I won't get fooled again

George W Bush once said: Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again. We'll I've been fooled two times about beans at a Mexican restaurant (and maybe more times unwittingly). When I was visiting in San Antonio I ate at a nice Tex-Mex restaurant and midway through eating the beans I noticed a small piece of something which didn't look quiet like onion and didn't have the right consistency to be carrot. It was pale and thinly slices without much flavor. It took me a little to realize (or perhaps I quickly realized and it took me a while to admit) that the piece was some sort of animal flavoring with which the beans had been cooked. Needless to say I stopped eating those beans and felt kind of bad about myself. After all, I purport to eat kosher, or at least vegetarian when out and this was in clear opposition of that claim.

This past week I was fooled again. I was spending the week in Salt Lake City Utah for dual purposes of skiing and attending a math conference at the University of Utah. One of the evening of the conference a bunch of us got together and hunted for a famous Mexican joint called Red Iguana. After wandering we eventually found the place, and despite the scores of people waiting outside, eventually got in and ordered. I picked chili rellenos. Like most Mexican restaurants, they were served with ample rice and beans. The beans, however, had a taste which after two spoonfuls was very easy to place. Chicken stock or chicken fat permeated the otherwise wonderful beans. WHY???? I had even ordered the dish on the vegetarian section of the menu.

What I have come to realize is that it is often easy to find a main dish which is purely vegetarian, however the trickier points are when the restaurant gives you side dishes (often without telling you exactly what they will be). This happened to me a few weeks back when I went out with my brother to a sushi place and got a salmon bento box. Little did I know that the box would be accompanied by chicken wings and some sort of shrimp dumpling. Most people would take this as a gift, but for me it was just a waist (they ended up going to my brother's dog).

Unfortunately I can not expect to be able to eat out completely vegetarianly without ever encountering meat or meat flavoring. Risotto, rice, beans, salads, soups all will occasionally come with some sort of meat or meat flavorings. Even if I am super paranoid, I may not always catch this. I can not have things both ways --- I can not expect to be wholly kosher while still eating out.

In any case, I decided today, that because I did not get to eat those beans in Utah, I would make some black beans of my own. So last night I set soaking a pound of little black beans. By morning they had roughly tripled in size and absorbed the whole thing of water. These beans take much longer to cook than larger beans and even after about 2.5 hours of cooking, there are a few that are still a little tough. The aim of this dish was to have a thick mixture of black beans in a sauce mostly composed of black bean's which had burst open. I made a few untraditional choices in flavor which give this dish a kind of tart and also slightly sweet taste.





Recipe:
1 lb dried black beans (soaked over night in lots of water)
3 bay leaves
3 dried red peppers
1 jar salsa
1 carrot
1 large sweet potato
1 large head of garlic
2 onions
cumin powder
paprika
mustard powder
salt / pepper
beer / vinegar / apple cider / wine

Dice the garlic and onions and cook with some canola oil with three bay leaves and dried red peppers. After about 5 minutes add in the carrot and sweet potato and cook for a few minutes. Add in the beans, their water and a jar of salsa. Cook until some of the water has cooked off then add in cumin, paprika, mustard powder, salt, pepper and any other powdered spices you desire. Also, start to add in some beer or vinegar or cider or wine to replenish the liquid. I used all four and it made the sauce very interesting. Make sure that there is always ample liquid. It will take about 2 hours for the sauce to get nice and thick. The target is to have a thick bean sauce with a number of well cooked black beans floating around in it. Be careful - the bottom of the pan may burn if you do not stir it every once in a while.