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Black Beans

     Everybody seems to like black beans. These combine with many flavors, perhaps too many. Whereas tomatoes, for example, mandate basil, black beans do not mandate anything.
     Even a cursory browsing of cookbooks will find the following to be cooked with black beans: onions, celery, carrots, green peppers, cumin, coriander seeds, oregano, cayenne pepper, garlic, orange juice, ham bone, ham, lemon juice, dry mustard.
     As garnishes after cooking the following are mentioned: minced raw onions, hard-cooked egg or egg yolks, croutons, crumbled bacon, diced tomatoes, diced cucumbers, diced green peppers, tomato sauce, cheese, various salsas, Tabasco sauce, dry sherry, dark rum, lemon slices.
     Part of this variety is surely due to the fact that no centralized cuisine system has taken up black beans. The French have provided a lexicon of sauces for veal, and the Spanish have defined numerous variations for arroces, or baked rice. No cuisine seems to have taken control of black beans in the same way. So much the better for the home cook, who may explore regional recipes and individual preferences.

How to Serve Black Beans

     Black beans have many uses, of which burritos are only the start.
In small portions black beans serve as sophisticated accompaniments, not only to pork, but for other meats, fish, and poultry.
     They may be pureed for a simple soup, or used in a corn salad.
     Try them as a bed for fish, game, or pork. Or use them as a sauce over those.
     For a complete meal, serve black beans over rice. Try serving with rice side by side in a bowl, in the manner of a Chez Panisse double soup. The rice remains dry and fluffy through the meal.
     Polenta goes well with black beans. Place beans on a layer of polenta, top with tomato sauce, salsa, or cheese, and bake until heated through.

     A variety of cooking methods are used, reducible to two broad categories. With plain-cooked beans, various sauces are added after cooking. With flavor-cooked beans, seasonings are added at the very start of cooking in hopes of infusing the beans themselves with flavors.
     Plain-Cooked Beans: For the busy home cook, interest will center on plain-cooked beans. These are simpler to prepare, and allow you to use a choice of seasonings after cooking is completed.
     Plain-cooked beans are subject to two different kinds of treatment. In one, a sauce is simply added to the beans. The beans are served as-is, or baked with the sauce on top. In the other, the beans are subjected to a 30 to 45 minute period of aftercooking.
     Recipes below are grouped under Plain-Cooked Beans without Aftercooking, Plain-Cooked Beans with Aftercooking, and Flavor-Cooked Beans.

Plain-Cooked Black Beans
MASTER RECIPE

     Plain-cooked beans can be a staple for the home cook. Any dried beans are a project, with or without a pressure cooker. So try cooking a big batch while you prepare another meal. With the quick-soak method, they can be done in about 2 ½ hours. The cooking can be split between two evenings, if you prefer. Make enough for several meals, and refrigerate or freeze. When the time comes, use as-is with one of the sauces suggested below. Or, place a sauce on top and bake them, also as suggested below.
     Plain-cooked black beans are also used in Pureed Black Bean Soup and as a variation in Simple Corn Salad.
     Strictly speaking, you can skip the onion, carrot, and celery if you are going to process the beans further after the initial cooking. I always include them as insurance, as they can be chopped and served with the beans as-is if occasion demands. Plain beans without the vegetables are tasteless, and mandate a further step.

     Soak the beans in the pot overnight or by quick soak method. 
     Place soaked beans and water in the pot. Add the onion and thyme. Simmer partially covered until beans are soft. Time will vary with age of beans. Allow 1 1/2 to 2 hours for steady simmer, longer if simmer is very gentle or intermittent.
     When beans begin to soften, perhaps half way through cooking, they may be salted. Earlier salting is said to toughen the skin.

Variation
     Punch a clove into the onion. This will demonstrate that you know about Nouvelle Cuisine.

     Any favorite tomato sauce works well. A tomato couli is simple to prepare, and provides a fresh, concentrated taste.
     Greek Salad is surprisingly good as a sauce for black beans.

     Flavored vinegars of any kind may be stirred into black beans. As a general rule, whenever Sherry occurs in a recipe, a flavored vinegar might be considered.
     Any sweet-sour fruit relish, or chutney, is a candidate to be stirred into black beans.

Baked

     Instead of simply adding a sauce to plain-cooked beans and serving them as-is, you may bake the beans. The sauce is placed on top of the beans and the beans baked until the they bubble. This is not really aftercooking, as the beans are essentially just heated through.
     The beans may be baked on a bed of polenta.

Variation
     In place of salsa, use Greek salad, letting the juices go down through the beans.
     Place a layer of cooked polenta in the oiled baking dish before adding the beans.
     Beans may be cooked more quickly at 350 degrees F.

     Soak beans and cook them 1 ½ hours, as described in Plain-Cooked Black Beans above.
     Place cooked beans in the pot. Drain and reserve most of the liquid for later addition. Stir chopped red and green pepper and onion into the beans.

     Bring beans rapidly to an active boil, then reduce heat and simmer partially covered.
     Beans should start with very little liquid. Soon they should thicken at the bottom of the pan.
     Add more liquid as indicated by the Red Sea test. That is, scrape a spoon across the bottom of the pan. If you see a dry path, with a little liquid seeping into the open space, it is time to add some more liquid. (Further details of this test are given in the  Tomato Sauce section.)
     Add liquid periodically in this way until the beans are done, about 30 to 45 minutes. The beans will be somewhat mushy and most or all of the reserved liquid will be used up.

Variation
     Stir in some cooked corn just before serving.
     In place of peppers (or with them) add some ham and tomatoes, canned or fresh.

Lemon Black Beans
FOR FISH

     Black beans seem to have become associated with spicy seasonings, but they also have affinity for fruits and citrus.
     This is good with fish.

     Soak beans and cook them 1 ½ hours, as described in Plain-Cooked Black Beans above.
     Place cooked beans in the pot. Drain and reserve most of the liquid for later addition. Cut lemon into wedges and stir into the beans.

     Proceed as in the recipe for red and green peppers above.
     When beans are done, remove the lemon slices. Stir in Sherry and lemon juice to taste, and serve.

Cuban Black Bean Stew
MASTER RECIPE

     This recipe, using plain cooked beans, is one form of the traditional Cuban black bean stew. It is generally called a soup but if thick, as in this recipe, it is more like a stew. Whatever you call this, it is a hearty mixture, suitable for a main meal with rice.
     Serves 2-3 for main meal with rice, 4-5 as first course

     To plain-cook beans, soak beans and cook them 1 ½ hours, as described in Plain-Cooked Black Beans above.
     Place cooked beans in pot. Drain some liquid, but leave them soupy. Reserve the liquid to add back later if needed.

     Simmer the beans partially covered another 45 minutes, or until peppers and carrots are soft. Stir from time to time, adding reserved cooking liquid or water if the stew gets too thick. Add vinegar to taste for the last 5 minutes.
     Serve in soup bowls. Pass bowls of onions and hard-cooked egg separately.

Variations
     Chop vegetables fine so that they will disappear. Cooking time may be shortened to 30 minutes.
     Add sweet red peppers instead of, or in addition to, green peppers.
     With the vegetables add browned diced ham or salt pork.
     For additional garnish pass any or all: croutons, crumbled bacon, diced tomatoes, diced cucumbers. Guests have fun helping themselves, while the cook avoids having to make a decision!

     Traditionally, black beans are presented with some degree of hotness. This may be omitted or controlled as desired. Hotness does not come from the beans but from such as cayenne pepper, Tabasco sauce, or red pepper flakes used in the cooking.
     Degree of hotness is difficult to control if these ingredients are added early in cooking. As cooking progresses, they get ever hotter. In our household if we want a hot effect we serve Tabasco sauce on the side. Tiger or similar sauce can also be used. At most, with few exceptions, a hot ingredient will be added near the end of cooking. As Nina says: "Control the hot or it will control you."
     Thus in our household we think of hotness as a single quality, like salt. Aficionados of Asian cooking, or of Mexican hot chili peppers in their variety, will of course not agree. And in fact we are fond of the occasional recipe, such as Rangoon chicken, where a moderate hotness is developed, along with other flavors, throughout the cooking process. In this individual matter, hot ingredients in recipes for black beans should be regarded as optional. Quantity and timing may be adjusted for you, your household, and guests.

     In this recipe onions and spices are cooked with the beans from the beginning. Garlic and seasonings are added for the final 30 minutes.
     These spicy beans are served at Bette’s Oceanview Diner, a Berkeley landmark on stylish Fourth Street. The area was not so stylish when this hearty dish, described by Paul Johnson in Compliments of the Chef, was developed. At Bette’s these beans accompany fried eggs with cheese, and tortillas. If you think that Gourmet Ghetto food is only for sissies, try getting around this item on a Sunday morning. Admittedly, your appetite will increase during the long wait for your seat at the counter.

     Soak the beans in the pot overnight or by quick-soak method (see discussion under Dried Beans above).
     Heat olive oil in the pan. Sauté the onion with cumin, coriander, and optional cayenne pepper until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir this mixture into the soaked beans.
     Simmer partially covered until beans are soft. Time will vary with age of beans. Allow 1 1/2 to 2 hours for steady simmer, longer if simmer is very gentle or intermittent.
     Final half hour: Add garlic and season with salt and pepper. Stir as necessary during the final 30 minutes.
     Stir in orange juice for the last five minutes of cooking.

Variation
     In place of salsa and sour cream, stir some orange juice into thick yogurt cream. Omit orange juice in the cooking.

Herb-Cooked Black Beans
OAXACAN TRADITION

     I have noted above that black beans have no soul mate, in the sense that tomato has basil. This may not be true. There is the matter of the liaison between black beans and "rabbit herb."
     Before discussing this fascinating subject, let us note that black beans are definitely an unusual food. This is evident, not from the taste of the beans themselves, which seems mild enough, but from the company they keep.
     Think for a minute. A classic garnish for black bean soup is raw onions. Of what other soup can this be said? Raw onions with tomato soup, or potato soup, or split pea soup are unthinkable. Only black beans are garnished with these barbaric items.
     Black beans are like a demure woman in a gothic novel who seems completely ordinary, except that she somehow comes to acquire a series of eccentric, murder-oriented husbands.
     Where can we look for the soul mate of black beans? Mexico is a reasonable choice.
     Diana Kennedy, in The Art of Mexican Cooking, reports that black beans in Mexico are used primarily in Oaxaca and elsewhere in the South. The Oaxacan peasant tradition uses the simplest ingredients, flavored strongly with a single herb. (This has been frequently said of French cooking, as well, but never of Asian cooking.)
     For the single herb for black beans, Oaxacans select hierba de conejo tridax coronpiifolia, translated as "rabbit herb."
     For those of us lacking the local rabbit herb, Diana Kennedy advises using epazote as an acceptable substitute. Epazote, a leafy weed available in Mexican markets, is definitely off the beaten track. At first taste, like Scotch, it seems most dubious, something that you are not sure you should be putting into your digestive system. But like Scotch, epazote can become an acquired taste, and some people do become fond of it.
     The taste of epazote is hard to describe. When I first tasted it, I thought of nothing else but parsley stems. One time, temporarily out of epazote, I used parsley stems to cook black beans. They seemed to me to produce an agreeable result, within the eccentric spirit of black bean cooking generally.
     Shredded epazote is available in one-ounce jars from the Penzeys catalogue or website.

     Soak the beans in the pot overnight or by quick soak method.
     Place soaked beans and water in the pot. Add the onion, garlic, and herb. Simmer partially covered until beans are soft, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Salt when beans are soft.

     To cook the pear slices, place 1/8 inch of water in pan and heat rapidly. Peel the pear, cut it into slices, and remove core. Place the slices in the pan, quickly before they turn brown. Cover and steam gently a few minutes until pear slices are soft and taste cooked. (If pear is overripe, do not cook; just peel, core, cut out bad spots and proceed with steeping.)
     To steep the pears, lift them from the pan and place them on a plate. Pour some of the pan liquid over them. Sprinkle with a little orgeat syrup. Let steep 10 minutes or longer, until needed.

     To plain-cook beans, soak beans and cook them 1 ½ hours, as described in Plain-Cooked Black Beans above.
     Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
     Place cooked beans in sauté pan. Pour off most liquid and reserve it. Leave 1/8 inch of liquid in beans.
     Chop a couple of the pear slices, perhaps ¼ cup, coarsely. Stir these into the beans.

     Bring beans rapidly to an active boil, then reduce heat and simmer partially covered. Cook until liquid thickens somewhat, perhaps 15 minutes. Season with balsamic vinegar.
     At this point you may proceed to the baking operation. Or, for softer beans, continue through the full 30 to 45 minutes after-cooking as described above in Lemon Black Beans.

     Place beans in un-oiled baking dish. They must not be too dry, as heat will dry  them further.
     Place pear slices on top of beans. Bake until beans are heated through, about 30-40 minutes. Moisten pears with their pan liquid if they dry out.
     Serve immediately, or later at room temperature.

Variation
     During cooking in the sauté pan, add orange juice or other fruit juice. Stir in coarsely chopped pieces of pear to cook down and flavor the beans. 

     This is a South-American-inspired bean stew which has various uses. With its bacon flavoring it makes a nice bed, or sauce, for bland fish.
     Adapted from Mary Donovan, Editor, The New Professional Chef, Culinary Institute of America, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1996.
     Again, follow the procedure for Cuban Black Bean Stew, but substitute the following ingredients. The additions shown are refinements and can be dispensed with.

     Heat oil in sauté pan. Cook bacon until rendered and crumble it.
     Add onions, garlic, red and green peppers. Sauté until peppers are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.
     Stir into cooked beans and cook 30 minutes.
     After cooking, stir in herbs and lime juice.