Nancy - Posted - 06/12/2011:  05:50:12

What are your favorite beans and how do you prepare them?

 I made a pot of navy beans, added chopped pieces of ham and onions. Made cornbread to go with them.

Yes. I love beans!

eagleisland - Posted - 06/12/2011:  06:58:33

My favorite way to do beans is in a cassoulet - an amazing concoction including lamb, slab bacon, saucisse a l'ail (a good American boudin or a garlicky kielbasa will do in a pinch) and confit de canard,  which is duck legs (sorry, Pat!) cooked in covered in duck fat, very low and slow, for about 10 hours.  Lotta work and the confit, if you buy it pre-made, isn't cheap.  But it's heavenly and gives you all the energy you need to plow a field for the next two days straight.  Midwinter.  With frozen ground and four feet of snow.  White beans - Great Northern preferred - in this dish.    Here's an okay recipe for it.

I also like to do baked beans, using salt pork, of course, but doing the sweetening with maple syrup instead of molasses and brown sugar.  And with the maple, one of my favorite herbs - which you do NOT typically find in baked beans - adds a wonderful counterpoint:  sage.  Yellow Eye beans are my favorites for this.

Also been known to do red beans and rice, although I'm a lifelong New England boy, and mine have never been as good as those from down south.  Kidney beans for this one, of course.

And then there's bean soups - black bean and navy bean...

Oh, yeah, I like beans!

Edited by - eagleisland on 06/12/2011 07:01:45

pandjlocke - Posted - 06/12/2011:  07:44:48

I make a pot of beans of some kind every week. Just to have on hand. I have 25 lb bags of Great Northern, Black, Kidney and Pinto. I cook up 1 cup of dried beans in a small crock pot almost every Monday. Tha gives Joyce and I enough beans to use in recipes a couple of times a week. This week I made a large pot of spicy Smoked Pork and Limas. Not those wimpy baby limas, but the big fat ones. Yum. 

Then there's Red Beans and Rice, Black Beans and Rice, BBQ Beans, and, (gulp) I like beans in my Chili, a combination a red, black and pinto. 

BConk - Posted - 06/12/2011:  07:47:18

pasta e fagioli is my favorite way to prepare and eat beans. I've used all sorts of different dried beans for this - but my favorite now is the great northern bean.

un5trung - Posted - 06/12/2011:  07:49:12

Love 'em -- I grew up on rice and beans daily. My wife though, she can't stand 'em, so I don't make beans any longer. Can't say it's a real sacrifice. The Molly doesn't like fish either, and I serve that 2-3 times a week. I have to pick my battles, and I gauge that fish is more important to our overall diet than are beans.

un5trung - Posted - 06/12/2011:  07:49:35

Love 'em -- I grew up on rice and beans daily. My wife though, she can't stand 'em, so I don't make beans any longer. Can't say it's a real sacrifice. The Molly doesn't like fish either, and I serve that 2-3 times a week. I have to pick my battles, and I gauge that fish is more important to our overall diet than are beans.

eagleisland - Posted - 06/12/2011:  07:55:51

BTW - here's a recipe for what I call "poor man's cassoulet" - not as good as the classic, of course, but still pretty tasty, particularly on a cold and rainy day, like this one here in Maine.  Might make this for supper.  For six servings:

4-6 rashers thick-cut bacon

1 pound stewing lamb

6 chicken thighs

1 kielbasa, cut into six pieces

1 can consomme or beef broth

1 large onion, diced

1 head garlic, diced

2 carrots, cleaned and halved

2 stalks celery, cleaned and halved

1+ cup red wine

2 tbs tomato paste

2 15.5 oz cans Great Northern beans, drained

2+ tbs vegetable oil

bouquet garnis - generous sprigs of fresh thyme, sage, rosemary, bundled and tied into cheesecloth along with 2 bay leaves

Seasoned flour (flour, salt, pepper) for dredging

Salt and fresh-ground pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350.

Cut the bacon into 1" square pieces.  Fry in the vegetable oil over low to medium heat until crisp; remove to a large casserole or dutch oven, in which you've already placed the bouquet garnis, the carrot and celery, and the kielbasa pieces.  Reserve the fat and raise heat to medium.

Dredge the chicken thighs in the seasoned flour and brown in small batches in the fat.  Remove to the casserole.  If you need a bit more fat in the pan, add more vegetable oil.  Take care to ensure that you don't overly-brown residual flour and meat juices during the browning process.

Dredge the lamb in seasoned flower and brown in small batches in the fat. Remove to the casserole.

Saute the onion and garlic until translucent.  Add the consomme, tomato paste and wine, stirring and scraping constantly.  Residual cooked flour from the browning process should thicken this up to a nice sauce-like consistency.  Add this to the casserole.  Adjust seasonings (salt and pepper - but be careful not to over-salt).  If you need a bit more liquid, use more wine.

Put the casserole on a burner, bring just to a simmer, then cover with a good stout lid and put the casserole in the oven for about 75 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

Fish out the carrot, celery and bouquet garnis and discard.  Adjust seasonings.  If thickening is required, use a cornstarch slurry. 

Add the beans; place the casserole on a burner and bring back to a simmer (about 3-5 minutes).  Serve with good, crusty bread.

Edited by - eagleisland on 06/12/2011 07:59:43

BConk - Posted - 06/12/2011:  11:08:37

Les haricots ne sont pas salés 

Texasbanjo - Posted - 06/12/2011:  13:21:43

I cook pinto and great  northern beans (not together)  and then freeze what we  don't eat that night.  That way I always have beans on hand for a side for any meal.

I soak my pinto beans overnight and then pour  off the water the next day, add a pound of salt pork cut into small pieces, about a tablespoon of salt (that's not much for 2 pounds of beans) and the beans cook, watching them and adding water when needed.  When  almost done, I add 1 tablespoon  of cumin, 1 tablespoon of garlic salt  and 1 tablespoon of jalapeno powder -- and more salt, if needed.  Add cornbread and a sliced onion and you have supper. 

I fix the great northerns about the same except I don't add jalapeno powder and cumin but I do add 1 small diced onion when I'm cooking the beans.  Other than that, everything else is the same.

Gomer - Posted - 06/12/2011:  14:29:35

1 lb. (bag) of Great Northern White Beans

½ c. sugar

1 ½ lb. Center cut pork loin (boneless)

Salt & pepper to taste

Wash beans.

Cover beans in cold water and bring to a boil, then drain.

Cover beans with cold water, about 4 inches above beans, add sugar, simmer, then to a boil, add salt and pepper.

Dump beans into roasting pan.

Put loin in center after lightly salted and pepper.

Bake at 275 degrees for 4 to 6 hours, check and adjust time after 4 hours

steve davis - Posted - 06/12/2011:  15:47:05

Jacob's Cattle beans,soaked overnight.Probably throw that water away and refill the next day.I can't remember the amounts,but you gotta have dry mustard,molasses,whole onion and salt pork.

Bake them in a bean pot until al dente,checking to maintain water coverage.Would 320degrees be a good temp?

BTW,I don't really want any beans if there aren't any yeast rolls,chow chow or apple pie to go with them.

Edited by - steve davis on 06/12/2011 15:50:25

trapdoor2 - Posted - 06/12/2011:  16:18:29

Yes, I like beans! Navy beans are my favorite, Miz Diane loves Pintos.

We usually have a crock pot full of some kind of beans at least every week when it is cold out. 15-bean soup too.

Boston style baked are great too...and we inherited Diane's grandmother's (born and raised in Gloucester, MA) beanpot. Somehow they just taste better outta that pot.

pstroud1 - Posted - 06/12/2011:  20:52:42

I'm a beanut, just had a bowl of pintos from a can but Linda Lou makes some great beans. I don't know how she makes them I just eat them.

Pintos= hard to beat beans,,,,,,,,

Paul

csrat - Posted - 06/13/2011:  02:37:47

Thought this forum might have a humorous slant when I opened it, seeing how beans are often the butt of many jokes.   After reading through the posts though I've come to realize I really do like beans!  The first post was right on, just the way my mom used to make them, then the mention of red beans and rice, a favorite dish of mine.  I think I'll make up some Navy beans and cornbread today, seeing as how the weather in W. Michigan has taken a cooler turn.  Good stuff.

BigJohn67 - Posted - 06/13/2011:  09:53:37

I love any kind of beans. My favorite? Pinto beans poured over fried potatoes.

(Don't knock it if you haven't tried it........)

michael6 - Posted - 06/14/2011:  08:22:39

I like butter beans with swiss chard. Just cut the chard up and add some onions ,beans,spices and slow cook.

John Allison - Posted - 06/14/2011:  08:38:06

My wife was born and raised in New Orleans.  I love the way she fixes red beans and rice. 

Nothing to do with my love of beans but just had to pass this along .......beans, beans, the musical fruit:  the more you eat, the more you toot:  the more you toot, the better you feel:  beans, beans for every meal!

eagleisland - Posted - 06/14/2011:  09:00:23

quote:

---

Originally posted by John Allison

My wife was born and raised in New Orleans.  I love the way she fixes red beans and rice. 

---

Would she be willing to share the recipe?

xomcat - Posted - 06/14/2011:  09:29:02

I have a pot of chana masala (curried garbanzos) on the stove right now.

dat - Posted - 06/14/2011:  09:46:18

I like most any kind, the way I prepare them is I say to my bride, "beans sound pretty good" and they end up in the pot

John Allison - Posted - 06/14/2011:  10:12:04

Hey Skip,

don't know but I will ask her.

eagleisland - Posted - 06/14/2011:  19:26:42

quote:

---

Originally posted by John Allison

Hey Skip,

don't know but I will ask her.

 

---

Sheesh, it's been more than nine hours so I'm guessin'  the answers is "find yer own damn recipe!" 

eagleisland - Posted - 06/14/2011:  19:37:22

While we're on the subject of red beans and rice, how about an Asian equivalent - Dal? Uses lentils instead of beans - same family as beans, but cooks a lot faster, and with seasonings that whap you 'cross the face and demand "yo, Dude - you AWAKE?'.

Dal is a staple in Indian cuisine and far as I'm concerned it's darned close to Heaven in a bowl, full complementary amino acids and vegetarian to boot.  Here's an okay recipe.   Which said, there are hundreds of variants.