Week 15: Anasazi Beans

A (vaguely) familiar bean! I know I've cooked them in the past, and they have an interesting history, but past that, I couldn't remember anything about them. They turned out to be mealy with a slight sweet flavor, and cooked much faster than many of the beans I've tried this year (although the soaking overnight significantly helps in that regard, and I actually remembered this time!). Of course I forgot my quarter in my pre-soak picture...

I did manage to snap a picture, complete with reference, after soak, but since I'm holding the quarter, well...

...whatever, these beans are roughly the shape/size of a pinto bean. They also worked nicely in the following recipe, which is nearly identical to the inspiring recipe...

Vegetarian Charro Beans

Ingredients:

• 1 pound Anasazi Beans, rinsed, sorted, soaked overnight
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 serrano pepper, tips trimmed, otherwise whole
• 4-6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 4 large roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Procedure:

• Combine all ingredients, except salt, and cover in ~2 inches of water.
• Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn down heat and boil until beans are soft (~1-2 hours, depending on whether you soak the beans overnight beforehand). 

Notes:

• Wonderful as a side, by themselves.
• Wonderful served over rice.
• I plan to refry some of them, as the flavors will lend themselves brilliantly to refried beans.

Have a great week!

Week 14: Small Red Beans

I am actually posting the same week I made something! Spring must be in the air for me to have caught up!

This week I grabbed "small red beans" from my box of future deliciousness, in the basement. Sadly, I only have snapped a couple pictures, and none of the finished product. I'll try to update that when I serve more of them.

The recipe I used as the basis was picked after searching through a myriad of red beans and rice recipes online. I can't say this was the tastiest looking recipe, but not only did it have ingredients I already had in the house (or at least was tweak-able to be the case), it wasn't vegetarian (a concession to my husband, after weeks of not cooking meat).

Red Beans and Rice
Ingredients:

• 1 pound small red beans, dried
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 15-oz cans diced tomatoes
• 1 can diced tomatoes & green chilies (such as Rotel)
• 1 pound diced chicken sausage
• 1 cup diced, cooked chicken
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar (helps with acidity/bitterness of tomatoes)
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon oil
  

Procedure:

• Sort, rinse and drain dried beans. Cover by ~1inch water in a deep pot. Add diced tomatoes, Rotel, paprika, chili powder, cayenne pepper, salt and chicken. Bring to a boil over high heat then reduce to a simmer.
• Saute chopped onions and garlic in oil, over medium heat, until soft. Add chopped chicken sausage and saute until warmed through. Add to bean pot.
• Simmer over low heat until beans are soft, 2-3 hours.

Notes:

• Serve over cooked rice.
• Significantly better after ~24-48 hours, as the flavors blend.

Apologies again for the lack of pictures. I guess I can't both get the post out the week of cooking AND get pictures taken :)

Have a great week!