Seemingly endless loops of snowy commutes, bitter cold temperatures, and all around winter blahs call for real comfort food. And I'm not talking about the quick and easy kind; I'm talking about the homegrown, slow-cooked, hearty goodness that is cooking up a pot of dried beans and transforming them into an amazing soup or a spicy Mexican dinner. Bam. Snowy commute: forgotten.
Yes, it's times like these that make me incredibly happy that I planted Cherokee Trail of Tears Beans last summer.
These beans could not have been easier to grow: I popped them into the ground as a part of my
Three Sisters Planting and let them grow and do their thing all season long without any fuss. Along the way, I enjoyed lovely lavender blossoms, cute little green beans that plumped up and then turned pinkish purple as they ripened, and when the bean pods had turned dark purple and brittle, I was left with a couple pints of smooth and shiny black beans (not quite enough beans for as many winter meals as I had hoped for, but I did get enough to ration out a good number of recipes).
It was a no-brainer to set aside enough beans to double the planting for this year's repeat appearance (and that was before I had even started cooking with them!).
So let's get to it and talk cooking with Cherokee Trail of Tears beans.
These are beans that need a good
soaking (I should have guessed it, based on the recommendation to soak the beans before planting) and a lot of cooking time. Give them 10 or 12 hours to soak, and then make sure there is a good three inches of water covering the beans when you start to cook them. I find that it takes about 2 hours of simmering to get beautiful, soft and tender black beans, but trust me: it is
sooo worth the wait!
The beans plump up quite nicely when cooked and have a great texture. They taste
way better than any canned or commercial dried beans I've ever cooked with, and Cherokee Trail of Tears beans have substituted perfectly for a number of my favorite black bean recipes: black bean quesadillas, spicy black bean burgers, and a mini batch of Cuban black bean soup. But by far, my favorite way of using these beans has been to pop them into the food processor with a little bit of the cooking liquid before adding them to a hot pan of super finely minced onion, garlic, jalapeno, ground cumin, ground cayenne pepper, and chili powder for some killer refried beans. Bam. Comfort food at its best: homegrown, slow-cooked, hearty, and most importantly, delicious.
I am growing these for the first time. Did you allow them to fully dry on the vine? Or a different method? Also did you ever pick and fresh cook them young? If so, how did this compare in taste?
ReplyDeleteThanks so much
C
Hi C! Yes, I let the beans dry fully on the bean stalks (see this post from last fall, for more on harvesting dry beans: http://sweetdomesticity.blogspot.com/2012/11/harvesting-dry-beans.html). I only picked one of these beans to try fresh (just tasted it raw, not cooked) and it was good! The only reason I didn't pick more is that I had other varieties growing for fresh eating and wanted as many of these as possible for dry beans. Thanks for commenting and good luck with your beans!
DeleteThese are my most favorite beans I have ever grown. I have used them in all stages. Pick young for a tender green bean, a little later for a shelly bean (which requires longer cooking), and dried. Thank you for you recipe. I am looking forward to using it this winter. A most prolific bean, I had them on a 7-foot trellis, and they would have kept gone higher if allowed to. Beautiful colors hanging on the vines. I planted two 5-foot rows, and have about 2 quarts of dried beans stored with more to come, and have had fresh pole beans from them at least twice a week since the fist of July.
DeleteThey really are prolific and beautiful! This one has a permanent location in my garden!
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