Costa Rican Black Beans & Rice
Beans and rice are a common sight on tables around the world. During my stay in Costa Rica ten years ago we had black beans and rice with every lunch and dinner. The beans were prepared from scratch in massive batches and frozen in individual portions to heat up each day. Usually when I want beans and rice the first thing I do is reach for a can. But that's just plain wrong! Canned food is modern technology. People have been eating beans and rice for thousands of years, so if you want to get in touch with your roots get yourself some dry beans and start cooking. The following recipe is based on my own technique which I picked up all those years ago in Costa Rica.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. bag dry black beans
- 5 cups water (to start)
- 1 medium to large white onion
- 1 bunch of fresh cilantro
- 3 large cloves of garlic (or more)
- 2 tsp. oregano
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. pepper
- crushed/chopped chili seeds (optional)
- lime juice
Preparation
The first step is to clean the beans, this should preferably done one day in advance but it is not necessary. Empty the bag onto a large flat (preferably bounded) surface like a cookie sheet and sort through weeding out the gimpy beans and foreign objects such as rocks and animal droppings. When the beans are cooked you'll be chomping down very excitedly so a rock is the last thing you want in there. They are more common then you might think given our usual expectations of supermarket fare; remember these beans are probably a few steps lower on the processing scale than most things you've eaten this week.
Put the beans in a colander and rinse them off. Now put them in a bowl of clean cool water to soak. Soaking for a full day is recommended, but if you don't have that much time the beans will still come out okay, you just may need to cook them longer.
yclept adds:
Soaking the beans for 20 hours or so in the refrigerator, changing the water twice about 1/3 and 2/3 of the way through seriously reduces their gas producing properties.
After soaking, drain the beans and rinse them once more and boil in a large pot. Finely chop the cilantro and garlic and throw them into the boiling water. Dice the onion and set it aside. You can throw it in right away, but if you like a little bit of body left in your onion like me, wait til the end to throw it in.
Lower the heat just off maximum for the first half hour to maintain a rolling boil. After that lower the heat to medium, cover and cook several hours. Total cooking time is a loose range from 3-7 hours depending pre-soak time, burner heat, and covered vs. uncovered cooking. In Latin America the use of a pressure cooker is common to speed up the process, but that requires using a precise amount of water and I don't have one to test with.
As the beans cook, add water if it gets too thick. If it's not getting thick enough remove the lid so steam can escape. Remember that the beans will thicken slightly as they cool, and will continue to soften if you are storing them or have leftovers. After 4-5 hours start checking the beans consistency to see they are done, the skins will start to crack open, but taste is the best gauge. When the beans are soft add the salt, pepper, oregano and chili seeds.
The beans cook very slowly, so you have a wide window during which they could be considered done. Just before you judge this to be the case, cook up enough rice for the meal. I'll leave the instructions for that to Sensei et. al, but I will suggest that you prepare rice on the dry side so it can soak up the delicious bean sauce.
Once ready, heap a generous portion of beans over a pile of rice and squeeze lime juice on the top! This meal is delicious and primal just the way it is, but it also goes well with any kind of meat, vegetable, or other main dish you can think of. Use your imagination!