BVC Eats: Frugality with Beans

This is a recipe for beans a la bonne femme, the beans that a French grandmother cooks. The discerning cook will notice that it’s a cheaper and less fussy version of the cassoulet, which is essentially French baked beans. The ingredients for cassoulet – duck confit, or saucissons Toulouse — are expensive in the US. Whereas the watchword here is cheap and nutritious. This is another of those loosey goosey recipes, which you can endlessly adapt to your own needs, so the amounts are imprecise. If you adore onions, use six, if you can’t find pig skin ignore it.

Ingredients

Dry beans — red, white, black, whatever. One pound, you can bump it up to two if you have a lot of stock. If you use lentils it’ll come out thick and porridge-like. Add stock, wine, or water when you reheat, if you dislike that.

Onion

Celery

Carrot

Fennel bulb

Stock. You could also add the last couple inches of wine from the bottle at the back of the fridge, or an odd can of beer.

Spices: a dozen peppercorns. Perhaps a dried Asian chile pepper, if you have one. Juniper berry, if you have one. Any fresh herbs you have around: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, like in the song, are good, but lovage is also nice.

Pig skin — you can buy this as a separate item in Asian grocery stores, or peel it off your pork leg next time you roast one.

Garlic, at least 4 cloves but the sky’s the limit really

Sausage, your favorite: bratwurst, weisswurst, chicken, andouille, whatever, about a pound. Or substitute meat, raw or cooked, whatever you like: lamb stewing meat, chunks of rotisserie chicken, an odd hamburger, frozen meatballs from Ikea. Even mysterious frozen meat from the bottom of the freezer chest is fine.

A major vegetable: Cabbage is a good choice, cheap and bulky. You could also use kale, spinach or collards, which you can find in convenient big bags at the grocery store. It should be sturdy enough to take boiling, so no lettuce or microgreens.

A minor vegetable, if you have one. Leftovers, if they don’t clash in flavor. Strongly flavored veg like rutabaga or turnip, which would overwhelm the beans if you used a lot, but a little is fine. Or, if you have them, a confited vegetable. I’ll do a recipe next time. At my farm market they sell roasted peppers in ziploc bags in season. I hoard these in the freezer and use a couple peppers with every pot of beans

Begin the day before by putting the beans into a large bowl and covering with water. Soak overnight, adding more water if needed.

You remember when you made your stock? You chilled it and lifted the fat off the top. I hope you didn’t throw that fat away, because it would be nice to have it now. Put the fat into the largest kettle you have, and melt it. (If you didn’t save it, use oil.) Peel and chop the onion and carrot; wash and slice the celery; trim and dice the fennel bulb. Throw them all in with the fat and cook gently for ten or fifteen minutes, until it’s getting soft. Then add all the spices, the garlic, and the stock. Drain the beans and add them. Bring it to a slow simmer.

The pigskin is sold in a chunky sheet, and should be at least the size of a paperback book. If it’s too big, divide it and freeze half for later. Put it into a saucepan, cover with cold water, and boil. When it does boil, take it off the heat, pour off the boiling water, and refill with cold. Boil it again and let it boil for one minute. Then pour off the water, rinse it with cold water so you can handle it, and cut it up small, as in the picture above. The size of your beans is nice, into half-inch squares. Put these into the pot, stir, and turn it down low.

At this point you can walk away and write the great American novel for a couple hours, because the thing will cook slowly without any help. You could stir it every now and then. If it looks dry, add more stock, or water, or wine or beer.

By this point the beans should be getting tender. It’s time to think about your meat.  Cut or tear it up into bite sized slices or bits. If the sausages or stewing meat are raw, brown them in a frying pan with some fat. Add to the beans.  If the meat is already cooked, add it closer towards the end so it doesn’t cook down into rags.

Cut up your kale or cabbage or whatever and put it in. Put in all the minor veg, seeding and peeling if necessary. The pot will be pretty full. Keep an eye on the level of liquid. If it looks dry add more, if it’s soupy keep the lid off so it reduces a little. The pig skin will vanish, undetectable except on the tongue. When the beans and meat (if it began raw) are tender then it’s time to eat! I serve this with rice, but that French grandma would insist upon bread.