, symptoms, treatment, and prevention
There have been particular concerns about low temp slow cookers, that on low heats may not reach a high enough temperature to destroy the toxin phytohemaglutinin, that we call PHA for short, and use ut in the lab to stimulate lymphocytes to divide. Kidney beans have some of the highest levels of it, but other beans also have it.
I have never noticed a problem, but I dont use a slow cooker for beans. I would be interested in the details about what you call a small slow cooker, brand model, and the temperatures that you use. If it boils part of the time, like 10-15 minutes or more, that may explain why you haven' noticed any GI problem with it.
Curiously, poorly cooked beans, may have 5 fold increases in toxicity, compared to raw beans, as the toxin can be released from the beans, but not destroyed by the low heat.
Pressure cooking seems from my experiment to be OK even with short high pressure times and temps, but I haven't tried it the the large red kidney beans that have the most toxin. 4-5 beans poorly cooked can cause symptoms. I'm considering testing pressure cooking the Big Reds, but not when I'm going out.
Greger is missing out, but safe with his canned beans, as that canning process destroys the toxin. Otherwise we wouldnt be able to eat kidney beans right out of the can, when camping, or mimicking cowboys on the trail.
Most slow cooker recipes that I have seem lately, use canned bean, or soaked boiled beans.

As for wintering collards, Athens, greater Hotlanta, has winters that used to be a bit different from Syracuse, and in fact when I just looked outside, it was suddenly white.
Moar BEANS

TAT

Pozole, using canned Goya White Hominy.

Olyve expressed a strong prefurance for sage in her bean dishes, and will try it, except I associate it with Turkey stuffing. Many Mexican sites praise Epazote as the essential seasoning for authentic Mexican bean dishes, but I have not been able to find a good source for it, and even searched for seed. Most epazote seed sellers had terrible reviews on the viability of epazote seeds. It is characterized as a highly invasive plant, so if only if I could get a few sprout-able seeds, I could share it with ALL of my neighbors, who watch my experiments with amusement, and reasonable alarm.
Epazote
Anybody know a good dealer or have experience with epazote?

TAT