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I was in Red Hook, Brooklyn the other day and came across a $99 cent dollar store. I've been there several times but this time I was looking for something yummy to blog about. One thing that is ubiquitous at most dollar stores is beans. Many stores will offer both dried and canned beans - Kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, chickpeas etc. As far as eating from the dollar stores goes, beans are a true treasure. Knowing how to cook with beans adds good substance and sustenance to a meal.
So there I was staring at the beans. My eyes went back and forth - dried, canned, dried, canned, dried, canned. Canned beans obviously offer more convenience but there was something about dried beans that attracted me. I know it's a process to cook - one has to soak the beans overnight then cook them for a least an hour so they are soft enough to eat. Through the process of osmosis and application of heat, water is absorbed and the bean cells soften over the course of a day. It takes time and patience. More work for sure but I often enjoy eating beans cooked from scratch than from a can.
I think in order to make good food, among many things, one must have clear control of the texture of food. The ability to work with the texture of food allows the cook to decide how soft or firm, concentrated or diluted, or large or small an ingredient should be. The gradation of the qualities of an ingredient is similar to the quality of sound in music. For example, every note in a piece of music has a stylistic execution - it can be hummed softly in pianissimo while other notes are being played out, or be robust taking the lead in a song, or linger over several moments and blend in with the harmony of the music. I think beans are like that too. There are various "styles" in which beans can work itself into a dish. When firm, beans hold their original structure and nutty flavor. Eating firm beans provides a toothsome feel that might go well with other ingredients in a dish. When soft, beans can absorb the flavors of the dish. Chili, for example, is usually served with soft beans that have been cooking in many herbs and spices, hence flavorful soft beans. Cook beans for too long and it will turn into a pot of mush. Re-fried beans come to mind as there are dishes that call for mushy pasty beans.
In addition to the culinary advantages of cooking with dried beans, I think it offers something more psychological as well, especially in the context of eating from the dollar store. Working with dried beans offers greater freedom to choose, freedom to decide how beans should be, and freedom to be more creative with cooking. When we buy canned beans, the condition of the beans has already been decided. The canning process has already determined the quality of the bean. There is no turning back. We cannot make it firm again. Beans from a can only become softer with more cooking. Additionally, the canned beans won't assimilate with the flavors of a dish effectively since it's absorbed the water content of the can.
Good cooking requires the freedom to manipulate the flavors and textures of an ingredient. For that reason, it's usually best to start with the freshest and least processed food as possible. With that thought, I sighed and grabbed a bag of dried beans off the shelf.
A little bit more info about where beans come from: Beans are considered part of the legume family of plants. They are hearty plants that grow well in temperate weather conditions. In the northeast part of the United States, beans can be grown between the months of May through October when temperatures are cool to warm. Legumes are special plants because unlike other agricultural plants, legumes nourish the soil. Nitrogen, which is considered the staple "food" for plants, does not occur naturally in soil. Part of the reason why so much fertilizer is applied to soil is to put nitrogen back into the soil. Legumes, however, are special because they can produce their own nitrogen. Their roots host bacteria that fix nitrogen back into soil. For this reason, beans are always considered an important agricultural crop.
When a bean plant begins to produce beans, a pod emerges from the flower at first and then small beans form inside the pod. As the pod matures, the beans increase in size, become ripe to eat, then dries out. The pods are then picked and shucked which is how we get our beans.