August 06, 2006

Cooking kidney beans

The summer is still here, up to 30 degrees today and sun, sun, sun - but I have started working and soon the heat will be gone too, who knows. So, time for autumn and new ambitions! I have complained before about my bulging kitchen cabinets - no fault but my own, A. only buys things he has serious plans to use, and a deadline, and he doesn´t receive food parcels from people all over the world either. If I see something that tempts me in a food shop, I buy it without thinking "I will use it on Monday". So, hence the bulging, and hence my ambition to use up some of it!

The first thing I am doing now is cooking a large bag of kidney beans. I often buy beans and lentils but then I cannot be bothered cooking them. That has to change. This bag contained about a kilo of beans and I soaked the whole lot thinking that it couldn´t expand that much. Well, it did. So when it is done I will be in possession of about 2-3 liters of cooked kidney beans that I will put in the freezer for future use. So, I plan on cooking a lot with kidney beans the coming months so it doesn´t occupy our freezer longer than necessary...

Please share your favourite kidney bean recipe!

2 comments:

Steve said...

This is good and not too much trouble to make, albiet it has many ingredients.

Chili without carne (Good Food Cook Book by Jane Brody)

1T olive or vegetable oil
2 medium onions
3 large cloves minced garlic
1 green pepper, chopped
1 jalapiño pepper, finely chopped
1 28 ounce (.79 kg) can chopped tomatoes
1 15 ounce(.43 kg) tomato purée
½ tsp ground coriander
¼ tsp whole cloves or generous pinch ground cloves
¼ tsp allspice berries or generous pinch ground allspice
2 tsp orégano
2 T brown sugar
2 T chili powder
2 T ground cumin
2 cups cooked kidney or pinto beans
1 cup raw rice
2 cups boiling water

1. In a dutch oven or large saucepan, heat the oil and sauté the onions, garlic, green pepper and jalapiño pepper until they are soffened.
2. Add the tomatoes (and purée), coriander, cloves, allspice, orégano, brown sugar, chili, cumin and beans. Bring the chili to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
3. While the chili is cooking, in a medium saucepan add the rice to the boiling water, reduce the heat, cover the pan tightly and simmer the rice for 15 minutes (depending on the variety of rice). Serve the chili over the rice.

I always mix them. THe recipe makes a lot of left overs. It's even better the second day!

Karin said...

Catrine Schuck who usually knows what she does once had a recipe for Cuban beans, a fast food that she used to make for her son and herself, sounds weird, is fast and I tried it and liked it.
Rince and heat beans, mix with boiled rice, slice 1/2 banana over and a fried egg.
I fried my bananas too since I don´t like them raw.