Year of the Bean

Celebrating the arrival of a new Rancho Gordo shipment, I took Steve Sando’s advice and cooked the Flor de Mayo beans first, and then doubly took his advice in following (mostly, ingredients dependent) his recipe for them from the accompanying newsletter.

Ingredients

• 1 lb./450g Flor de Mayo beans, soaked 2-4 hours
• 1 large white onion, chopped medium
• 1/2 lb./225g bacon
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 Poblano peppers (or other green chile)
• 1 bay laurel leaf
• 1 bottle Bell’s Porter (or other dark lager or porter)
• salt to taste

Procedure

1. In a large heavy-bottomed pot (Dutch oven is ideal) saute the bacon and when cooked, reserve on paper toweling, and chop when cooled.
2. Fry the onions and garlic in the bacon fat until soft, discarding extra fat if there is any afterwards
3. Add the beans and their soaking water, and enough extra water so the beans are covered by about 1.5″
4. Bring to a hard boil for five minutes, then reduce heat to a mere simmer and cook until the beans are soft, adding salt then.
5. In the meantime, roast the chiles until charred all around, steam in a paper bag for 10-15 minutes, and then remove the skin and seeds. Chop the chile meat.
6. When beans are soft, add the beer and more water if needed along with the chiles and chopped bacon, and cook another 10 minutes or so until it’s reduced a bit.
7. Serve with cilantro and raw onions.

Bonus! Cornbread Recipe

Though I don’t have a nice blue cornmeal to properly execute this, I do have the wonderful Castle Mill Valley Bloody Butcher Red Cornmeal, and so I thought I’d do this simple and wonderful cornbread recipe from Pueblo & Navajo Cookery alongside.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. blue (or other hearty heritage) cornmeal
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 tbsp. sugar (optional given how good your cornmeal is)
• 3/4 c. milk
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 3 tbsp. bacon fat
• 1 small can green chiles, chopped (or one large jalapeño, roasted, skinned, de-seeded and chopped)

Procedure

1. Heat oven to 350F
2. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, and all others in another
3. Pour liquid and wet ingredients to the dry bowl and mix thoroughly
4. Pour into a greased baking pan or small cast iron skillet, and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry.