1 beans
Directions
How many beans to serve how many? As a rough rule, a pound of dried
legumes will yield 8 moderate servings. Getting them ready: Spread
beans on a big pan or plate and pick out any rubbish-especially small
pebbles-and broken beans. Rinse in a colander. To soak or not?
Lentils don't need to be soaked and neither do split peas. All other
dried legumes need soaking, especially if they have spent some time
on the shelf. Soaking how-tos: The basic way: Cover with water to
twice the depth of the beans and leave for 4 hours (most kinds) or up
to 24 hours, with changes of water, for fava beans or other
tough-skinned types. Drain, then cook in fresh water. Quick-soaking
or parboiling: Cover with plenty of water, bring to boiil and boil
for 1 to 2 minutes. Set aside, covered for 1 hour. Drain and cook in
fresh water. Cooking: This varies widely among beans. The newest crop
may cook in as little as half the time needed by long-stored beans.
The rule is to cook beans at a gentle simmer, partly covered, until a
sample is tender to the tooth. Depending on bean kind and age, this
may take as little as 45 minutes or as long as 3 hours; fava beans
may need even longer. When to salt: Wait until the beans are tender.
Salting before that point will toughen them permanently. (wrv)
Servings: 1 servings
Bean Basics Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bean
The History of Recipes
Written recipes as a concept can be tracked far back into the far past, in fact as far as the Egyptians, and possibly even further. Having said that, mostly, these early recipes were just basic pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for preparing food.
Fascinatingly, the most ancient recipe found, according to historians is a collection of stone tablets in ancient Sumerian which show the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made those who drank it feel exhilarated. As our culinary historical trip moves to more modern times we find two books from the 1300s - one book entitled `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary entitled `Curye on Inglish`. Don`t be fooled by the titles though, these have no connection with the indian food that is familiar to us all today, but instead recipes for the types of meals on the menus of the rich and powerful of those days. Over the following few centuries, the powerful and rich strove to lay on the best banquets, and as a result cooks and their recipes were greatly in demand. Notwithstanding that, it wasn`t until the 19th century that fine cookery and recipe collections became popular. The Famous Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Farmer in the USA, spent years to collating, verifying, and publishing recipes that were common in the better off homes of the day. By the arrival of the twentieth century, cookbooks are starting to become popular due to increased literacy, more spare time and having more money. The introduction of television gave us celebrity TV chefs and the spin-off recipe books. And that pretty much brings us to the present day and the invention of the internet, allowing us all to access thousands of recipes like the ones you can find on this web site. |
We hope you enjoy this Bean Basics recipe.
