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
Academics have tracked the existance of recipes far back into the distant past, in truth as far back as pharonic Egypt, and possibly even further than that. Interesting though that is, mostly, these old cook books were just very basic pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for meal preparation.
Interestingly, the most ancient recipe found, according to historians are a few ancient tablets in Sumerian which describe the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making anyone who drank it feel `exhilarated, wonderful and blissful`. During Roman times around 25BC a roman called Apicius created a collection of scripts which described recipes cooked by his fellow Romans. He tells us how the meals of wealthy Romans were divided into appetizers, entrees and afters, a very modern way of dining. This early Roman chef tells us how the ancient Romans were skilled in the use of a wide range of aromatic flavors, including a few that will be familiar to modern cooks for example thyme, fennel and asafoetida. Over the following few hundred years, the powerful families of the West strove to serve the best banquets, and consequentially the best cooks and their recipe collections were highly sought after. Notwithstanding that, it was during the 1800s the formal cooking and recipe books became popular. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally well-known Fannie Farmer in the USA, devoted much of their lives to assembling, trying out, and publishing recipes common in their social group. Like it or not, the introduction of television brought us TV chefs and the spin-off recipe books. And that brings us to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, permitting everyone to access massive numbers of recipes just like those on sites such as this. |
We hope you enjoy this Bean Basics recipe.
