A Culinary & Cultural Monday
J. Burns
It's June 2009 and the family farm is under assault from severe heat and lack of rain. The soil in the corn patch was so hot on Tuesday afternoon that the dog squeeled and ran for a weedy patch when her paws first hit the open soil furrow. The farm is located in Washington Parish between Franklinton and Bogalousa, Louisiana. My father is recognized throughout the county, and by a few neighbors that live along a gravel road that winds through a hilly patch of woods and fields, for the sweet taste and monstrous size of his watermelons. He and my brother still ride a tractor, raise chickens and collect yard eggs, grow a few vegetables , and try to earn a few bucks each summer with several acres of watermelons. Today, the fields are filled with about three thousand melons that are beginning to show signs of heat stress and the crop may be lost. However, we did save most of the corn and for the first time harvested my favorite legume - the red bean.
Back in New Orleans, I start by shucking the beans from their light green and faded yellow pods. I then soak the beans in a little water to clean them. They are not dry and hard, like the ones in the cellophane package you get at the grocery, but I soak them anyway. I'm not certain why, but I was told to always soak my beans for about 30 minutes before cooking them. I then chop a white sweet onion, fresh garlic, and a little green bell pepper and sauté them in a black iron skillet with a little dab of pure butter from a creamery that still operates close to our farm. Next, I cut and brown a link of Andouille sausage and reserve it to the side for later and add a number of my favorite spices to the pot. The red beans go into a cast iron dutch oven with the sauted veggies and the mixture is brought to a roaring boil. I think about how the cast iron pot has been in my family for generations as I turn the gas flame down and begin to gently simmer the beans. While it cooks, the rice is put on the back burner to add to the aroma that fills the kitchen and then rolls from room to room through the breezeways of our creole cottage . It makes my mouth water. It won't be long, given the soft and sweet nature of these fresh red beans, before they are sliding down a white mountain of Louisiana long grain rice and the juices ceremoniously mopped up by a piece of French bread cut from a loaf that has been baked in this city for well over one hundred years.
The botanical world describes the red bean as Phaseolus vulgaris, a common bean - an herbaceous annual plant that was domesticated in ancient Mesoamerica and the Andes. It is a dicotyledon, one of the "Three Sisters" of native American agriculture (Beans, Squash, and Corn), and a legume that acquires nitrogen through an association with nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil. The common bean is highly variable that includes bush, pole, and running varieties in just about every color and pattern imaginable. All varieties have alternate, green or purple leaves with white, pink. or purple flowers that give way to green, yellow, black or purple pods containing 4-6 smooth, plump or kidney shaped beans. The common benn is high in starch, protein, and dietary fiber. It is also an excellent source of iron, selenium, molybdenum, potassium, thiamine, vitamin B6, and folic acid. Allthough red beans represent a healthy choice and an inexpensive source of protein - they also produce a compound that is a bit more problematic than a bad case of gastrointestinal bubbles.
Sometimes we go through motions in a kitchen that are based on time-tested recipes handed down through family and friends over generations. That's particularly true for red beans and rice in New Orleans. I'm not certain when the first plate was served up in New Orleans, but they have been on our menu for centuries. When we move from acquiring raw foods from farms and begin acquiring processed food in mass from grocers - sometimes it can change the taste, texture, aroma, or even how we prepare the food. (i.e., the recipe). Sometimes we even loose track of why we handle and process food the way we do. For example, why do we soak red beans in water before cooking? Dry beans are often soaked because we believe that a dry bean will cook faster and more evenly if first soaked in water for 30 minutes. That's true, but we may have lost the real reason we soak beans, fresh or dried. Check this out - common beans (raw or soaked) contain a toxin that is degraded when soaked in water for several hours and then boiled for at least ten minutes in fresh water. It is called lectin phytohaemagglutinin (see the structural image). The toxin causes sever gastric upset in humans and is especially concentrated in red kidney beans and Cannellini beans. Outbreaks of poisoning have been associated with the use of slow cookers whose low cooking temperatures may be unable to degrade the toxin. Sprouts of beans containing this compound should never be eaten.
Many of us also add a digestive aid to our red beans and rice - cayenne pepper. I add it for flavor, but maybe the original recipe called for it for more reasons than flavor alone. The active ingredient in cayenne pepper (Capasaicin) is used to aid digestion and to treat bleeding ulcers. It is also used as an anti-inflammatory agent to stimulate secretion of digestive juices in the stomach. In other places, like Mexico, Central America, and South America, the traditional spice used in beans is epazote. This spice is said to also aid in digestion of beans as well. Even in Asia, a type of seaweed called Kombu is added to beans as they are cooked to aid digestion.
This article is graciously borrowed from the New Orleans Hollygrove Market and Farm newsletter.
Back in New Orleans, I start by shucking the beans from their light green and faded yellow pods. I then soak the beans in a little water to clean them. They are not dry and hard, like the ones in the cellophane package you get at the grocery, but I soak them anyway. I'm not certain why, but I was told to always soak my beans for about 30 minutes before cooking them. I then chop a white sweet onion, fresh garlic, and a little green bell pepper and sauté them in a black iron skillet with a little dab of pure butter from a creamery that still operates close to our farm. Next, I cut and brown a link of Andouille sausage and reserve it to the side for later and add a number of my favorite spices to the pot. The red beans go into a cast iron dutch oven with the sauted veggies and the mixture is brought to a roaring boil. I think about how the cast iron pot has been in my family for generations as I turn the gas flame down and begin to gently simmer the beans. While it cooks, the rice is put on the back burner to add to the aroma that fills the kitchen and then rolls from room to room through the breezeways of our creole cottage . It makes my mouth water. It won't be long, given the soft and sweet nature of these fresh red beans, before they are sliding down a white mountain of Louisiana long grain rice and the juices ceremoniously mopped up by a piece of French bread cut from a loaf that has been baked in this city for well over one hundred years. The botanical world describes the red bean as Phaseolus vulgaris, a common bean - an herbaceous annual plant that was domesticated in ancient Mesoamerica and the Andes. It is a dicotyledon, one of the "Three Sisters" of native American agriculture (Beans, Squash, and Corn), and a legume that acquires nitrogen through an association with nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil. The common bean is highly variable that includes bush, pole, and running varieties in just about every color and pattern imaginable. All varieties have alternate, green or purple leaves with white, pink. or purple flowers that give way to green, yellow, black or purple pods containing 4-6 smooth, plump or kidney shaped beans. The common benn is high in starch, protein, and dietary fiber. It is also an excellent source of iron, selenium, molybdenum, potassium, thiamine, vitamin B6, and folic acid. Allthough red beans represent a healthy choice and an inexpensive source of protein - they also produce a compound that is a bit more problematic than a bad case of gastrointestinal bubbles.
Sometimes we go through motions in a kitchen that are based on time-tested recipes handed down through family and friends over generations. That's particularly true for red beans and rice in New Orleans. I'm not certain when the first plate was served up in New Orleans, but they have been on our menu for centuries. When we move from acquiring raw foods from farms and begin acquiring processed food in mass from grocers - sometimes it can change the taste, texture, aroma, or even how we prepare the food. (i.e., the recipe). Sometimes we even loose track of why we handle and process food the way we do. For example, why do we soak red beans in water before cooking? Dry beans are often soaked because we believe that a dry bean will cook faster and more evenly if first soaked in water for 30 minutes. That's true, but we may have lost the real reason we soak beans, fresh or dried. Check this out - common beans (raw or soaked) contain a toxin that is degraded when soaked in water for several hours and then boiled for at least ten minutes in fresh water. It is called lectin phytohaemagglutinin (see the structural image). The toxin causes sever gastric upset in humans and is especially concentrated in red kidney beans and Cannellini beans. Outbreaks of poisoning have been associated with the use of slow cookers whose low cooking temperatures may be unable to degrade the toxin. Sprouts of beans containing this compound should never be eaten. Many of us also add a digestive aid to our red beans and rice - cayenne pepper. I add it for flavor, but maybe the original recipe called for it for more reasons than flavor alone. The active ingredient in cayenne pepper (Capasaicin) is used to aid digestion and to treat bleeding ulcers. It is also used as an anti-inflammatory agent to stimulate secretion of digestive juices in the stomach. In other places, like Mexico, Central America, and South America, the traditional spice used in beans is epazote. This spice is said to also aid in digestion of beans as well. Even in Asia, a type of seaweed called Kombu is added to beans as they are cooked to aid digestion.
This article is graciously borrowed from the New Orleans Hollygrove Market and Farm newsletter.
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