Beans A Good Pantry Staple Part Two

Beans are now an important part of our pantries as we stock up in unprecedented numbers. It's a great source of protein and they're flavorful. Yesterday we covered Melissa Clark's bean guide that was in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Today there's ways of cooking the traditional way or the easier method of using a crockpot or pressure cooker

This is a great keeper article because Ms. Clark offers how to soak and spice them.  They can be a quick soak or an overnight if you have the time - which now you do.  Spicing them is fun. If you like fiery  add chili powder for a quick chili. Want a taste that's more like pasta e fagiole? Then add some garlic and onions along with cooked celery. Beans can be cooked in a variety of different ways. The easiest is on the stove top. This is putting your beans in two inches of water and simmering over a low flame. Give them a gentle stir every now and then and remember that DON'T boil them. This can cause their skins to burst , creating either mushy or unevenly cooked beans. Dried beans will either  cook quickly for ones such as red lentils which only take fifteen minutes or a slow cook of three to four hours. This is for chickpeas and lima beans. If you're preparing them, then allow for time, such as starting in the early afternoon. Remember to save the water or aquafaba from the chickpeas. These are the vegan sub in for egg whites and you can create everything from vegan mayo to meringues and marshmallows with it.

The other methods are easy. One is using your slow cooker, Again as with the stove top method cover your beans with two inches of water or broth and salt to taste (although go easy on the salt if you're using broth, because it's already heavily salted) Set the setting on low and cook on low for about six hours. Ms Clark warns about kidney beans that need to be extra cooked ten minutes over a stove top before cooking in a crockpot.It makes them more digestable. Your pressure cooker also works well for cooking beans.Place soaked or unsoaked ones in again, about two inches of water. Add salt and any aromatics such as garlic or celery and some neutral oil such as peanut, canola or safflower . This last is to prevent any foaming  from clogging the vent. Remember to make sure you do not fill the pressure cooker to the brim. Only go halfway. Fill to the halfway mark instead. Cook at high pressure for anywhere between five to ten minutes for small beans such as black eyed peas, lentils and split peas. Chickpeas will take up to thirty five to forty minutes longer.. You'll know they're done by their tenderness.Store the beans in their liquid for five days. Do not freeze them because they can go mushy.

This is the time for pantry stocking. Have a few bags of beans on the ready for all sorts of dishes. They 're tasty and delicious as well as healthy and nutritious for you.

The Most Perfect Pop

What's movie night without popcorn, especially popcorn that's been made on a stove top?There's nothing like it, with the fluffy kernels buttered and salted to perfection.Now it can be made even better - if that's at all possible.

Melissa Clark tackled this in her A Good Appetite column in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section, She had been making stove top corn the way everyone has for decades, cook them in oil and then coat them in melted butter and salt. That changed when she had Jessica Koslow's recipe.Ms. Koslow is the owner and chef of the trendy Los Angeles eatery, Sqirl, She has a knack for taking the familiar and turning it into the extraordinary. Her toast is what put her on the map. Slices of brioche are toasted until burnt then  slathered with creamy ricotta and served in a puddle of homemade jam. Her tweaks are not for the faint of heart home chef - or family popcorn popper .She uses two to three times the amount of oil for cooking the kernels. Think half a cup of oil for one third of a cup of popcorn kernels.That much oil gives the corn a richness and the fluffy whites a sturdy extra crunchiness, what Chef Koslow calls "potato chip sturdiness"/Her way of seasoning is also different. Toss the kernels in dry ones before cooking. That way the fluffy whites aren't sogged down by the  seasonings .

What kind of popcorn and what kind of oil should be used? Ms. Clark doesn't give suggestions on the first. Some food blogs recommend Amish Country which you can buy on Amazon. An easier buy is Orville Redenbacher .from your local grocery store. As for the oil, Chef Koslow recommends grapeseed for its' high smoke point and clean flavor, but you can use another other oil such as sunflower, safflower, canola and corn. Ghee can also be used.Ms. Clark pops hers in a mixture of oil and butter for a buttery taste without the sogginess. She has also combined oils with low smoke point fats such as duck(!) and bacon (!).If you want flavored corn, then stick with dried seasonings such as ground spices, seeds, chiles, nutritional yeast,seasoned salts and dehydrated herbs. Stay away from anything with a high moisture content such as Parmesan cheese lemon zest and fresh herbs.They'll turn the popped kernels into mush. The recipes included are a spicy Pimenton or smoked paprika, a vegan cheesy one that has nutritional yeast filling in for the real thing, and one that's combines cane sugar with turmeric for a unique take on kettle corn. Any of the three is the perfect snack for movie night or or even as an appetizer at a barbecue.


A good movie deserves good popcorn. Pop them this new way with more oil for the ultimate snack experience. Just remember to make a lot. This flavorful new corn will be more of a hit than the movie.