Kitchen Notes: Black Bean Preparation

I tried making black bean brownies again. This time from scratch. And golly, compared to precooked canned beans, preparing black beans was time consuming. Like zucchini and most summer squash, I really don't like the taste of beans (or zucchini) by themselves unless it is an ingredient of something else.

The prep cycle seemed longer than it should and went like this:

• Wash/rinse 2/3 c. dry black beans
• Soak beans in enough water to cover them by an inch of water for 4 hours
• Drain beans (discard soaking liquid)
• Refill pot of beans with at least three cups of fresh water
• Boil for 30 minutes. Turn off heat. Let sit for 1 hour.

You're probably thinking, what the hay, beans take a lot longer than that to cook. I was thinking (at the time) that they'd cook for an additional 30 minutes in the brownie recipe. Anyhow. For the next attempt at these brownies, I would need to probably follow Whole Foods' guide on bean preparation which is:

Soak beans for 8 hours (or overnight) in the refrigerator. Discard bean liquid. Cook using 1 cup dry beans per 3 cups of water or broth. Bring to a boil then simmer until tender. (so what's that? maybe 2 hours cook time?? Their site does not elaborate on the specifics.) A pressure cooker can shorten cook time to 1.5 hours.

What I have discovered using my method of cooking these beans for the flourless brownie recipe is that while the consistency is significantly more dry than using canned beans and you can almost taste the "bean" taste in the brownies, it is the perfect consistency for a steamed bun filling... such red bean buns. These could be black bean buns, which you really don't see at Asian bakeries. The mixture could use a touch more melted butter for a more moist texture.

Flourless Chocolate Brownies

These brownies were surprisingly moist and very tasty, despite lacking wheat flour. This recipe is adapted from the Whole Foods recipe archive. I have never known chocolate chips to contain grain-based gluten (seeing how it is a dairy product) which makes me a bit puzzled about how Whole Foods lists its ingredients. It's a lot like seeing "gluten free" prominently displayed on a can of tomatoes, for example. Ridiculous. This type of buzz word packaging does little to promote the health benefits of the actual food item. Anyhow, on to the recipe.

These are also called black bean brownies. I suspect that a variant could also be made using red lentils. There are two methods. One is to use canned black beans; and the other method is to prepare dry black beans for this recipe. Neither method uses additional salt, but if you use the latter method, you could add a pinch of salt to balance out the sweetness. Before you consider looking at ratio tables for dry beans to cooked beans, keep in mind that beans have different sizes and weighs, and thus different cooking times.

For black beans, use 2/3 cup dry black beans to make an equivalent of one 15 oz can of cooked beans. While I have both dry and canned black beans, I am using the can method for this recipe. My particular can o' beans came with salt so I didn't add any salt to the recipe.

Ingredients

One (15 oz) can organic black beans, drained and rinsed
3 large eggs
1/4 c. unsalted butter, melted
1/4 c. Ghirardelli sweet ground chocolate (cocoa powder)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c. organic granulated sugar
1/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Butter an 8" x 8" baking dish and set aside.

2. Pureé together in a food processor: black beans, eggs, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, sugar, and butter.

3. As the mixture is poured into the prepared baking dish, sprinkle in the chocolate chips.

4. Bake for 30 minutes or until the center has set. Let cool before cutting into squares. 

Kitchen tip: If your honey has crystallized in its jar, you can put the honey jar in the oven (when turned off and cooling). When the oven has cooled down, the honey will be liquefied again. Pretty neat, huh?

Related info:
Black beans, nutritional info
Whole Foods - About Black Beans

Velvet Acres Gardens

Vancouver metro and its neighboring towns are home to a variety of farms that produce a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, dairy, eggs, honey, and meat products. Most prices are cheaper than the farmers market or the grocery store, except for some weather-impacted crops like peaches, and are fresher tasting than produce that is trucked in from central Washington or Oregon for regional farmers markets.

I found this farm through Craigslist. It looks like most farms with lots of plants growing in rows in the fields with a gigantic barn and a farm store in its front. This is probably where I'll go to get sugar pumpkins in October. If you're unfamiliar with the rural parts of Vancouver, it is easy to get lost. NE 182nd Ave is not a marked street (no street sign) at its intersection with NE Fourth Plain Blvd. While on NE 182nd, hang a right at the split in the road. Farm is on the right.

On my last visit, I picked up fresh corn, cucumbers, a pint of grape tomatoes, an acorn squash. The farm grows a wide variety of vegetables with broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, potatoes, carrots, etc. Next month, I'm told that they'll have brussel sprouts and pumpkins.

Farm Store Hours:

July--September
M -- Fri. 9 a.m. -- 6 p.m.
Sat. 10 a.m.-- 5 p.m.
Sunday - Closed

October
M -- Fri. 11 a.m. -- 5 p.m.
Sat. 10 a.m. -- 5 p.m.
Sunday - Closed

Open Last Sunday in Oct.
1 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Location: 18905 NE 83rd Street, Vancouver, WA 98682
Website: Velvet Acres Gardens

Kitchen Notes: Ingredient Sourcing Tips

The latest news articles about hunger in America and the rise in food stamp usage among gainfully employed citizens in the US makes me wonder if the larger problem is due to rising commodity prices for whole grains, increased production in crop-based biofuels, and/or the lack of nutrition and food preparation knowledge. The cheapest calorie-dense foods are usually pre-packaged ones that are high in fat, sodium, and artificial ingredients. Keeping food costs down without reliance on food stamps or subsidies means that you should learn to be a better consumer (and buyer).

Chinese Chicken Salad

In my youth, my mom used to joke about spaghetti's origins saying that the dish was from China. I asked, How so? She replied, because a Chinese person made it. Although, noodles did originate from China and this pretext has nothing to do with the post.

Despite not being an authentic Chinese dish and having its origins in California, this salad makes its summer-time rounds at restaurants and picnics alike. I wouldn't skimp out on the sugar. Part of the appeal this salad has over others is its sweet and savory dressing. It's roughly 1/2 c. cooked chicken per serving, so adjust the recipe accordingly to accommodate more people.

Serves 4. 

The basic salad

CCS uses romaine lettuce and/or napa cabbage leaves as its salad base. You could use other types of lettuce, but they simply won't hold up against the dressing over several hours. You'll want to use a lighter-tasting vegetable oil, so olive oil or coconut oil have to sit this out. You could chop or shred the lettuce leaves. Home cooks tend to shred the salad (like how cabbage for coleslaw is cut), and most retail packages have 1" pieces of lettuce leaves--largely this is so that the salad has a longer shelf life.

1/2 head napa cabbage, shredded or cut into 1" pieces

1/2 head romaine lettuce leaves, shredded or cut into 1" pieces

2 c. shredded or cubed cooked chicken breast

3 stalks green onions, thinly sliced

1 carrot, cut into matchsticks

2 tbsp fresh cilantro, finely chopped

The dressing:

3 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/4 c vegetable oil (grapeseed, peanut, or canola)

Optional ingredients:

fresh snow peas, trimmed
mandarin orange slices, fresh or canned
deep fried wonton skins (cut into 1/4" strips and deep fried in 375 degree F oil)
toasted sesame seeds
toasted sliced almonds
crunchy noodles
fresh bean sprouts
bean thread noodles or thin rice noodles, cooked and drained