Full of Beans

[bugshaw]

I've been having a domestic interlude. I cleared the kitchen cupboards yesterday, and found many packets of dried beans and pulses, so thought I'd soak and cook and freeze them so they're available in a more readily edible format. Two packs later, and there's beans all over the shop, cooling in plastic tubs and bowls and the lasagna dish... I did at least remember to only cook as many beans as fit in the saucepans.

I prefer tinned; much less faff, and a firmer consistency. It seems like a false economy, to buy the dried beans but then spend hours soaking and rinsing and boiling and simmering. My boiled beans usually go floury and fall apart. Butter beans are the worst for this - once the husks have split and fallen off, there's hardly any bean left!

Comments

[watervole.livejournal.com]

You're cooking them for too long, if they're going floury. Butter beans in particular need a short cooking period. Mind you, tins are easier.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

I wondered about that, but I feared the consequences of eating undercooked beans.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

AS long as they're cooked so that they're the texture you like, they're fine. It's actually the soaking that removes any toxins. It's particularly important to soak red kidney beans, whereas pulses like lentils can be cooked without any soak at all.

[drplokta]

No, it's not the soaking, it's the boiling. But ten minutes of boiling is all that you need to degrade the toxin, and red kidney beans are the only ones you really need to worry about. See Wikipedia.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I shall bear this in mind for tomorrow's batches!

[mkillingworth.livejournal.com]

Pintos and red kidney beans are lovely cooked with a bit of ham or bacon and diced onions. Then you serve them with cornbread or rice. Delicious!

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

I looked at the lasagna dish full of cooked haricots, and thought "cassoulet"...

[ang-grrr.livejournal.com]

Mmmm. Cassoulet. I'm clearing out the freezer so made a cassoulet with (and I believe this is the authentic french method :)):

Four low-fat cumberland sausages
250g of small chicken breasts
A pack of smoked bacon bits (all the above from the freezer)
Some tomato sauce
Some tomato that was looking a bit dodgy in the salad drawer
Some celery, likewise
Some carrots
A tin of borlotti beans
Garlic and shallots from the allotment
Thyme (dried, sadly, as it was dark and I didn't fancy gathering some from the plot.)

Half of it had to go in the freezer again when I realised I was never going to eat it all. I knew the bacon bits took it over the edge. It was very nice though.