Category:
Meals

Straight from the Pot

Ingredients:

cooked black or pink beans
coarse sea salt
scallions
parsley
cilantro
avocado
grapefruit juice
hot peppers

Cookbooks have for their very bases a panoply of methods to make the commonplace special, but there is nothing wrong with plain and quotidian food. After all, you've got to eat each day.
Pick over, sort and soak overnight two cups of dried black or pink beans. The next day, bring slowly to boiling, skim carefully, and cook them in water to cover until they are soft enough to crush against the roof of your mouth with your tongue.
Roughly crush some coarse sea salt in your mortar, and dish it into a salt-cellar, with a tiny spoon.*
Wash, trim and slice across into half centimeter rings a small bunch of scallions.
Prepare a small bunch each of parsley and cilantro/coriander, well rinsed, dried in a towel, and coarsely chopped.
Split a ripe avocado lengthwise, stone it,* and slice each half lengthwise with the tip of a knife, being careful not to pierce the skin. Gently slide the result onto a small plate, fan the slices out and sprinkle with a few drops of grapefruit juice.
Wipe, seed and crush two or three very fresh, raw, hot peppers in a teaspoon of olive oil with a bit of salt and a few drops of grapefruit juice.
Be ready to serve bread, hot, in a napkin. Tortíllas would be very appropriate, as would tostadas or pita. Our Buttercup Flatbread is a perfect adjunct.
Array all the side plates, bread and garnishes within easy reach and hand bowls of hot beans to each participant.
It will feel as though you are performing some ancient ritual when you serve the very plain, unsalted beans up from their pot, along with plenty of their cooking liquor.
Let everyone season and garnish their beans to taste.

Notes:

*We've seen, in México, salt on the table being garnished with one or two whole, tiny, hot, pequín peppers/capsicums/chiles. They impart a subtle flavour.
*To remove the stone from one side of the avocado without marring its appearance, hold it cupped in one hand. Then (carefully!) with a chopping motion, imbed the edge of a sharp knife in the exposed top of the seed. Then twist to release the seed, and lift it away.

Recipe Index

More Daily Dishes:

Polenta Bombe |  Black Bean Buns  | Cool Dumplings in Hot Sauce | One Pot Hot | Black Bean Pie |  Homely Ravioli  | Lima Bean Stew  | Cabbage Rolls with Kasha and Lentils | Timbale of Lentils and Rice | Doublable Beans | Panisse Euclid |