Category: Meals

Black Bean Pie

Ingredients:

black beans
onions
olive oil
stale rye bread
salt
sage
thyme
white wine
yeast
sugar
unbleached wheat flour
paprika
Nigella seeds

Sort, rinse and soak a cup and a half of black beans. The next day, boil them in their soaking liquid until soft enough to crush between tongue and palate. Let them cool.
Peel and chop three plump onions. Sauté them over a low fire in an oven-proof skillet, with a spoonful of olive oil, very slowly, turning and stirring occasionally, so that eventually the onions become golden, rather than brown.
Soak a thick slice of stale rye bread in just enough of the bean liquid to moisten it. Chop or pound the bread in a bowl, add the onions, two and a half cups of drained beans, half a teaspoon of salt, a pinch each of rubbed sage and fresh or dried thyme, and a tablespoon of dry white wine. Mix together, crushing some of the beans as you go to absorb any free liquid.
Leave this to rest, covered, while you make the paste for the crust.
Mix half a cup of tepid water and a pinch of sugar in a warmed bowl with half a teaspoon of granulated yeast. Leave in a warm place to enhance yeast propagation. When you figure that there are a few trillion of them budding away, add a pinch of salt and enough hard unbleached wheat flour to make a paste. Knead until silky smooth, and leave to rise somewhere warm, protected from draught, until doubled in bulk.
Punch the dough down and knead for a few turns. Bake this in the same skillet you sautéed the onions in. Dry it, wipe the bottom with oil, and ladle in the bean mixture. Roll out the paste on a floured board, lay it over the beans, and cut away the excess from around the rim. Roll out these trimmings, and make some decorous shapes, say, of leaves with which to adorn the top. Pierce or slice the crust of the pie in a radial pattern to allow the escape of steam. Sprinkle carefully with paprika and Nigella seeds, and bake in a moderate oven until the paste is golden brown. Let stand for ten minutes before serving out. Don't burn your mouth!

Notes:

Recipe Index

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