Dried Beans Experiment
Water can be a very powerful thing. It can knock you over in the ocean, it can flood a city, it can help to feed and grow plants, and it can even made or break a meal. In this next section of "water" we learn about simmering. Anyone who has ever attempted to cook, even a boxed meal has read the word simmer in the directions. Have you ever wondering what it actually meant? I thought it was heating something up until it started to make that, "its too hot and you better turn the heat down" sound. Usually it includes the sound, "oh crap" which means that I walked away from the stove and my pot boiled over and then I had to run, move the pan and then turn the heat down. Can anyone relate?
Simmering basically means to bring water and some target food to the narrow range of 175-200 degrees. LOL. Who measures this temperature? Not me. Only if I am making some sort of candy or a raw meat product. This basically means until there are tiny bubbles that form at the bottom of the pan and then travel to the surface. Anyone see a couple of problems with this? First of call, my electric stove in notorious for not being able to "slowly" do anything. It is either boiling over of not hot enough. Ok, so I like to blame things on my stove instead of my impatience. Second problem that I see is that how are you suppose to see these infamous bubbles with things besides water in the pot or when the pot is covered. Because of these two problems, I rarely "simmer" anything. I was bound to figure this out!
The dried bean experience was a chance to figure this out. I started with 1 lb of white navy beans. Why navy beans? They were on sale, only $1.09 for a pound and I love the navy bean song from Adam Sandler. Thanks Symon. I started by inspecting the beans for any discolored, cracked, or shriveled beans. I then rinsed them. The next step is the soak the beans. I never understood this but it makes the beans cook faster. LOL, it obviously doesn't take into account the soaking phase right? I basically soaked them in the pan I was going to cook with in water for 5 hours. This is where water can be powerful. Not enough soaking time and the beans will take twice as long to cook; soak them too long and they get mushy and flavorless. Not good eats. I am going to be lucky to get my kids to eat them with flavor.
After soaking, I rinsed the beans that have doubled in size by this point. I seasoned them with salt which is VERY important while cooking with water. If you don't know why, go look up osmosis baby! I placed the beans and 4 cups of chicken stock in the pot over medium/high heat and bring to a boil. (I got the boil down). In another pan I was suppose to heated oil, garlic, and rosemary for a few seconds until nice and brown and it releases it oils. I skipped this step and just threw it all in the pot because I didn't have fresh garlic so I used garlic powder. I also didn't want to wash another pan.
Once the time is over, I added a little more salt and pepper and then served with fresh bread. I had some diced ham left over from a previous meal and then added it into the "soup" to bribe my kids with "bacon" so they would eat it!
Symon, Ryan, and I loved it! Ryan is learning about pioneers in school so we talked about beans and how "practical" they are to eat as well as cheap and full of protein and fiber. They are perfect to use leftover food at the end of the week. I think dried beans is a great staple in the pantry. I can imagine the pioneers making this sort of stew or soup over a fire in their cast iron dutch oven. Of course Reagan did not appreciate it and ended up having yogurt for dinner. Can't please them all.
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