Adventures in Cooking Our CSA Share: A Tale of Two Beans

Compare and contrast:

The Minister's "Baked" Beans

Start a few tablespoons of butter melting in a big skillet on a medium flame. Add some garlic salt, a few chopped scallions, a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar, and heat until melted and mixed. Add some cider vinegar. Add some ketchup and yellow mustard, plus more butter if you need to. Meanwhile, take 2 cans of red kidney beans and rinse and drain them; set aside. When butter mixture is good and bubbly, add beans, stirring to cover. Reduce heat and cover, simmering for as long as you want. Serve when tender to your liking.

The Minister

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My Recipe for Baked Beans

4 slices bacon

½ cup chopped onion

2-1 lb. can Pork and Beans

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon mustard

1 teaspoon ketchup

chopped bell pepper

Cook bacon until crip, drain and crumble. In 2 tablespoons of drippings cook onion and bell pepper unil tender but not brown. Add with bacon to beans and other, mixing well. Put in 1 ½ quart casserole dish. Bake uncovered at 350°F for 20-45 minutes.

Mommy Hungry's Mom

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My minister, who is also a very good friend, couldn't believe I didn't know how to make baked beans. I do, I said, if I had my recipe with me, but it was a Monday night on the side of a mountain and I hadn't brought my cookbook along for making an impromptu batch of beans. We were supposed to be having baked chicken with rice and gravy but had ditched that in favor of cooking sausages and veggies over the campfire. To supplement the meal, we had decided on beans and she thought whipping up some baked beans was a good idea. It was a good idea--yummy and a filling protein for me in lieu of the sausages--but I had no clue how to make them.

I think my mom's recipe has bell peppers and mustard, plus brown sugar, I said. Otherwise, I was fairly helpless. But you read all those cookbooks, she said bewildered. Yes, yes, I do, but for history, entertainment, directions. She said she read cookbooks for ideas, for basics to adapt to her own tastes and ingredients and skills. Just like her mom. Well, I said, as long as I was growing up in her house, my mom cooked from recipes, exactly as written, with exact measurements, and was fairly lost without them (which she contends is no longer the case). Just like me.

Mainly.

Because in the last two weeks, I've been experimenting on my own, making up recipes with ingredients I have on hand, with techniques I've gleaned from tried and true cookbook recipes, and I've been mostly satisfied with the results, as well as perfectly proud of the attempt. I credit our weekly CSA share with giving me the familiarity with ingredients, experience with techniques, confidence to experiment, and, finally, motivation to eat what we have on hand. But because I'm a recipe follower to the core, and so you can make these yourself (and more importantly, so I can have a record of how I did it), I include them here. But you'll notice that my recipes, while in a traditional format, are inching closer towards my minister's way of doing things.

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Lentil-Stuffed Bell Peppers

2-4 green bell peppers, seeded and split in half

1 cup brown lentils, rinsed and sorted

5 cups water

2 cups cooked brown rice

1/2 -1 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 small can tomato paste

1 small can olives, sliced

salt, pepper to taste

Boil green bell peppers in water approximately 10 minutes, or until beginning to be tender. Meanwhile, bring to boil 5 cups water and then add lentils; reduce to low heat and simmer approximately 10-15 minutes or until beginning to be tender. Mix brown rice, feta cheese, and olives together; set aside. When lentils are done, drain and add to rice mixture. Stir in tomato paste. Taste and season. Mix together, adding a little water if moisture needed.

Place bell peppers in baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Fill halves with lentil-rice mixture. Top with any remaining feta cheese.

Bake at 350F until bubbly. Serve warm.

Mommy Hungry

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White Bean and Kale Soup

1 lb. dried navy or cannellini beans, rinsed and sorted

6 cups stock

olive oil

minced garlic

1 onion, chopped

1-2 heads kale, de-stemmed, rinsed, dried, and chopped

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

Place beans in 5-7 cups water (enough to cover) and bring to a boil. Boil hard for 5-10 minutes then reduce to a simmer. Note: this is contrary to popular bean wisdom of using either the overnight soak or 5 minute boil/1 hour soak method; but the beans were still great (even better, maybe).

When beans are tender, drain water and set beans aside. In same pot, heat olive oil and saute onion, garlic, and kale. Add approximately 6 cups stock and the beans. Cook until kale and beans are tender to your liking. Season with liquid smoke and any additional salt and pepper (I realized you could also cook the beans with a bay leaf).

Mommy Hungry

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Curried Lentil and Kale Stew

1 lb brown lentils, rinsed and sorted

2-3 yukon gold potatoes, cubed

5 cups water

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, chopped

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1 can crushed tomatoes or 1 can tomato paste (really, just your favorite tomato product)

1-2 heads kale, de-stemmed, rinsed, and chopped

1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

sweet curry powder

Boil water and add lentils and potatoes. Cook until tender, approximately 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute kale in olive oil with garlic and onion. Add to lentils when they are tender. Then add tomatoes, garbanzo beans, and 1-2 teaspoons sweet curry powder, plus any additional seasonings. Cook an additional 10 minutes or so. Enjoy!

Mommy Hungry

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Sauteed Garlic Scapes with Wax Beans

garlic scapes, cut into 1" pieces

yellow beans, cut into 1" pieces

olive oil

salt, pepper

Saute scapes and yellow beans in olive oil until they reached desired tenderness. Season to taste.

Mommy Hungry