Anissa Helou’s Feast: Foood of the Islamic World (Ecco Press, 2018) is a great book and you should have it in your personal library. It’s big, beautiful and full of recipes that are complicated and exotic along with much simpler fare. The common thread is celebrations. I’ve had the book for a while now and it remains a constant inspiration. The recipes work.
I’ve taken a lot of liberties with her Baked Sea Bass with Tomatoes and Olives recipe from Morocco. She calls for a whole sea bass but my market had fillets of halibut. The all green olives were replaced by a mixture of green and black only because this is what I had on hand. I also added a bed of pureed Rancho Gordo Cassoulet beans on each plate to rest on as a starch instead of bread. But the basic dish is chermoula-marinated white fish baked with tomatoes and olives. I did follow that!
A traditional Moroccan clay vessel for fish is a tagra. I’ve been wanting one for a very long time. I’ll get one one day. I used the bottom of my clay, unglazed tagine and it was great. I even used the tagine lid to keep the dish warm as my slow but determined family made their way to the table for a Sunday supper. We all agreed that this was a keeper, especially with so many good heirloom tomatoes at hand in the garden. I’m hoping Anissa won’t mind all the liberties taken with her recipe.
Recipe: Baked Fish with Tomatoes and Olives
For the Fish 1 ½ to 2 pounds of firm white fish, such as halibut or sea bass. Chermoula (see below) Sprigs of flat leaf parsley 4 large firm ripe tomatoes, cut into thick slices sea salt 10 ½ ounces green (or green and black) olives, pitted, preferably by you, sliced in half 2 cups cooked Rancho Gordo Cassoulet beans and some of their cooking liquid
For the Chermoula 5 cloves of garlic, minced to a fine paste or pounded in a mortar 1 small onion, finely grated ½ bunch of cilantro, stems discarded, finely chopped 1 teaspoon ground cumin ½ teaspoon paprika ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil juice of 2 lemons, or to taste sea salt, to taste
Pat the fish dry with paper towels and place on a platter or in a bowl. Gently massage the fish with the chermoula and marinate for at least 2 hours, preferably longer, in the refrigerator.
Preheat the oven to 425F (220C).
Blanch the pitted olives in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and reserve.
Spread the parsley over the bottom of an oven-to-table baking dish large enough to hold the fish. Lay down the marinated fish and then cover with sliced tomatoes. Season the tomatoes with salt and add any leftover chermoula over the tomatoes. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes. Add the reserved olives and cook for another 10 minutes. Take care to not overcook the fish. A whole fish will take a few minutes longer than fish fillets. Allow the dish to rest for 5 minutes.
Warm the beans in a small pot and puree them with an immersion blender. The consistency should be almost like a pancake batter; thick but still soft and liquid. If they are too runny, turn up the heat to medium-high and stir as the bean puree thickens. If the beans are too thick, add a little water.
Have each guest put a ladle full of the bean puree on each plate and then add the fish.
In our last Rancho Gordo newsletter, I made this comment:
I was looking through our customer reviews on ranchogordo.com and in general, the feedback is the kind of thing most companies dream of. We have about 95% five-star reviews and the occasional clunker. Most of the bad reviews state something like this: “I’ve been cooking the beans in a bean pot for six to eight hours now and they still aren’t soft. They were soaked for twelve hours and have been simmering in a ceramic bean pot all afternoon and evening.” Or “I soaked them at least 24 hours and used them in my recipe and no matter how long I cooked them they were still crunchy.”
What do they have in common? Excessive soaking.
As I’ve said many times before, most of us here don’t soak our beans. We know how fresh they are and it’s easier to just cook them. Sometimes I’ll get up early on a Sunday morning and soak the beans for cooking later in the day but I really think between four and six hours is more than enough. It’s not science, but a suspicion I have is that the beans are starting to sprout. I’m not anti-soaking but I do think you can over-soak the beans.
I was naive to think there wouldn’t be a response! I’ve decided to post some for you here. So many great responses and so many great customers. I’m a happy fellow.
I should add, I don’t have any problem with our beans not softening. And judging by our customer service inquiries, neither do the vast majority of you. We have all kinds of problems, but this just normally doesn’t come up as one of them. But when it does, it seems to be accompanied by an extremely long soak.
Steve, As a geologist, I thought I would add to your over-soaking comment. Many water systems have natural salts that may also harden prevent the beans not cooking . Everyone knows only salt the at the end of cooking. I never had success cooking beans until I discovered Rancho Gorda beans and your website. Thank you for the great products, cooking methods and fab recipes. All my best, MC
Hi Steve,
That’s an interesting take on soaking. I just drop the dry beans into boiling water, let them boil for 1 measured minute and then let them soak for an hour. They come out perfectly so long as I use the beans of the year.
I just finished harvesting my crop of Marcella’s and Tigereyes and am in process of harvesting white runners. I doubt that I will plant the last next year. The vines take over the world! This spring I harvested a small crop of red lentils and am waiting for cooler weather to cook up a mess of red lentil/Italian sausage potage.
I tried some nuñas popped in the microwave and was less than impressed. I’ll try them in a skillet next time but this variety doesn’t look like a repeater to me. Maybe some garbanzos will be worth a try next spring.
Growing and eating beans is immensely satisfying!
Walter
As I always say, if you have a system that works for you, keep on it. re the Nuñas, I like the idea of them popping but after years of drying them to try and get them to pop, it’s seemed less than a thrill.
I find that if you add salt or tomatoes before the beans are soft, they will never get soft. Many recipes include salt or tomatoes too early. I love your beans!!! JoAnn
Steve, I’m wondering if your customers who are commenting on cooking issues are adding salt too early to the cooking water. I believe (from experience)that has an effect on cooking time. Love, love your beans! I’m grateful to my friend who introduced me to your products. Thank you, thank you.Elita
Hi Steve, I’m just wondering about your thoughts on the recommendation by Americas Test Kitchen on “brining” beans during the soaking period. Like you, I typically only soak for 3-4 hours before cooking but have found that 3-4 tbs of salt in the soaking water helps. You do have to rinse this off and cook in unsalted water after that and only adjust seasoning at the end. They (ATK) claim that brining causes some change to the skin structure which keeps it intact but not hard. Just wondering in RG has ever tried or heard of this? Craig
We talk about this a lot because people bring it up. It’s hard to bother when our beans seem always to come out. Julia has promised to try this over the holiday weekend.
Steve: another culprit is salt. I used to salt my beans as soon as I added the water and other ingredients, but sometimes they never softened, no matter how long I cooked them. After doing a little research, I found a Diana Kennedy recipe that says to NEVER salt beans until near the end of the cook time. Now I never salt until the end, and they come out perfect every time! Salud, James
I tend to salt at the point when the beans aren’t quite done but it’s clear that there’s no turning back. The pot starts to smell like beans. If you wait too long, you’ll have salty broth and bland beans. It’s a balancing act.
Hi Steve, So are you saying that over soaking causes “hard” beans?? Best, Roger
Yes. It can happen!
Steve – I agree! Rancho Gordo beans are so fresh they hardly require any soaking. I never have to soak the Midnight Black Beans – they are my all time favorite! Will you ever have the Florida Runner Beans again? Or something similar? Best – Diane
Hi Steve! Hope you are well! On soaking beans, I will say that those who live in places where the water is hard as a rock, do need to add a teaspoon of baking soda to the quick pre soak, to soften the cooking water and then drain. Others may not know to leave the salt out till they are cooked soft, as salt pulls water out of foods. The lovely Corona is just a big bean and needs more cooking, it’s all relative Steve. 🙂 Hope this helps! Munson
Hello there! Regarding soaking beans: I’ve been experimenting a little with my new toy…a Fissler stove top pressure cooker. I have been doing a quick soak first. I pour boiling water from the kettle on my beans and soak for about an hour, then pressure cook them for about 20 minutes. I probably don’t need to do the presoak. I never have when I’ve cooked my beans the normal way. But I like the way the beans are coming out. Just thought I’d share. Best wishes, Cheri
Loved the New Yorker article. Really enjoying your beans. A quick question hopefully. I soaked a pound of Scarlett runners (will do less soaking next time, I hear you on they’re so fresh don’t necessarily need it). I drained early the next morning and put in a container and promptly forgot about them. They’re about ten days old now. They look fine, smell fine, haven’t sprouted, aren’t soft or mushy, etc. Do you think they’re okay to cook still?
Another question as I’m writing this: can I freeze simply cooked beans (I’m thinking I do a basic cook, split in half, freeze one, cook the other and the next week or month, unfreeze and make a completely differ t recipe).
Thanks in advance for anything you might offer. Hope all is well there for you and yours! Amy
I would pass but only based on instinct, not science. Freezing is easy and those that do it recommend freezing with plenty of bean broth.
Interesting article on bean soaking…we are above 5000′ and use a pressure cooker…never had problems with soaking overnight…no consistent issue except maybe for some beans in the batch. just our two cents worth for what that is worth anymore 🙂 great beans and newsletter… best, Will
Ah ha! So one CAN oversoak beans! What a help, that is. I’m sure I’ve sent some into sprout mode plenty of times. Recently, I took a class at Sur la Table. We used an Insta-Pot to cook unsoaked beans and they were fantastic…in half an hour or less. Erin
If you soak beans (at least garbanzos) long, they start to ferment. Bubbles give it away. Jacques Pepin says that makes them unhealthful, but I can’t imagine that being true. Fermenting generally makes things more digestible by breaking down long sugar molecules. I wonder if that could affect cooking, however. I believe I have run into the phenomenon you mention after soaking them a long time (generally due to unplanned delays in cooling) up to a few days Best, Paul ps – In your searches, please look for small garbanzos. I got some from Arrowhead (sorry) but most are much bigger. The little ones are more like those I’ve had in Italy.
I just read your latest newsletter and I wanted to say something about oversoaking beans. I’m with you — my (starting to become extensive for a home cook) experience shows that yes, you can oversoak beans. Basically, I think that once the soaking water starts to froth on the top they’ve been soaked too long and are starting to ferment (or maybe sprout, as you suggest). 12 hours is too long! Overnight is too long! 24 hours is way too long. 3-6 hours is fine, and not soaking at all is also fine but does take a little longer. Maybe an hour or two. So I’m not sure if you’re really saving much time by pre-soaking anyway.
The only Rancho Gordo beans I’ve found tricky in regards to cooking time are the teparies. They are really unpredictable. But delicious enough that I don’t care 🙂
Between the farmers markets, my own vegetable garden, and sloppy refrigerator housekeeping, I often end up with too many vegetables. This week it was too much corn. The result was a soup with pancetta, Rancho Gordo Cassoulet beans, and corn right off the cob.
We tried this with the addition of a poached egg and the combination of egg and corn is almost cloyingly sweet. It was OK but we all agreed it was better as it is. If you prefer creamier soups, you can obviously blend this with an immersion blender but personally, I love all the texture.
I’ve made this with all bean broth and it was too “beany” if that makes sense. The pancetta and aromatics make such a delicious base that you don’t need much else as long as the corn is fresh and the beans are good.
I reheated some leftover and add a touch of heavy cream. It was incredible but a very different soup. If you’re having a rough day, add the cream. Otherwise, enjoy the glory of summer corn without it.
Recipe: Pancetta, Corn and Bean Soup
4 ears of corn, kernels removed 3 ounces pancetta, cubed 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cups cooked Rancho Gordo Cassoulet beans 3 cloves garlic, minced ½ yellow onion, chopped fine
1 tablespoon Rancho Gordo Oregano Indio
2 cups water (or half water and half bean broth) salt, pepper to taste optional: 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream
In a soup pot, saute the pancetta cubes over medium-low heat until tender and chewy, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent them from burning.
Add the garlic and onions and saute until soft, about five minutes. Add the corn, beans, and water, stirring to mix all of the ingredients. Continue cooking for about 20 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Right before serving, you can add some heavy cream if you like. Allow the soup to cook another 2 or 3 minutes to reheat if necessary.
I keep experimenting with this concept and it keeps getting better.
It started by my seeing a clay pot of these fish tamales in both in Morelia, Mexico. I’ve attempted to recreate it before. Every time it improves.
You start with a broth. This was half bean broth and and half water. The zucchini were sliced very thin and added with onion, parsley and celery. This continues to cook until you have an acceptable broth.
Soaked corn husks for tamales were soaked in warm water for a couple of hours to make them pliable. In each package I added an hoja santa leaf, two pieces of cod, morel mushrooms, zucchini slices and a mix of thinly sliced onion and jalapeño that had been marinating in olive oil. This was tied up with string to make a little package.
This is what I had on hand and sounded good. I would encourage you to do the same. Got shrimp? Use it! Some other vegetable? Just slice it thin enough to cook in the relatively short time you have before the fish overcooks.
They cooked in the broth for about 20 minutes.
While the fish gently poached, I fried up some padron peppers in duck fat. Oink. I mean, quack.
This salad of cucumber, yogurt, lemon, garlic and mint continues to be a summer favorite but my fickle family is getting tired of it. During these hot summer nights, I think it’s the best salad ever.
I cooked the fish in a red clay cazuela from San Marcos Tlapatzola in Oaxaca. It’s become a dedicated tamal de pescado pot.
Inspired by a traditional barbacoa in Hidalgo, I decided to add garbanzos to the bottom of every soup bowl and ladle the hot cooking broth over them as a soup course.
If all goes as planned, the tamales flavor the broth. Even the corn husk adds a little something.
I was confused what to call these. Tamales doesn’t seem a hundred percent right since there was no masa but my very clever friend Sharon Peters responded to my query if they can be called tamales:
Yes, they can, Steve. In Central and Eastern Mexico, it is not at all uncommon to encounter a tamal de X (pescado, hongos, etc.) that has been either cooked on the comal or poached in a shallow liquid. Most commonly found wrapped in hojas de maiz, but sometimes in hojas de plátano (which are especially aromatic). I had no idea that such tamales existed until I ran across them in a couple of (very) rural markets and at a puesto in the plaza in Tlaxcala. Guadalupe Pérez San Vicente, in her Repertorio de tamales (Cocina Indigena y Popular #15) states that her research led her to the conclusion that the term “tamalli” referred to something that had been “envuelto cuidadoso” – or, carefully wrapped. True, by far the most common in Mexico, and certainly in the US, are the tamales that are steamed in a vaporera.
Finally the warm fish packages are passed around and it’s a pretty nice moment. Everything is cooked to perfection and two seems about the right number per serving. There were no leftovers, not even of the soup.
This was a winner. I only took notes so I don’t have a proper recipe for you but I bet you can manage and maybe even make this better.
Leftover cassoulet beans are terrific for soups. Many like to puree them and have a silky texture but I generally prefer a more rustic soup.
I think I was the last person on earth to discover salt-packed capers. They are delicious and only a slight bother. You can rinse and soak a batch of them, then squeeze any liquid out and rest them in some good olive oil. They’re a perfect ingredient.
My notes say:
11⁄2 cups cooked Rancho Gordo Cassoulet (Tarbais) beans
1 oz guanciale
2 spoons of capers in oil
1 spoonful olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 cup bean broth
1 cup water
4 poached eggs
Parsley for garnish
I’d render the guanciale in the olive oil until cooked, then add the capers and garlic. Once the garlic is cooked, add the liquids and cook for a bit to make the base for a soup. Then add the beans and right before serving, the eggs.
You can make the eggs well ahead. Just undercook them a smoodge and pour the hot bean soup over them.
Edited to add: I made this again because I had all the ingredients on hand but this time I took a big rosemary sprig and I added it after the guanciale was cooked and removed it right before serving. It worked well!
I’m going to take a guess and say that seeing other people’s gardens is almost as interesting as cat photos, as in, not at all. But please indulge me. This is my first home garden in years and it was from a home garden and being a frustrated home cook that Rancho Gordo was born. We were lucky enough to find a spring on our property and were able to send the water, by gravity, down to these raised beds. We added a battery-powered timer and now without using any household electricity or water, we have vegetables.
So far we’ve enjoyed lots of radishes but that gets old fast. We loved the Japanese turnips and especially the turnip greens, with Fatted Calfguanciale. The cucumbers are great and I see zucchini in our future very soon. The tomatoes and peppers will have to wait for later in the summer.
I’m very excited to see little visitors that aren’t squirrels, field mice or rats, so this chipmunk made me very happy. I hear they can be just as irritating as the others but when you’re so cute, you can get away with a lot of mischief.
If there is one secret to home gardening, especially in a place like Northern California where there are literally are no summer rains, it’s to add a drip line. I loved coming home from work and hand watering as a stress reliever but nothing compares to a drip for happy plants.
In the photo below, you can see some black trees in the background. These are dead from The Fire. Notice how close to the propane tank they got and you can understand how appreciative I am that we only lost a barn, garbage and some forest.
I think the next question you might ask is, “What! No beans?”
They’re in a different part of the property and yes, I am very likely to bore you with those shots soon!
The experiments with smoke continue. Previously I smoked plum tomatoes with great success. Now we’re testing tomatillos.
After peeling off the husk, I quartered them and smoked them with cherry wood. They were perfect!
I used these cooked tomatillos to make a green salsa in my molcajete with salt and garlic. After they were mashed, I added some raw white onion and chopped cilantro. It was a little different but perfectly delicious. Next time I want to try this with hickory or oak wood.
You know I love a new toy. I’ve written about clay donabe pieces from Toiro before and I’m strictly a tourist. The pots are an investment but for someone like me who still is haunted by the Napa fires last year, grilling and barbecuing is just not an option.
The Ibushi Gin stovetop smoker is perfect. It’s very easy to use and I am looking at every ingredient in my kitchen as a potential experiment. This last weekend I used crap Roma tomatoes from the grocery store. I salted them and added some of our Oregano Indio.
I would guess than most people who use these want a complete meal out of them but I think they’re worth it for creating ingredients that you can use throughout the week. The smoked tomatoes were ridiculously good and the skins really just slipped off. I used the tomatoes with some leftover hominy and pork and it was a great dish, thanks in large part to the tomatoes.
The pot comes with cherry wood chips. I am looking at containers of pecan, hickory and oak. I’m all in and will report back with more.
If you want to dig deeper, and you should, be sure and check out the book Donabe. It’s a whole new reason to be an obsessive.
Disclaimer: I have no relationship with the Toiro people beyond being a fanboy. I hope to meet them and thank them one day soon!
As always, some of the best dishes come from trying to use up leftovers. I’ve been on a carrot kick. I like them. I want to love them, but they tend to go bad before I can finish them. I was determined not to let that happen this time!
Carrot and Mayocoba Soup
¼ pound pancetta, cubed 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus about a spoonful to garnish 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped 1 sprig fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme) 2 bunches of carrots (approx 1.5 to 2 pounds), peeled and chopped 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock 2 cups cooked Rancho Gordo Mayocoba beans (plus 1 cup of bean broth) Salt and pepper to taste Chopped fresh parsley
Serves 2 to 4
In a large pot, cook the pancetta in 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat until cooked through and chewy, about 7 to 10 minutes. Keep stirring so that the pieces don’t burn. Add the onion, garlic, thyme and carrots and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
Add the chicken stock, taking care to scrape any caramelized bits off the bottom of the pot, and stir to incorporate them into the liquid. Continue cooking for 10 minutes. Add the beans and the broth to the carrot mixture. Stir well and then puree them with an immersion blender or in batches in a blender, taking care not to overfill the blender jar with hot liquid. You can also puree without the beans and add them later if you want more texture to your soup.
Cook the blended soup for another 10 minutes over medium-low heat. Check for seasoning, noting that the pancetta can be salty and possibly your cooked beans as well.
Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley and drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil.
This recipe orginally appeared in the Rancho Gordo Newsletter on June 14, 2018 You can sign up for our twice-monthly email newsletter here.
Rancho Gordo Supper in Orange County to Highlight Heirloom Mexican Beans, Support High School Art Program
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.
All proceeds of the supper will go to the arts program at Valley High School in Santa Ana, and there will be a art exhibit to accompany the supper.
There will be two seatings for the Supper, the first at 3 p.m. and the second at 5 p.m. To attend our Supper, we require that you RSVP and pay for your ticket in advance. Please call Alta Baja Market at (714) 783-2252 to process your reservation and payment over the phone, or stop by the store (201 E. First St. Santa Ana, CA 92701) and make your reservation and payment in person. Please specify which ticket you are purchasing, and for which seating. You must RSVP and pay in advance directly with Alta Baja Market—no exceptions.
Pricing:
-Three course Rancho Gordo Supper- $50.00
-Supper + Valle de Guadelupe wine pairings- $75.00
-Supper + Valle de Guadelupe wine pairings + a copy of the new Rancho Gordo cookbook “The Rancho Gordo Vegetarian Kitchen” – $100.00
