At one point, I looked out on to the crowd, smiling, thinking, “Beans. Beans did this.” How did I go from being the loneliest fellow at the farmer’s markets to calling for a party and having it be packed with a steady stream of Rancho Gordo enthusiasts for two hours? How did we pull off making our own dried nixtamal? How did we pull off publishing our own books when we were feeling burned by the traditional publishing houses? How did this happen?
I’m also lucky in that the staff at Rancho Gordo is better at all this than I am. In the old days, I felt as if I had to do everything, and I did. Now, we come up with an idea, work it out and I get to breeze in like a celebrity and sign books and schmooze. The party was arranged by the retail staff, the pozole for sampling was made by my pals at The Fatted Calf, and we even had wine. This time an excellent pinot noir and a rosé from Honrama Cellars.
I was also tickled that there were so many people already invested in pozole. Most of the guests were well aware of the dish and everyone was happy with The Fatted Calf’s version.
The book is shipping as I write this and I know it will offend a few Mexican grandmothers, but I am prepared for wrath. I can’t tell you how many people told me that their grandmother (or mother, or uncle, etc.) made the best pozole. I’m sure they did.
If you weren’t there, we’re sorry to have missed you. Please make sure you’re on our mailing lists so that you’re aware of our future events and if you’re thinking of coming to Napa for a visit, call ahead and see if we have anything coming up. We’d love to see you.
Never do today what you can postpone until tomorrow. In my case, never do this year what you can put off until next year. That ends today! I am here to tell you about a great event we had last year in Santa Ana and share a terrific recipe that you’ll want to make at home.
Are they buying what I’m selling? I’m not so sure, but I love this gang. Gustavo Arellano (Los Angeles Times), Carlos Salgado (Taco Maria), yours truly, and Delilah Snell (Alta Baja) All Photos: Cynthia Rebolledo
This was the press release for the event: On Sunday, July 8, Rancho Gordo, renowned purveyor of heirloom beans, will hold its first-ever supper in Southern California at Alta Baja Market in Santa Ana. The special event will feature three courses prepared by some of Rancho Gordo founder Steve Sando‘s favorite SoCal restauranteurs: Delilah Snell and Richard Lu (Alta Baja Market, Electric City Butcher), Evan Kleiman (Angeli Caffe, KCRW’s Good Food) and Carlos Salgado (Taco Maria). Each course will highlight different Mexican heirloom beans offered by Rancho Gordo, recently featured in the New Yorker and beloved by chefs across the world. offered by Rancho Gordo, recently featured in the New Yorker and beloved by chefs across the world.
All Photos: Cynthia Rebolledo
I’m very embarrassed to tell you that I don’t remember a lot of the details except that it was a blast. Delilah, the owner of Alta Baja, is a gracious host in the real sense of the word. She cares deeply that her guests are taken care of and looked after. I would never make it in this business. She loves it. And she has a wonderful staff and the place has terrific food, including Rancho Gordo. Delilah’s husband, Gustavo Arellano, is one of my favorite writers. He entertained the troops and helped out as needed, clearly in awe of Delilah’s powers, like the rest of us.
All Photos: Cynthia Rebolledo
The event happened with two seatings, both selling out almost immediately. They were a benefit for Valley High in Santa Ana and their Dia de Los Muertos event that they host annually on the school grounds. Volunteers from the Valley High School Culinary Program helped to serve the dinner (one of the students is now employed at Alta Baja Market.)
Evan Kleiman (KCRW’s Good Food), working the room. All Photos: Cynthia Rebolledo
Very early in the history of Rancho Gordo, Evan Kleiman asked me to be a guest on her Good Food radio show and podcast on KCRW. I was just starting out and it felt so glamorous to be a guest on the show. I lived in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s and Evan’s restaurant, Angeli Caffe, along with her books, kept me sane. Her radio show is one of the few podcasts I have on automatic download. It’s like taking a break with a good friend and getting all the gossip and hard information you want about the food scene.
with Delilah, the wildly talented Richard Lu (Electric City Butcher), and Evan All Photos: Cynthia Rebolledo
I’m sorry that I don’t have the menu and I’m hoping one of the guests will post it in the comments section. I do remember being a little star-struck meeting Carlos Salgado. His Taco Maria is legendary. That didn’t last long. Carlos doesn’t allow that. He wanted to talk about beans and I felt a kinship with him immediately.
All Photos: Cynthia Rebolledo
I haven’t mentioned the heatwave but at one point driving in from Napa, just as I finished driving down the grapevine at Valencia, it was 117F. I don’t even know what the means or how my tires didn’t melt. Good food and new friends can cure that.
with some of the students of the Culinary Arts Academy. All Photos: Cynthia RebolledoRichard and Delilah
I think the guests would all agree that the food was great. I did ask the chefs for recipes, but I know from experience that this is similar to pushing jello up a mountain with your bare hands on a hot day. One day. Chefs love to cook. Documenting it, not so much. Luckily for us, Evan has written cookbooks and knows how much a recipe can mean. She graciously sent this recipe right after the event and it’s been resting in my inbox ever since. I think it’s a keeper.
Baked Royal Corona Beans
1 pound Rancho Gordo Royal Corona beans 1 onion, peeled and cut in half 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 small yellow onion, peeled and minced 1 peeled garlic clove, minced 1 28 oz Italian-Style tomatoes in juice or 3 cups of your favorite tomato sauce 2 teaspoons Rancho Gordo Mexican Oregano 2 teaspoons sugar Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Soak beans overnight in abundant water. They will double in size so be sure there is enough water to cover them after doubling.
If soaking water is dirty, drain and discard it. Place soaked beans in large pot and cover with water by 3 inches. Add 1 onion, cut in half. Bring beans to a boil. Turn heat down so that the beans simmer and let cook until tender but still holding their shape, about 2+ hours. Add salt to taste just before beans are finished cooking. Beans should be super creamy in texture.
Saute the onion in the olive oil until very soft. Add the tomatoes or tomato sauce, oregano and sugar and black pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook just until sauce begins to thicken. It should still be plenty saucy.
Drain the beans and reserve a few cups of the liquid. Toss the beans and tomato sauce together in a bowl. Place in baking dish adding some of the reserved bean liquid if necessary.
Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Serve hot, at room temperature or cold. Excellent with French Feta on the side and some good crusty bread.
We all had so much fun that we thought we might take our show on the road and do benefits for other student causes but life got in the way. Never say never.
Recently on Twitter, the very talented Pati Jinich wrote that she was irked by the word posole. “It is Pozole with a Z!!!! Posole is nothing, nada!! Posole equals not Pozole. Sorry and good night.”, she wrote. Now I admire Patti a lot but I think she got this one wrong, along with many of her enthusiastic followers who were quick to throw posole under the bus.
My response was: “Posole is an old tradition from the US Southwest. It refers to the grain and the final dish. It’s hundreds of years old and to deny this is to deny how indigenous cultures refused to stagnate. ”
I understand that good Mexican food is under siege and its advocates have to stand their ground. How many chefs are discovering tacos and are eager to share their new love (and “interesting” new spins) on food that many of us discovered long ago? The talented Ina Garten created a dish that might be delicious and it might have corn in it, but it’s not pozole by anyone’s standards other than hers. Taco Bell created a snack called a chalupa and it has nothing to do with the well-established Poblano treat that has been called a chalupa for generations. As writer Javier Cabral writes, “Adding black beans and lime juice to things do not automatically make it Mexican.”
I was once in the lovely town of San Miguel de Allende with a group of fellow gringo tourists. San Miguel is a very unusual town with an exceptionally large ex-pat US population. Or should I say, US immigrant population? Whatever it is, whether you like SMA or not, it’s not very typical. One woman insisted that a bowl of guacamole and chips was a proper way to start a meal in Mexico. I suggested that she may want to start her meal this way, but it’s not all the common, and in fact, I’d never observed Mexicans doing this. She asked the waiter if she could order this and he, of course, brought out a big bowl of chips and guacamole and she turned to me and said, “See! They do this here.” I had to bite my tongue.
I have to watch my own behavior, as well. Clearly, I am obsessed with Mexican food and culture and even though I travel there often, I am aware of my own tourist status and try to avoid speaking in absolutes. I would love to be considered someone who is helping the situation more than hurting it. I don’t want to be another attack on traditional Mexican culture that will need to be defended by someone who knows more.
With all of this, I understand being irked by posole. But this isn’t like a chalupa. This tradition from the American southwest has been around for generations and has morphed into its own thing, including taking freshly cooked nixtamal and drying it for use later, a very clever technique not used by the Mexicans who came up with the very clever technique of making nixtamal. And I would argue even further that this product is superior to the canned hominy most everyone uses instead of making fresh nixtamal. If you want to start a cause, it should be against canned hominy, which has almost no flavor and provides a texture not unlike chicken cartilage.
In New Mexico, posole refers to both the grain and the final dish. It’s a much more casual ingredient than in Mexico. A bowl of posole in a chile sauce is a common side dish. Huntley Dent says in his seminal book, The Feast of Santa Fe, that the difference between everyday posole and feast-day posole is the amount of pork. Everyday posole is a thing. It’s not Mexican but it’s from the same roots and I think it should be embraced as an example of indigenous cultures adapting, creating, and celebrating nixtamal.
When I announced that I was writing a book on pozole, one commenter scolded me for adding pork and told me I should stick to pozole’s pre-colonial roots. Well, if I were to follow her advice, I’d have had to use the flesh of my captured soldiers for protein and I’m just not up for that. Corn and nixtamal have made their way far further north and south than their Mesoamerican origins. It’s bound to change and watching the journey is part of the fun.
Did I mention my new book? Never one to pass up an opportunity when it’s knocking, my next book, The Rancho Gordo Pozole Book, comes out this November.
I get tired of people complaining about cooking in the summer. That is until I get tired of cooking in the heat. Then I understand.
Jars of roasted red peppers and that package of Spanish chorizo were offering to help me with my leftover garbanzo beans. I accepted.
Olive oil, sherry vinegar, some red onion, and some parsley and then dinner was ready. If you wanted to omit the chorizo and make this vegan, be sure and add a spoonful of smoked Pimenton.
First I will tell you that I meant to make Deb Perelman’s Pizza Beans. This Smitten Kitchen recipe has been one of the most talked-about and produced recipes I’ve ever known. Members of our Bean Club make it constantly and collectively they’ve made it a classic. I have to admit that I’ve never made it.
Last weekend I was determined to try it, especially knowing that I had a batch of Royal Corona beans sitting in my fridge. I dutifully printed out Deb’s recipe and bought the needed ingredients at my grocery store.
As it turns out, we suffered an immense heatwave and some weekends are for fun in the kitchen and some weekends are for not moving much off the couch. You can guess where I’m going here.
If you make my version and you like it, please let’s give credit to Smitten Kitchen. If not, it’s all my fault for being lazy. Actually, it would be hard to fault either version.
Another wonderful aspect of this dish was that the ingredients were mostly leftovers. I had made the beans the day before. The cherry tomatoes were left from my CSA delivery and the jar of Trader Joe’s roasted red peppers was opened for a “session” of goat cheese and Ak-Mak crackers earlier in the week. I bought the mozzarella to make Deb’s version (I normally buy the wet, fresh kind) but the parma was already on hand in the fridge. Sometimes it pays to lack ambition.
This was perfect with a green salad. Carb-shy friends who miss pizza will especially appreciate this meal.
Summer Heirloom Bean Casserole
2 cups cooked Rancho Gordo Royal Corona beans, drained 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved 1/2 cup roasted red peppers, chopped roughly 4 sprigs of thyme, leaves stripped and stems discarded 3 tablespoons olive oil salt and pepper, to taste 1 cup mozzarella cheese (low moisture, not fresh), grated 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Preheat the oven to 475F. Mix the beans, tomatoes, peppers, thyme, salt, pepper, and olive oil together and pour into an oven-safe casserole. Top with the two kinds of cheese.
Bake for 20 minutes. The top should be browned and the beans bubbling.
Note: If you have a larger casserole, you may need additional cheese to cover the whole dish. I don’t think many will complain about extra cheese.
I’ve been in Mexico working on a project and this dish stood out. Scrambled eggs cooked separately and then drowned in tomatillo salsa, topped with a handful of chopped epazote.
I love epazote. You might know how well it works with beans, black beans in particular, but it’s also terrific in a quesadilla. It likes cheese a lot. Mushrooms and octopus, too. It turns out eggs are also a natural partner.
Our government recently decided to threaten a 5% tariff on imports from Mexico, with the fees escalating up to 25%. 5% doesn’t sound like much but you have to realize the beans are a food crop. They’ve been growing for 6-9 months, followed by cleaning and packaging and they’ve been planned long before that. It’s taken us years to develop these relationships and these actions have taken their toll.
Speaking for myself, I do believe in comprehensive immigration reform. Nobody is advocating for a porous border. Reform would include international laws, trade, the US role in foreign governments and humanitarian causes. It won’t be simple but it needs to be done in a pragmatic, non-emotional manner.
Immigrants and refugees are not coming to the United States for the cable service. They are fleeing the most desperate situations imaginable, often created with our help by meddling in their governments, along with the American appetite for drug consumption. I would argue that their problems are our problems. Because of our role throughout the Americas and because we are neighbors.
With Burkhard Bilger from The New Yorker, meeting some of the farmers we work with, in Hidalgo, as part of the Rancho Gordo-Xoxoc Project. These hardworking entrepreneurs are the ones who will suffer if a tariff is imposed.
In response to this, we’re considering the threatened tariff and adding a 5% charge to all of our Mexican imports and donating this money, 100%, to No More Deaths, a non-profit that provides humanitarian aid to migrants and refugees, focusing on the deadly Arizona border. In addition to water and medical aid, they also help with legal issues and search-and-rescue situations. That a group like this even needs to exist is repugnant, but thank goodness they do.
Someone suggested we grow our beans in the US instead of Mexico. We do. Maybe we haven’t told the story as well as we should have. We produce about 85% domestically. The imports from Mexico are to encourage the farmers in Mexico to grow their heritage beans. This isn’t about us trying to save money by producing in Mexico. We have also been told that it’s not immigration that is offensive, it’s illegal immigration. It’s not illegal to seek asylum. I also anticipate the “stick to beans and leave politics out of it” responses but sadly, these recent actions have made this personal, for my friends and for my business. My preference would be to not argue about whether we should be treating our neighbors with humanity.
We challenge our legislators and president to work together to enact immigration reform in Congress and then enforce it on the border. Diplomacy and policy through tantrums is not the answer.
N.B. The comments on this post are overwhelming and that’s good. For the record, I’ve allowed opposing views to post and often I’ve rebutted them. If the responses get silly, as they have, I’m not bothering to share them. If they get personal, are racist, the same argument, etc. I’m not approving them.
Not so much here, but from our helpline, I’ve had some really good conversations. In the end, most of us want to be fair. That’s a great place to start. Responding with anger rarely helps. My technique has been to try and diffuse those conversations but at one point it can become clear that it’s time to cut your losses and move on. Once in a while, you have a real moment and that’s encouraging.
Is this not a thing of beauty? A bowl of cranberry (Borlotti) beans with homemade pasta in a sauce of bean broth, chicken broth, and vegetables. It’s moist and delicious but not at all soupy. A perfect balance of beans, pasta, and inspiration.
Angelo with my son, Nico, before a failed, but fun, turkey hunt.
Last week Angelo Gorro of Omnivore Salt (and sauces, etc) came by for a visit and pulled out all the stops with his own pasta, his own salume, his own sausage and of course his own salt.
The variations on pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans) are endless. I have yet to meet one that I haven’t liked. You just know it was created to deal with leftovers. Or to feed a crowd on a budget.
The “Il Nostro Caro Angelo” in the title refers to a Lucio Battisti song. The poor Italians always have to suffer through my enthusiasm for their pop music. It’s fun until I’ve had a few and insist on singing. Here’s a nice version by Mina.
Out of season, canned tomatoes are fine. Angelo had found a can of cherry tomatoes and these were great. Along with the onions and garlic, he sauted a lot of celery.
One of my favorite people, Sarah Londsdale, played photographer for the day. Most of these photos are hers.
You probably know about the salt. The Sicilia sauce was new to me. It’s tomato-based and versatile. On a whim, I drained a cup of the beans and then added a spoonful of the Sicilia sauce and it was perfect. I think white beans would be just as satisfying, just different. Lots of people ask me for “recipes” and here’s a new one: Beans and this sauce. Ta-da!
Exact measurements aren’t possible. Angelo added the cooked pasta to the soffritto and then added the beans. Then he’d add more beans and more pasta until the combination was just right.
My favorite commercial pasta is Baia Pasta. Owner Renato Sardo also dropped by with his daughter for the big dish.
These are Angelo’s notes. If you’ve made pasta e fagioli before, this should be fairly straightforward. If you haven’t, don’t hesitate to download our Pasta e Fagioli Manifesto, including the Baia Pasta version.
As if the afternoon weren’t perfect enough, Angelo left me with some more of his pasta. Posso toccare il cielo con un dito.
A vegan salad to be enjoyed on its own or served with traditional Easter dishes.
I don’t think of Easter as an inspirtational meal but that’s changing. I grew up with industrial hams in cans and lots of bad chocolate. I was invited to my friends’ Easter celebration and when I heard that there’d be both ham and lamb, a lemony vegan side dish seemed in order.
Raw, they have almost no taste. Roasted in a low oven, they become delicious jewels.
It’s clearly too early for good tomatoes but I’ve been craving them after the long winter, which seemed to end overnight here in Northern California. Cherry tomatoes sliced in half, dusted with salt and pepper, drizzled with olive oil, and then topped with fresh time went into the 250F oven for just about an hour.
You can use them in beans, salads, and even pasta.
They don’t compare to in-season tomatoes but they’re terrific. Use them like sun-dried tomatoes in salads, pasta, and of course, with beans. I left the thyme stems in as long as possible but be sure to pick them out before serving.
One pound of dry beans yields about six cups of cooked. Make them a day ahead so they can cool and you’ll have one more thing done the day you serve them.
It’s not a bad idea to make sure beans ahead of time. Bring them to room temperature before you strain them and be sure to save the liquid for another meal. Take care that the beans are well-salted. Things tend to need a bit more when they’re served room temperature or cold.
Flageolet bean broth. Liquid gold!
Recipe: Flageolet Salad with Lemon, Radishes, and Oven-Roasted Tomatoes 6 cups cooked Rancho Gordo Flageolet beans, cooked (from one pound dried) 1 medium red onion, chopped fine 1 bunch Italian parsley, chopped fine 1 bunch radishes, cleaned and sliced thin with a mandolin or vegetable peeler 12 ounces cherry tomatoes, sliced in half 5 sprigs thyme, leaves stripped from stems olive oil 1 ½ lemons for juicing salt pepper
Heat the oven to 250F. Arrange the tomatoes, cut side up, on an ungreased baking tray. Add the thyme leaves to the tomatoes, along with a little salt. Add the stems and any leftover thyme and then drizzle a light dose of olive oil over the tomatoes. Cook for about an hour until the tomatoes are slightly shriveled but not dry. Allow to cool and then roughly chop them.
Toss the beans with the tomatoes, onion, parsley, and olive oil. Add the juice of one lemon and check for tartness. It should be very lemony. Add more lemon juice as needed.
Salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, add the radish slices and more parsley, if desired. Optionally, you can garnish with a lemon slice.
