Abuelo Pelaez's Frijoles Negros

This delicious recipe comes from Ana Sofia Peláez of Brooklyn. Slightly adapted. We make this often.

1 pound  black beans, rinsed thoroughly
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2  large white onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, mashed but whole
2 celery stalks
1 bay leaf

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2  large white onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt (easier to add later than take away)

2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup green olives stuffed with pimentos, thinly sliced

Soak the black beans overnight in a large pot with 10 cups of water.

Add the next five ingredients to the beans and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat to medium and simmer for 1 hour, check regularly and skim the foam that forms on the top.

To make the sofrito, warm the remaining olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the remaining onion, green pepper and garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes till soft.  Add the bay leaf, cumin, oregano, black pepper and salt and cook for about 2 minutes more.

Add the sofrito to beans. Stir in sherry vinegar, wine and olives, and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook, covered, for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened and cooked through. Remove both bay leaves, and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and add sugar. Serve as soup or a side dish, or over white rice.

 Substituted 3 Tbs IPA vinegar for vinegar and white wine. Delicious.

Serve as soup, over white rice or as a side dish to just about anything. I like to cook it sloowww. Better the next day.

Makes 8 servings.

Beans & Rice

1 pound dried beans
water to cover
2 large bay leaves
1 onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
olive oil, salt, pepper
roasted diced vegetables (optional)
field roast 'sausages', pan fried (optional)
canned tomatoes (optional)
1 cup brown basmati rice

Wash and pick through beans. Cover with water + 2 inches and bring to a boil. Add bay leaves.
Cook at 175 - 200 on induction burner for 2 hours until slightly tender.
Saute vegetables in olive oil with salt and pepper to taste.
Add vegetables, and optional ingredients  to beans with 1 tsp salt and additional pepper.
Cook one more hour or until almost tender. Add rice and 2 cups water and cook 40 more minutes.
Let sit for 5 minutes. Enjoy!

Feel free to experiment with beans and ingredients. This was great with Yellow Indian Woman  Beans, leftover roasted sweet potatoes and apple sage field roast sausage with tomato sauce.

Provencal White Bean Salad

Eric made this for us on a visit and I just had to have the recipe.

• 2 cups dried small white beans
• 6 cups of water
• 1/2 cup champagne vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tbs dijon style mustard (do not sub french mustard - tried this and it reminded me of hotdogs)
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 small bunch green onions, tops only, very thinly sliced
• 1 cup black olives, pitted and halved
• salt & pepper
• grape tomatoes, cut into quarters
• handful of parsley or spinach and a few sprigs of rosemary 
• 1 lemon, juice & zest

Rinse & put beans and water in crock pot on high for 4 hours until beans are tender. Pour them into a colander and drain. We rinsed them as well since they were a bit over done.

Add olives, onions, herbs & tomatoes to beans in a large bowl.

Combine vinegar, oil, mustard, lemon and garlic. I also added herbs to marinade, but may not do this next time. 

Pour marinade over beans, season with salt & pepper & toss.

Refrigerate overnight.

You can mixed this with chopped salad greens or spinach to serve.

Exotic Mayan Stew

Get your can opener ready, this is a quick and easy soup that is a staple for those cold dreary days when you don't feel like cooking. This recipe started from one on the back of a can of Westbrae Organic Soybeans. Not for company, but perfect for family meals. Serve with nice bread or crackers & cheese. There will be leftovers.

2 Tbs olive oil
2 medium onions - diced
2 medium bell peppers - diced
2-3 jalapenos - diced
1 28 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
2 15 oz cans soybeans - undrained (Westbrae, of course)
1 28 oz can hominy (golden or white) - undrained
3 Tbs chili powder
1 T crushed red peppers (optional)
generous grinding of toasted cumin seeds
generous grinding of black peppercorns
1 T oregano (optional)
1 tsp salt
2 cups water
2 - 4oz cans diced green chilies (optional)

Heat oil in large stockpot and saute onions and peppers until tender.
Add everything else and simmer 10 minutes or more - depending on how soon you need to eat.
Add cans of green chilies at the end.

Christmas Limas & Fennel Salad

These are some leftovers from New Year's eve. It could have been a Christmas dish - so pretty and seasonally colored. Featured were the Christmas Limas from Rancho Gordo's Heirloom Beans. Next time we will double the quinoa and omit the honey, but other than that, the beans were lovely - cooked simply in a mirepoix of onion, celery and carrot. The Fennel salad was a simple mixture of thinly sliced fennel, celery and red onion; dressed with a lemon and walnut oil vinegrette. A nice complement in texture and flavors as well as color. I should have tried to do the presentation as a tai-ji diagram (yin yang).

There were no pictures, but we had roasted dungeness crabs for Christmas dinner. Jen and Mike were here to help demolish the 4 crabs we purchased from the San Francisco Fish Company. They were very easy to fix, tasty and messy. A nearly perfect meal.

Chickpea and Leek Soup

One of our favorite soups shamelessly copied from Jamie Oliver who copied it from a friend who found it in some undocumented recipe book. Very tasty indeed. This is nice with roasted cauliflower.

Yield: 6

This is a recipe that my Aussie friend Bender found in some old recipe book. It is quick and easy to make and it tastes fantastic. The chickpeas go really creamy and moreish and the leeks go silky and sweet. These are just two simple flavours, and even though I?m a bit of a fresh herbs boy, this lovely light soup is very tasty.

Ingredients:

Chickpea and Leek Soup

• 12 oz chickpeas, soaked overnight in water
• 1 medium potato, peeled
• 6 leek, finely, sliced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• knob of butter
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely, sliced
• salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 850 ml chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 handful parmesan cheese, grated
• extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Chickpea and Leek Soup

1. Rinse the soaked chickpeas, cover with water, and cook with the potato until tender.
2. Remove the outer skin of the leeks, slice lengthways from the root up, wash carefully and slice finely.
3. Warm a thick-bottomed pan, and add the tablespoon of oil and the knob of butter. Add the leeks and garhc to the pan, and sweat gently with a good pinch of salt until tender and sweet.
4. Add the drained chickpeas and potato and cook for 1 minute. Add about two-thirds of the stock and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Purée half the soup in a food processor and leave the other half chunky this gives a lovely smooth comforting feel but also keeps a bit of texture.
6. Now add enough of the remaining stock to achieve the consistency you like. Check for seasoning, and add Parmesan to taste to round off the flavours.
7. This is classy enough for a starter, but I like it best for lunch in a big bowl with a good drizzle of my best peppery extra virgin olive oil, a grinding of black pepper and an extra sprinkling of Parmesan.© Jamie Oliver 2002
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