beans

Beans, beans, beans – wonderful little packages of goodness! With summer just around the corner the green varieties are sneaking into the stores but for now I am returning to basics and reacquainting myself with cooking dried beans from scratch. As much as I love the convenience of the organic canned varieties, despite all the rinsing the precooked ones always have sweetness to them. For a while vacuum packed, cooked beans in the QuickPulse range were available in the supermarket refrigerator. But I guess, despite it being a better tasting product the mass produced tins won out at the checkout.

If you want to cook your own beans, I heartily recommend investing in a pressure cooker. I got mine from a garage sale, in Toorak no less, for about $10 a decade or so ago. This was a barely used stainless steel job, with no exploding valves. Just give the dodgy old aluminium ones in the op shops a miss. While pressure cooking doesn’t mean you skip the soaking stage, it does cut down the cooking time and eliminate the odd burnt bean accident that has happened to me in the past when I’ve cooked conventionally. This way it’s easy to soak the beans in the morning before leaving for work and then just change the water before throwing them in the pressure cooker when you get home. Once the beast has built up a head of steam I tend to cook cannellini for about 30-35 minutes and chickpeas (garbanzo) for 45 minutes.

Do a double batch of beans because they freeze well and are great in casseroles and dips. Though I’d stick to the freshly cooked ones for use in salads.

Some great bean dishes.

White bean salad with tuna, parsley, tomato and garlic.
White bean puree with olive oil, salt and garlic
Hummus, or any bean dip with tahini, lemon and garlic
Bean stews/casseroles
Provencal: in a tomato, onion, garlic base with olives, fresh herbs and vegetables
Chilli: with those sweet Hungarian peppers for a change
Classic baked beans: with tomato and sweetness, such as maple syrup
Falafels: though the chickpea is a classic, this is the only way I like fresh broad (fava) beans.

How do you like your beans?

WHB #99 - Kaffir lime leaves

As the sun has decided to smile down upon us again an automatic gear shifting has crept into the kitchen. The porridge pot is put away and instead the oats are soaked in soy and eaten cold with fresh fruit and nuts. Likewise the desire for salad is consuming me. All week I have been blanching and tossing all sorts of green things with dressings.

The trip to the market rendered the dearest little spring stalks of asparagus, practically vibrating with organic goodness. Blanched for less than a minute, at this end of the season they have amazing sweetness. The other find was a bag of fresh kaffir lime leaves. I have a weak spot for these flavour bursts of lime. Sure you can use them in curries but uncooked, finely sliced they add life to salads when sprinkled on top or incorporated in a dressing.



Chickpea and asparagus salad, with kaffir lime dressing
Serves 2 hungry vegetarians as a main or many for a side dish

2 cans organic chickpeas (home cooked would be better), rinsed well
a generous handful of asparagus, blanched and refreshed in ice water
1 avocado, diced
2 organic eggs, hard boiled and diced
a big handful of parsley, chopped
1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds, toasted

Assemble in a pretty bowl, dress and toss.

dressing

the juice of 1 lemon
twice as much olive oil to lemon juice (pumpkin seed oil also goes well)
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2-4 tsp Dijon mustard
1-2 kaffir lime leaves*, very finely chopped
a little sea salt and ground black pepper

Shake the ingredients in a jar or whisk in a bowl. I like it on the tangy side but you can add more oil if you don’t. The lime leaves add an extra burst of citrus.

* kaffir lime leaves store well in the freezer in a ziploc bag and can be used straight away. The photo above is taken of a leaf that had been frozen for a few days, snapped a couple of minutes out of the freezer. Other than having a tree in your garden or in a pot, this is the best way I have found to preserve the flavour and deep green colour.


Weekend Herb Blogging is bought to you this week by Katie at Thyme for Cooking - don't forget to check her site on Tuesday for this weeks round up.