PINTO BEAN RECIPES
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SWEET COUNTRY
BEANS
Pinto, the very versatile legume (p. vulgaris)
Necessity is often the "mother of invention"
in cooking, as well as the other practicalities of life. Many years
ago as a young wife, I found myself face to face with a 50 pound
sack of pinto beans that had been given to my DH. I was ashamed
to admit I had never seen, eaten or cooked a dry bean in my life
before then, so without a cook book or mother nearby I knew that
I was doomed. After much trial and error this recipe for "Sweet
Country Beans" evolved. I hope that you will enjoy it too.
Mrs. Miles
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs. Pinto beans
- Ham hock or ham bone (other available meats discussed below*)
- Garlic to taste
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon iodized salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon marjoram or oregano, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 pinch of rosemary, or more
- ½ to 1 cup Karo dark corn syrup
- 1, 8 oz. can tomato sauce (or 2 cans, if desired)
- 1 tablespoon olive or corn oil, if using dry or canned meat
- 3 tablespoons corn starch (optional method)
Rinse and sort 2 pounds of pinto beans using a
large colander. Pour beans into a 5 quart stock pot or larger. Pour
in cold water to 4 inches above the beans...they will swell overnight.
In the morning, pour off soaking water. Move the
pot to the stove and fill a pitcher with cold water to cover the
beans (Taking the water to the beans is easier than carrying a heavy
pot of beans plus the water!)
Bring pot to a boil. Lower heat to a slow simmer.
At this point I add a ham hock or ham or pork roast bone with some
adhering meat.
Now add salt, garlic, black pepper, plus several
pinches of Rosemary, and Marjoram or Oregano. Add crushed red pepper
or chopped Jalapeno pepper (optional)...this amount is not
hot, just flavorful. If a pepper lover, use more.
Stir in ingredients, bring pot to a bubbling simmer
and cover. Simmer for ½ hour.
Next, I add Karo dark corn syrup and tomato sauce
(or paste), and olive or corn oil (if the meat used contains little
or no fat).
Continue simmering for ½ hour or until beans are
tender, stirring as needed to prevent sticking.
Add water as needed. If there is too much liquid,
remove pot lid during the last part of cooking. But a "pot
watcher be" as liquid evaporates quickly left unattended!
At this time, I mix the corn starch with a cup
of cold water, and dip a half cup of the hot pot liquor into the
corn starch mixture. Blend quickly and stir into the pot. This thickens
the pot liquid into a sauce instead of a splashy juice.
The pinto's are now cooked and ready for a healthful
meal. Beans are a "half protein," so served with a small
amount of meat, cheese or milk they become a full protein source.
* Use any left over ham parts, including rinds,
scrape excess fat from ham rind pieces and put them in with the
beans. The rind will soften with cooking, adds flavor and is also
edible.
Helpful hint: Instead of a cooking spoon, use a
large size spatula, as its shape alone will scrape the bottom of
the pot while stirring...more efficient to prevent sticking, which
leads to scorched foods. An old friend once taught me this method
to prevent scorching when cooking large pots of food or in jelly
making.
"OTHER"
CANNED MEATS TO STRENGTHEN PINTO RECIPES
A message from Mrs. Miles.
Other canned meats will work very will in the Pinto
Bean recipes, should there be food shortages.
The very best "meat" that you will have
stored away will be your Hamburger Rocks! Next, I would suggest
the 16 ounce cans of cooked ham. I buy a brand named "Festival,"
product of Holland*, for $1.99 at discount stores. Given the low
price, I have been able to purchase a quantity of these to use when
necessary for a quick meal. I have squirreled away a good amount,
as I will also be cooking for grandchildren in times of privation.
Canned corned beef* is a good buy these days. I
use it happily in several recipes, or "as is" for delicious
sandwiches. Corned beef will give protein to your bean pot. It is
priced on sale at $1.50 per can, or $2.00 at regular prices.
Spam, or store brand generic "luncheon meat*,"
will give flavor and strength to a pinto bean meal. The "Brand
X" types I have been finding for $1.00 to $1.50 each. How much
longer these excellent canned meats will be easily obtainable at
such a low cost is doubtful, as any series of disastrous weather
events occurring now and predicted in the near future could cause
dramatic food price increases, leading to rationing or unstocked
shelves.
I urge all of you to fill your pantry's now while
the processed food items are affordable. Once the cans are dipped
in melted wax, they will keep in your homes under your control for
years if necessary.
* Canned hams or luncheon meat from Holland, Denmark
or Poland are excellent quality products. Canned corned beef from
Brazil is also excellent. The food laws in those countries are far
stricter than in the U.S., so there are no additives or preservatives
in the meat, no hormones or antibiotics used in the animal feed,
etc. In fact, those countries will not allow the importation of
American meat products, which they consider tainted!
PINTO BEAN CHILI
Ingredients:
- 4 cups pinto beans
- 2 cups "Hamburger Rocks"
- 5 slices bacon (or canned ham or Spam)
- 1 large onion, chopped
- Salt to taste
- 2 cups, (16 oz) canned tomatoes
- or two 8 oz. cans of tomato sauce.
- 3 tablespoons chile powder, or to suit taste
- 1 tablespoon cumin seed or ground cumin (optional)
- 1 teaspoon oregano, chopped parsley or Mexican parsley
- Hot green chili, chopped and sauteed with onion (optional)
Directions:
Soak 4 cups of beans overnight; drain beans in
the morning, just cover with fresh water, and cook slowly until
almost tender. Remove from heat and set aside.
Pour boiling water over 2 cups of "Hamburger
Rocks" to rehydrate. Set aside.
Fry 5 slices of bacon in large frying pan, remove
bacon, and saute` chopped onion in the drippings until tender.
(Optional: use 2 tablespoons corn oil or slices
or chunks of canned ham or spam.)
Drain "Hamburger Rocks" and pour into
mixture. Chop bacon or ham and return to pan. Add remaining ingredients.
Simmer until well blended, about one half hour. This make 6 to 10
servings.
This chili mixture may be served over hot cooked
rice. Add cheese if you like for a nutritious meal.
For seasonings, you might like to stock up on "Grandma's
Chili Seasoning" packages, available now at grocery stores
in the "instant gravy" section, often 2 for $1.00.
HONEY BAKES BEANS
Ingredients:
-
- Soak 2 ½ cups pinto beans overnight, drain water off
- ½ to 1 pound salt pork (bacon or ham), sliced or chopped.
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 fresh garlic cloves, crushed (or use granulated garlic)
- 1 cup pure honey
- 2 teaspoons dry mustard
- 3 tablespoons ground ginger (or fresh ginger root)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Cover soaked beans with 3 quarts fresh water. Bring
to a boil, then lower heat, simmering until beans are tender, 35
to 45 minutes. Drain the beans into colander placed over sauce pan
to save the cooking liquid. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Put the beans in a large baking pan, or in a 5
½ quart deep casserole with a lid, and mix with the salt pork, onion
and garlic. Measure 2 cups of the saved cooking liquid, stirring
in the honey, mustard, ground ginger, salt and pepper.
Pour the liquid over the beans. Stir and cover.
Bake for 2 ½ hours. If using a baking pan, cover with foil.
I like to remove the lid and stir beans every once
in a while. The aroma is wonderful.
If you are "powerless" the casserole
can be baked in a camp oven over a kerosene cooker, or in a solar
oven.
I have made "baked" beans on top of a
wood stove in a heavy cast iron covered kettle with trivet legs,
so the temperature was low enough for gentle cooking. Just stir
often and add more liquid as necessary to keep from scorching bottom
of pot.
HEALTHY PINTO BEANS -
and PEOPLE
About 20 years ago, someone noticed that the people
in one remote village (A) on the East coast of Mexico were very
healthy, yet the people in another remote village (B) about 70 miles
away were not healthy. Their diets were virtually identical:
a little fish, their home grown beans, some corn, and a few vegetables.
The soil conditions and water available for gardening were virtually
identical, and the villagers used similar clay crocks or jugs for
storing their harvests.
Another obvious difference between the two villages
was that the first one was able to store beans from one harvest
to the next, but the poorer villagers often ran out of stored beans,
as bean weevils destroyed their dried beans.
The people in village A were healthy and industrious,
their children full of energy, with strong limbs and teeth, ran
to their tasks and games as healthy children do. Meanwhile, in village
B, the people were listless, did less work, and the children all
had symptoms of rickets and scurvy.
So what could make such a tremendous difference
in the health of people in two neighboring villages? After considerable
study, it turned out there were two things the people of the distant
villages were doing differently.
In village A, a watchful villager had noticed that
bean weevils had to brace themselves against one bean in order to
gnaw through the hard outer shell of another bean. So they only
filled their storage crocks three-fourths full, and once a month
would shake them. The shaking of the beans would by itself kill
the been weevil larvae, and thus their beans would remain unharmed
in storage.
Again, in village A, persons long before had noticed
that beans were hard to digest, which meant that all of the food
value was not being extracted from them. So they added a teaspoon
full of wood ashes (lye) to the soaking water for their beans, then
rinsed the beans and discarded the soaking water before cooking.
The lye altered the state of the lysine in the beans, so the available
amino acids were much more readily assimilated by the human digestive
tract. It worked: they were healthy.
You are wondering if the researchers took those
lessons from Village A back to Village B, and everything turned
out just fine, like in a fairy tale, right? Well, they tried, but
the B villagers said they had been growing and saving beans for
years, they knew what they were doing, and something as simple as
shaking their beans was dumb, and they weren't going to put any
wood ashes in their beans. Sounds like the tale of the ant
and the grasshopper to me!
DIGESTION OF LEGUMES
Some people have a problem digesting beans, claiming
bloating or flatulence. Cooking the beans in the soaking water can
be responsible for this annoyance.
A very few individuals have a sensitivity to all
legumes: beans, peas, lentils, garbanzo beans, etc, causing diarrhea.
They should not eat any legumes, including bean sprouts, soy oil
or products containing soy proteins. The symptoms are almost instant
diarrhea, or a slight episode after ingesting a small amount of
soy oil, flour, or "textured" soy protein from a "packaged,"
ready to cook box of prepared food. Frozen TV dinners almost always
contain soy oil. Virtually all mayonnaise is made from soy oil.
So "let the buyer read the ingredients" - carefully!
A simple reason for "normal" symptoms
of "gas" after eating a meal of beans is the following:
some persons who seldom eat dry beans in their meals may feel the
temporary effects of an overload of B vitamins. Legumes are a rich
source of the B complex family. The unwanted symptoms will quickly
disappear once beans are a part of the regular diet.
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