Another kitchen adventure

[ellarien]

I'm not sure what to call this one. Southwestern vegetable curry? Spicy vegetable stew?


I started with a cup of mixed dry beans, soaked overnight, then kept in the fridge until I was ready to start cooking. Then I put them back in the big pan with three cups of water, ceremonially waved the salt shaker over it (I don't usually even do that, but I'm a little superstitious about beans), boiled for ten minutes and then kept it simmering for an hour or so while I made gingerbread. (Which seems to have turned out okay, though it was fiddlier in practice than it looked on paper.) At intervals I had to add extra cups of water. Then I started adding other stuff: an onion and a bit, chopped and sauteed; one jalapeno and one yellow chili pepper, seeded and cut small; half an eggplant, diced; a dozen or so small mushrooms, some portobello and some plain; diced red, yellow, green, and orange bell pepper; a couple of tomatoes, and enough water to keep it bubbling. Towards the end, I threw in a teaspoonful of cumin, and half a teaspoon each of paprika, oregano, and turmeric. It was definitely spicy, but I can't be sure how much of that was the small amount of hot peppers and how much was the turmeric and cumin. The turmeric turned it an interesting color, too. Yield; five servings. I ate the first one over couscous, and froze the rest. I should try it with rice, but co-ordinating rice with these open-ended projects is a bit beyond my skills at present.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

ceremonially waved the salt shaker over it

It's generally best not to add any salt anyway until the beans are cooked, as it can make the skins tough.

And this sounds yummy.

[ellarien]

Is there anything (other than pork products) that can be cooked with beans without making them tough? The previous bean experiment had onions, tomatoes, and molasses cooked in with the beans after the initial fast boil, which resulted in lovely rich brown sauce but less-than-ideal consistency of the beans.

I obviously need to experiment further, but not until I've eaten some space in the freezer!

(And yes, thank you, it was yummy!)