EatLocal365 » dried beans

How to Navigate the Bulk Foods Section to Survive the Dark Days

Lindsay — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:17:44 +0000

Let me just get this out of my system. If you haven’t explored your supermarket’s bulk food section, you are missing out! It’s a smorgasboard of tasty bits and pieces. You can get a HUGE sack of oats for oatmeal or a tiny nibble of chocolate-covered raisins right in the same place!

Besides the excitement, which I think stems from Mom occasionally buying bulk yogurt pretzels when I was a kid, here are the rational, adult reasons for loving the bulk foods section:

There is very little packaging, so you cut down on waste. You can even bring your own containers.
It’s almost always cheaper than other options, especially since you can buy exactly the amount you want.
It allows you to have more variety in your pantry, since you can buy smaller amounts of more things, rather than getting a gigantic bag of black beans or settling for just raisins in your oatmeal for two weeks.
You can try new things without the committment.

I like to think of all choices as a hierarchy. If not this, then this, etc. My food hierarchy goes something like this: I prefer to buy food from a local farmer I’ve talked to, so I know how he or she runs the farm. If I can’t get what I need that way, I’ll buy food from Joe Schmo local farmer either at the farmers’ market or a grocery store. If I still can’t get what I need, then I probably don’t really need it. But, if I do really need/want it, I’ll buy organic produce from the US (since at least it hasn’t traveled as far as, say, Chilean strawberries) and almost everything else from the bulk foods section. In the Dark Days, we get down to the last level pretty often.

Our supermarket carries several different types of rice, grains, beans, nuts, and dried fruit. It also has a few flours and varieties of granola and trail mix. We can get some beans, flours, and grains locally, but we get all our dried fruit and nuts there.

Here’s how it works:

There’s often a roll of thin plastic bags nearby. Grab one or pull out your own container. If you bring your own, make sure it’s pretty lightweight. Some supermarkets will tare (zero out the weight of your container), but others won’t. If the store tares, remember to do it before you fill the container.

Find what you want. This can be the confusing part, since the aisle might not be organized in a logical way, so ask an employee if you can’t find something. They usually know exactly where everything is. Even though we go every other week or so, I feel like the section is constantly rearranged!

Fill up your bag or container. Sometimes there’s a scoop and sometimes the food comes out of a shoot that you open with a lever. Go slowly if it’s the lever kind, so you don’t take too much.

Take a look at the bin and find the product number. This is usually pretty conspicuous, but ask someone if you’re unsure. Some stores let you weigh your own and print a label with the amount and product number. Some just want you to record the number on the fastener, so that they can weight and price it when you check out. If you don’t see a fancy scale where people are printing labels, assume it’s the latter.

That’s it. Now go to the grocery store and try something new!

How to Make Tuscan White Bean “Hummus” Sandwiches

Erik — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:44:13 +0000

This was part of the fantastic picnic that we brought to Governor’s Island. This is a great recipe straight out of The Candle Cafe Cookbook,which is from a great vegan restaurant in NYC. They call it white bean “pate”, but to me “hummus” is a better term. That’s essentially what it is only with another type of beans substituted for the chick peas / garbonzo beans.

Tuscan White Bean “Hummus” Sandwiches with Tomato and Arugula

Makes 2-4 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
2 cups	Cooked white beans	We used Yellow Eye beans because we couldn’t get white beans that week	Cayuga Pure Organics *
1 tsp	Tahini
2	Cloves garlic
2	Whole dates	Pits removed, chopped
2 tsp	Lemon juice	Fresh is preferred to bottled
1 tsp	Ume plum vinegar	a.k.a. umeboshi vinegar
1	Fresh baguette		Our Daily Bread *
1 cup or more	Fresh arugula		Lani’s Farm *
1	Tomato	Sliced thinly	Lani’s Farm *
0.33 cup	Water or liquid from cooking the beans	Start with a little less and add more to get the texture you want

Directions

Make the “hummus”: combine the beans, tahini, garlic, dates, lemon juice, ume plum vinegar, and water in a food processor or blender, and combine until smooth. This will keep for up to one week in the fridge if covered.

Assemble your sandwiches: spread the hummus onto the sliced baguette and top with arugula and tomato.

We served the sandwiches with a side of roasted brocolli and Lindsay’s rollout cookies. Since we wrapped them up and had them sit for a few hours in our pack, the crunchy bread had nicely absorbed some of the moisture from the hummus and tomato. If you plan to do the same, be sure to buy a crisp, firm loaf.

How to Make Turkey Meatball Stew

Erik — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:48:21 +0000

This is one of our favorite recipes, going back years. This time we made it with as many local ingredients as we could get.

Admittedly, it can be a bit of a bear. Luckily, it yields a LOT and it freezes well, which makes for both left-overs during the week and frozen dinners for the future. It’s not nearly so bad if you sequence the steps correctly, but when we get it wrong it can add 30 to 60 minutes to the process. Documenting it correctly, so that we never flub it again, is one reason this post has taken so long!

Be sure to read through the recipe entirely first (always a good idea). There are a lot of moving parts and hot pans with liquid on the stove, so you need to keep on your toes and never take your eyes completely off the stove top! This is also one of those recipes where it helps to have multiple kitchen timers.

Don’t let all that scare you. Give it a shot on a chilly, wet Saturday. You’ll be glad you did.

We’ve broken the ingredient lists down separately for the three components: the meatballs, the stew itself, and the dumplings. If you want, you can skip either the meatballs or the dumplings, but it works best as a team.

Turkey Meatball Stew
Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients: Meatballs

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
1 lb	Ground turkey	We bought boneless breast and ground it ourselves	Quattro’s Game Farm *
1	Small onion	Diced (~3/4 cup)	Paffenroth Gardens *
2 cups	White bread	Crumbled
1 cup	Milk	Whole, low fat, or skim	Milk Thistle Dairy Farm *
2	Eggs	Beaten	Northshire Farm *
1.5 TBsp	Sunflower oil	Or olive oil	Stolor Organics bought at Cayuga Organics *
2 TBsp	Parsley leaves	Chopped (we have it in the freezer from last summer in 1 TBsp cubes)	Keith’s Farm *
1/2 cup	Golden raisins	Hydrated in warm water	Whole Foods bulk section
1/2 cup	Pine nuts	Toasted	Whole Foods bulk section
1 cup	Vegetable oil
0.5 tsp	Kosher salt
0.5 tsp	Black pepper	Freshly ground
~ 1 cup	Flour	A layer for rolling the meatballs in

Ingredients: Stew

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
1	Large onion	Diced	Paffenroth Gardens *
1	Large carrot	Diced	Paffenroth Gardens *
2 stalks	Celery	Diced (we didn’t have celery so we added extra carrots)
2 quarts	Beef stock
1/2 cup	Orange lentils	Or any lentils	Whole foods bulk section
1/3 cup	Barley	We substituted farro	Cayuga Pure Organics *
2 cups	Dried beans	We used Jacob’s cattle and kidney beans	Cayuga Pure Organics *
1 TBsp	Sunflower oil	Or olive oil	Stolor Organics bought at Cayuga Organics *
1 TBsp	Butter		Ronnybrook Farm *

Ingredients: Dumplings

Amount	Ingredient	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
2 cups	All-purpose flour	Cayuga Pure Organics *
1/2 tsp	Kosher salt
1 tsp	Baking powder
1/4 cup	Dijon mustard
3/4 cup	Water

Directions:

If using dried beans, soak them overnight, or at least for a few hours. Whether using using dried beans or from a can, at this point drain them, rinse them, and set aside.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Pour the beef stock into a sauce pan and place on medium heat. The purpose is to get the stock up to temperature, but we won’t need it for a bit. Keep an eye on it, as you continue with the steps below, and when it comes to a boil, turn down the heat and just let it simmer on low until needed.

Start the work in earnest by focusing on the meatballs, otherwise this will hold up the other steps in the stew. Place the ground turkey in a large mixing bowl (we recommend grinding your own). Be sure to wash your hands after each time you handle the raw meat.
On a separate deep plate (we used a glass pie dish), create a generous layer of flour.

Next, come three steps that each involve about 5 minutes of waiting, so line them up together. Break up the bread and place it in a bowl with the milk. In a separate bowl, soak the golden raisins. Last, place the pine nuts on a small baking sheet and put them in the middle rack of the 400 degree oven.
Check on the pine nuts after about 3 minutes to make sure they don’t burn. Take them out once they are lightly toasted, which will be no more than 5 minutes, and add them to the mixing bowl with the ground turkey (and turn off the oven).

Let the bread soak for 5 minutes, then squeeze it out and add it to the bowl. Drain the raisins and add them as well.
While waiting during the previous step, chop the parsley, beat the egg, and add them to the meat bowl.

Chop all of the onions at once (one small from the meatball ingredients and one large for the stew itself).

Heat 2 TBsp of oil and 1 TBsp of butter in a dutch oven or large pot over medium heat. Sauté the onions for 5 minutes until they are soft. Remove about 1/3 of the sautéed onions and place them in the meatball mixing bowl.

While the onions are cooking, chop the carrot and celery. Add the carrot and celery to the remaining onions in the pot and cook for 3-5 minutes. Once the vegetables have softened, add the stock, assuming it’s already been simmering; if not, you’re going to need to wait for the stock to come to a boil and simmer before adding it. Once you add the stock you can just leave the dutch oven on the heat for now and go back to focusing on the meatballs.
In a cast iron pan, pour a layer of vegetable oil between 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch deep. Place it on low heat to get it up to temperature. You may want to cover with a splatter guard. Keep an eye on it.

Once you have added the onions, your meatball mix is ready. Fold everything together until well mixed, but don’t overwork the meat.
Using your clean hands, scoop up a two-finger amount of the mix and shape into a (golf) ball. As you shape them, roll them in the flour pan to coat, and add them directly to the cast iron pan full of hot vegetable oil. That pan will be full before you are out of meatballs, so place the extra ones on a separate plate.
After 3-4 minutes the first side of the first meatballs should be browned. Flip them using tongs and keep them in for another 3-4 minutes. Getting the meatballs nice and brown is key to getting best results from this recipe, but at the same time they will continue cooking in the stew, so it’s OK if the meatballs are still somewhat raw in spots. As the meatballs are done browning, remove them to a separate plate and add new meatballs.
Once you are done creating the meatballs and handling raw meat with your hands (and while the meatballs are frying), wash your hands. Measure out the lentils and barley, add them to the stew/stock, stir, and cover. Let it cook for 5 minutes.
Add the beans and let cook for 5 minutes.

If the meatballs are all done at this point, add them to the stew now. If not, add the ones that are done and keep going with the frying, adding them as they are done browning.

Finally, begin on the dumplings. In a mixing bowl add together the flour, salt, baking powder, and Dijon mustard. Add the water sparingly, only about 1/4 tsp at a time, folding it all together until it forms a dry dough. If it’s TOO dry, add a tiny bit more water and mix, but be careful not to get the dough too moist. Use two tablespoons to scoop and shape the dough into dumplings slightly smaller than the meatballs, and as you shape them drop them directly into the stew pot.
At this point we generally realize that we are playing a game of chicken with our Dutch oven because we’ve brought it right to the brink of its capacity. As it cooks, the level of the liquid will reduce, but at the same time the dumplings will expand (see the difference between the pictures below).
This last time we made this we finally decided that we were cutting it too close, and we ladled 2-3 ladles full of stock (mostly just liquid) into a separate pot. You can see it peeking out on the back burner in these pictures. After everything was cooked and we served ourselves for dinner, we added this stock back in and it became part of our leftovers. No harm, no foul, no risk of boiling over.
Put the lid on and let the stew continue to simmer on medium for 25-30 minutes. During this time, we recommend that you get a head start on your dishes. You will have a lot to clean! But it you do it right, everything but the stew pot can be clean (or in the dishwasher) by the time dinner is served!

To serve, ladle into bowls and be sure to include a mix of all the ingredients (you might have to dig to the bottom to get the lentils and barley). Turn off the stove and leave the rest of the servings in the pot to cool.
Once completely cooled, ladle the leftovers into storage containers, but we recommend using containers that hold no more then two servings each. This will help you distribute the various goodies evenly (meatballs, dumplings, vegetables, grain), and it will make it easier to throw the excess into the freezer after a few days. Make sure to have some freezer-read containers handy. In a pinch we have thrown it into Ziploc bags to freeze it. Freeze anything that you are not sure that you will eat within 5-7 days.

Teamwork tips: we advise that you tackle this recipe with two people (like we do). If you have the luxury of a helping hand in the kitchen, split the tasks accordingly:

Person 1 focuses on getting the stock up to temperature, chopping the vegetables, and starting ASAP on cooking the onions.
Person 2 focuses on getting the meatballs started ASAP, first by preparing all of the other ingredients and then by tackling the raw meat and combining everything.
Person 1 then acts as Person 2′s clean hands assist until the raw meat is over (getting the flour dredge ready, preparing the frying pan for the meatballs, frying the early meatballs as Person 2 continues to shape the rest.
Person 1, once cleaned up, pulls the stew together and makes the dumplings as Person 2 focuses on browning all of the meatballs.
While it’s cooking, Person 1 can clean the counters while Person 2 tackles the dishes, but that’s really a matter of personal preference.

Support Cayuga Pure Organics!

Erik — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 18:22:07 +0000

[UPDATE] We received a response from the GrowNYC; Cayuga stays!

Hello Erik.

Thank you for your email. I am happy to inform you that Cayuga Pure
Organic will remain at Union Square on Saturday.
This Saturday, look for them in the same location as last Saturday. You
will be able to find them on the northeast side of Union Square Park
beginning Saturday, April 16th.
They will also be at Union Square on Wednesday and Friday year round.

Thank you for shopping at Greenmarket.

Hooray!

——————————————————————–

The NYC Greenmarket (a program of GrowNYC) is taking away Cayuga Pure Organics’ spot at the Saturday Union Square market!

The Union Square Greenmarket has begun to expand again over the past two weeks after its winter hibernation, and the stated rationale is that they need to make room for sellers of fresh produce now that the weather is warming up. Cayuga will be welcomed back in the fall as the market shrinks again.

While we appreciate the fact that space is limited, and that sometimes tough decisions need to be made, we could NOT DISAGREE MORE with this decision. While we support their desire to offer as much fresh produce as possible, Cayuga is a truly unique vendor at the Greenmarket. They are one of only two vendors that sell locally grown and milled flour (of all types). They are the ONLY vendor that sells local beans and grains (again, a huge variety), as well as local oil that can be swapped in for olive oil, in the form of local sunflower oil. These local products can and should be made available year-round.

If you read EatLocal365 on a regular basis, you know that we frequently use products from Cayuga Pure Organics. In fact, if you search our site for “Cayuga”, two-thirds of our recipes show up in the results!

When they are available, we should all eat more leafy greens, fresh tomatoes, and all of the other great things that will be coming into season soon. However, that doesn’t mean that we won’t ever want to bake bread with local ingredients or sauté those leafy greens using local oil. If GrowNYC needs to find space for the summer months, there are better choices than sidelining the sole vendor of these types of products. Worst of all, Cayuga has one of the smallest footprints at the entire market, with a tiny stand and a small truck. GrowNYC could work with some of the larger vendors to carve out a small spot for them.

As of now, Cayuga will still be at the Union Square market on Wednesdays and Fridays, so they won’t be completely gone from the neighborhood. However, many people cannot make it to the market on weekdays, and for that reason Saturday is the most lucrative market day for vendors. Cayuga will no doubt take a hit in their business. For a business that is pretty much single-handedly trying to bring back local flour, grains, and beans to the NY area, that would be a shame. They need our support!

Call to Action:

Please send GrowNYC a message through their contact page (or call!). Feel free to use this text if you like:

Please reconsider the decision to take away Cayuga Pure Organic’s spot at the Saturday Union Square Greenmarket. As the only purveyors of local flour, grain, beans, and oil, they are a unique asset and we want their products to remain widely available through the Saturday market, year-round. While we understand the need to make decisions to allocate space at the market, please find an alternate solution!

Holy Mole Chili

Lindsay — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 01:50:59 +0000

This is definitely the best vegetarian chili I’ve ever had…at home or a restaurant. Thank you, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, for the great recipe. I’m usually a little disappointed in vegetarian chili. I eat it and feel virtuous for having a Meatless Monday, or whatever, but it’s nothing I get excited about. But this is amazing!! I swear you won’t miss the meat. The cocoa gives it incredible richness, but the chocolate flavor is very subtle. The heat level is perfect for us, but you might want to cut down on the dried chiles if you’re sensitive.

I’ve been traveling a lot for work, so we’ve fallen into a little pattern. Erik and I cook a couple of times over the weekend and then he finishes any leftovers while I’m gone. It didn’t seem fair that I had to eat room service junk while he got to eat this, though, so I made him promise to save me a bowl.

If you can’t eat gluten or if you prefer meat in your chili, see the notes at the end of the recipe.

Holy Mole Chile
Makes a big pot, but it reheats well

Ingredients

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
1/4 cup	Sunflower oil		Stolor Organics *
1/2 pounds	Onion	About 1 large, chopped	Paffenroth Gardens *
3 small	Dried chiles	Snipped into small pieces with a pair of scissors	Northshire Farms *
5 ounces	Frozen chopped bell peppers	Substitute 1 large fresh bell pepper	Migliorelli Farm *
3 cloves	Garlic	Smashed using the heel of your hand on the flat part of a knife or a large spoon	Keith’s Farm *
1 pound	Seitan	Ripped into bite-sized pieces	Homemade using Cayuga Pure Organics flour *
2 TBsp	Chile powder
1 tsp	Ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp	Ground cumin
28 oz can	Whole tomatoes		Canned this summer from Cherry Hill Orchards *
3 TBsp	Cocoa powder
3 TBsp	Blackstrap molasses	Blackstrap is much less sweet than regular molasses.
1 3/4 cups	Dried beans	Soaked for 6-10 hours	We used a combination of pinto and Jacob’s cattle beans from Cayuga Pure Organics *
2 1/2 cups	Vegetable broth		Homemade using veggies from various farmers *

Directions:

Add the oil to a large pot, preferably a Dutch oven, and warm over medium-high heat.
Once you feel heat in the pot, add the onions and both types of peppers. Sauté until the onion is translucent, 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the garlic and seitan and cook for 6 to 8 minutes. The seitan will stick to the bottom of the pan, so stir occasionally.
While the seitan is cooking, prep the rest of the ingredients in two groups.
Group 1 = chile powder, cinnamon, and cumin

Group 2 = tomatoes (open the can, but don’t drain), cocoa powder, and molasses. Note: The molasses will be much easier to measure if you use the oily measuring cup and just fill it 3/4 of the way. (4 tablespoons = 1/4 cup)

Once the seitan has cooked, add the spices in Group 1 and stir for a minute or so until you start to smell them.
Add the Group 2 ingredients (tomatoes, cocoa powder, and molasses). Stir, breaking up the tomatoes with the spoon.
Add the beans and vegetable broth.
Cover and bring to a simmer. Cook for about an hour or until the beans are tender.
Once the chili is done, try to wait 15-20 minutes before eating it, so that it can cool down and thicken up

Possible substitutions:

I think you could subsitute a pound of any sort of protein for the seitan, as long as you’re mindful of the fat content. If you use ground beef, for example, it might be a good idea to decrease the oil to a few teaspoons.
You could also use pre-cooked or canned beans and cut the cooking time to 30 minutes or so.

Yum!

How to Make Slow Cooker Honey Lentils

Erik — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 01:31:56 +0000

I made this dinner solo yesterday, and it was the easiest meal I’ve ever made. It took less than 10 minutes to prep. Despite the fact that it looks like brown mush, it was very good. Today for lunch the leftovers reheated well in the microwave.

The one downside is that I had to cook dinner at 8:00am. It’s a slow cooker recipe. It takes some forethought and commitment, but the slow cooker makes cooking so easy.

Slow Cooker Honey Lentils

Ingredients

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
1.5 cups	Lentils (any color)	Rinsed	Whole Foods
1 cup	Dried beans (I used pinto) (or 1 can of canned beans)	Soaked overnight and rinsed	Cayuga Pure Organics *
5 cups	Water
Half of 1	Red onion	Diced	Paffenroth Gardens *
1/2 cup	Shredded carrot	Shredded	Paffenroth Gardens *
1/3 cup	Honey		Twin Spruce Apiaries *
2 TBsp	Soy sauce	I used Tamari
1 tsp	Kosher salt
1 tsp	Dried mustard	A.k.a. mustard powder
1	Dried bay leaf

Directions

The night before put the beans in a bowl and fill it with water. Leave to soak overnight. Be sure to go through the dried beans beforehand to pick out any pebble beans or actual pebbles (see here). If you use canned beans, skip this step and reduce the water to 3 cups.
Using a mesh strainer, drain the beans and rinse them thoroughly. Put them in the slow cooker.
Using a mesh strainer, rinse the lentils. Add them to the slow cooker.
Dice the 1/2 red onion. Add to the slow cooker
Shred the carrot. Add to the slow cooker
Add everything else to the slow cooker, except for the bay leaf. Stir to mix.
Add the bay leaf to the top of the mixture. (Just place it on top.)
Put the cover on the slow cooker and set it for 6-8 hours on low or 3-5 hours on high. When it’s done you can leave it on warm for as long as you need to. I left it on warm for 2 hours before eating dinner.

10 minutes + 8 hours = a great meal!

How to Cook Dried Beans

Lindsay — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:30:34 +0000

Yes, canned beans are handy, but they’re full of sodium. And they’re more expensive than even the fancy ones we get at the farmers’ market. A can of organic black beans is $1.39 at our grocery store. We bought a pound of organic local black beans from Cayuga Pure Organics this weekend for $4. After cooking, we got the equivalent of 4 cans of beans, which is $1 a can. Who says it’s more expensive to buy local?

Here’s my standard slow cooker process, which I have borrowed from Cook for Good. Keep in mind that it takes almost a full day to cook the beans. You won’t be doing much at all during that day, but you do need to think ahead. If you don’t have a slow cooker, cook them on the stove for 2 hours in step 2.

The first thing you should always do with dried beans is to quickly sort through them. Some beans are much smaller and less developed, and these can be like pebbles. You want to get rid of them. There is also the possibility of finding actual rocks in with your beans. These can slip through the various sorting mechanisms at the packaging facility. They tend to be more common with small-batch producers (like ours), but it can happen no matter what the source. Here is a picture of our most recent rejects:
Next, cover 1 pound of beans in water by at least a few inches. Every single time, I think I’ve used enough water, only to peak at them a few hours later to find them dry. Better to use more than you think you’ll need. Let them soak overnight (8-12 hours).
After the soak, drain the beans, rinse them, and dump them in your slow cooker. Add 6 cups of cold water and cook on low for about 7 hours.7 hours works well for us, but the exact time will depend on how fresh the beans are, how long they’ve soaked, and the variety. If they’re a little undercooked, turn the slow cooker up to high and taste every 30 minutes until they’re done. If they’re overcooked, make a dip and write yourself a note to try 6 hours next time. Our slow cooker is programmed for 8 or 10 hours on low, so we use a light timer to make sure the beans don’t get mushy. Once they’re cooked and the heat is turned off, they can sit in the liquid without much damage, so don’t worry if you can’t get home on time or don’t want to wake up at 5 am to drain the beans.
I don’t usually need a whole pound of beans at once, so I separate the leftovers in zip-top bags and freeze them. 1 3/4 cup beans + about 1/2 cup of cooking liquid makes the equivalent of a can. Once they’re cooked and stored in the freezer, it’s hardly more convenient to open a can!