good food!: September 2008 Archives

So the other day I bought those Anasazi beans from Whole Foods, and kombu, which is supposed to help tenderize the beans and impart some flavor. I learned about adding kombu to beans during the soak and the cooking from the Real Food Daily cookbook, which has difficult but entirely worthwhile recipes that make you look like a damned genius (and I LOVE the restaurant. If I was rich I'd hike it over there daily, all right. Try the chocolate pudding there -- a dessert I barely cared about if there was a cake or cookie to be had -- it's  ridiculous how good it is).

Ah, distracted by chocolate with just minutes to write. Back to beans.

They came out great (see pic). Beans run something between $.89 and $1.99 a pound these days at Whole Foods, and I recommend the pricier organic varieties. Keep in mind that a pound of dried beans will make 5-6 cups of cooked beans so they go far for very little money (you're lucky if you get 1.5 cups in a can).

Except for black-eyed beans and lentils, most dried beans need a good soak. I put mine in a mixing bowl, fill er up, rinse, drain, and fill again 3" over the beans after sorting through the beans for any duds (dark, mangy looking specimens or the odd pebble). Cut a piece of kombu that's about 2-3" long (about half a strip) and leave them to soak overnight. Soaking, in addition to hydrating the beans, will eliminate some of the oligosaccharides in beans that make you blow up like a flesh balloon. Ann Gentry from Real Food Daily says that the kombu also makes the beans more digestible, but I think that's because of the tenderizing.

After they're soaked and you know you'll be around for a bit, drain the beans, toss them into a pot and cover with at least 4" of water, leaving the kombu in, put the heat on the lowest setting, partially cover (and don't let the top slip over the beans or you'll have a foamy mess overflowing in no time -- I lay a wooden spoon over the top and balance the lid over that so it lays there jauntily but can't flatten out), set a timer for 1 hour and walk away. Stir if you feel like it in between. Add a dash of canola oil to discourage the foaming if you wish. Skim off the foam or don't. But after an hour come by and have a bite. Still too firm? Give it another half hour and walk away. Drain.

In my case, serve immediately to small child standing at my feet who, after one taste of some cold-rinsed beans I was checking, demanded a bowl. Mush them up with a fork and throw them into a burrito. Put them over cous cous in a hurry. You get the picture.

When our child spiked a fever (it's not even winter yet and she's got a fever already?!) I tore through the freezer and made smoothies. She drank the entire cup, loaded herself up with vitamins and antioxidants and cooled herself down, all while asking if it counted as dessert (a  small cookie accompaniment cleared that all up).

Needed:

• A blender
  
• Milk, yogurt, ice cream, soy milk, or soy ice cream, whatever cold milk-like substance suits your fancy
• Frozen mango
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen strawberries and/or
  
• Whatever frozen fruit you like, including slicing up fresh peaches and the like and freezing them ahead of time. 
  
• Banana?
• It's all up to you

We finally trekked to the behemoth Pasadena Whole Foods. 

Since we didn't get to go away for Labor Day we felt like indulging, and there really was something for everyone. The child chose peanut-butter-coated pretzels and a ginger "person" (is it discrimination to call it a "man"?) but we drew the line at a large block of Valhrona milk chocolate on the grounds that it would be used for evil and not good by all of us, probably as soon as we peeled back the wrapper (rule #1 with questionable food purchases: Know thyself).

We founds some beautiful biodegradable plant pots (the kind you have to send off to some composting plant probably but they're made with recycled plant materials -- grain husks) and bought one for us and one for my mom in a beautiful green color.

We got a frozen gluten-free pumpkin pie for my gluten free mother-in-law (a tester for Thanksgiving?) , some kind of Sumatra coffee for the Hub, and uh, a pair of eco-friendly shoes for me (so much for my love of lunchbags over shoes...sometimes I can be swayed).

Oh yeah, there was also food, and how - anasazi beans in bulk, which we don't have near us, 25 lb bags of organic brown rice (we didn't get that but it was amazing to think about it), kombu (seaweed that is supposed to make beans more digestible and add flavor- I'll update on whether it works later), really awesome whole wheat burger buns, 6 month aged cheddar that the small child insisted upon...and we could have come home with much, much more.  It was like a department store for food - walls of cheese, small mountainous displays of chocolates, cases of baked goods, a sake section (!).  In short, it was fun. 

I'd like to try the prepared food there some time (it takes up half of the second floor, and there is seating too). The mac n cheese (large shells with gooey yummy looking cheese) was hard to resist.  Vegan? They have a CASE of prepared food that looked very very promising indeed (but I don't have an expense account, so it was eyes only): grilled tofu, quinoa patties, kale salad, something made with a LOT of beets...a wall full of gluten-free products with a freezer case containing pecan, pumpkin and apple pies, hamburger buns, various breads, etc.  They had a case full of raw prepared foods from Leaf (a raw restaurant in Sherman Oaks and Culver City, and if you haven't tried their carrot "cake" you should - it is a wonder.

So if you're out near Pasadena, check it out: 465 S. Arroyo Parkway, ph. 626.204.2266