[DelaWhere]

Gourmet Nutrition
with Rice and Beans

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/blunt115.html

Eating well

When my friend, Dave Duffy, the publisher of this magazine, asked me to write about cooking with rice and beans from a survival larder, the first thing that occurred to me was, “Just because times are hard doesn’t mean you can’t eat well.” In that spirit, the recipes I’ve included here are meant to make hard times easier and inexpensive meals taste like dishes set before a king. Richard Blunt

[texas_mrs]

Ping

[nw_arizona_granny]

However, in some recipes I have discovered that soaking beans in a light brine solution eliminates a problem that I often encountered when baking various bean casseroles—i.e., tough skins. Brining beans before cooking is not the same as adding salt while they’re cooking. Cooking beans in salted water will give the cooked beans a mealy texture. The presence of salt in the cooking water limits the amount of water the beans can absorb, preventing some of the starch granules from softening completely.

Brining, followed by careful rinsing of the beans in cold water, simply creates an ion exchange limited to the skin of the bean. Sodium ions in the brine replace some of the calcium and magnesium ions in bean skins. Sodium ions are weaker than other mineral ions allowing more water to penetrate the skins, hence, softer skins. <<<

Interesting and I put about half the salt in at the beginning and then more at the end.

I use lots of herbs, onion, garlic and a dash of baking soda.

I read to add a tablespoon or more of Ginger powder to cut down on gas and so have started doing that.

But a bean has to have bacon, or ham in it, to suit me.

I used the pressure cooker for many years and now use a crockpot.