Toast: Dove Creek Pintos

It started when I was browsing among the numerous and varied "authentic" recipes for chili con carne confidently billed as the final word on the topic. Nearly all adamently rejected including beans in a real "bowl of red." I have since misplaced the website of one particular expert on the subject.

This fellow claimed he was merely the conduit for the wisdom of the wizened proprietor of a legendary shack-type establishment in New Mexico. This aged narrative device had also revealed to him the rules about fixing beans (separately, of course). Naturally, the only bean which he felt was worth mentioning was the pinto bean. Moreover, they had to be from a particular place in Colorado, and they had to be this year's crop of Dove Creek dried pintos. It would make a huge difference he promised, in the taste of the beans. I am a great fan of the dried bean, and I am sorry to confess that I had to know if this claim was true.

It is in situations of this sort where the convenience of the internet is the most dangerous. Before I knew what I was doing, I had found the town, found the beans, and ordered the 20 pound sack you see here. Beans are heavy, and as you might guess, the postage cost more than the beans. I had not reflected sufficiently (or, in fact, at all) upon the myriad excellent dried beans on offer here in Pittsburgh. The strip district markets have barrels of great beans: cannellinis at PA Macaroni, greek gigantas and chickpeas at Stamboulis, mexican market beans, and middle eastern specialties. Lovely lentils and other beautiful pulses can be found at the Indian market in Oakland. But, the thing is, I couldn't tell you the age of any of those good beans, and I just had to know if it would make a difference. I'm here to tell you it does. These damn beans are great.

Since I am so well stocked, I have been using my big bag of beans where pintos have not generally gone before, and been very pleased. Actually, I was going to write about one such venture, which I tried in order to use the little bunch of kale from this week's farm box. I made the delicious Kale and White (here, pinto) Bean Soup from the newish Gourmet Cookbook, and even took a picture of it, pinto-ized, as you see.
But I really think these beans are at their very best when made as just plain old beans, and eaten with cornbread for supper. This is how I make mine. I did not get my recipe from a little old chili cook, or his amanuensis. It is not even a recipe- it's just how I fix pinto beans:

1/2 pound pinto beans
1 medium peeled onion cut in half
1 clove peeled garlic
I carrot in 1/2 chunks
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 dried chipotle pepper, or other dried pepper of choice
sprig fresh marjoram
sprig fresh thyme
bay leaf
last frozen chunk of immense and ill-considered country ham from New Years (ham hock okay, vegetarians advised to try chunk of parmegiana rind)
chopped fresh cilantro
lime juice

Soak beans overnight in fridge, in water to cover by 2". Put them in a pan with everything else except cilantro and lime. Add enough water to cover by 2" if absorbed overnight. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook until tender- time varies wildly depending on age of beans factor. Remove meat or cheese from pot, cut it up in little cubes and mix back in.
Fill your bowl, sprinkle with cilantro, and squirt with lime juice. This beans are really good mixed with plain rice too. And you can shake on a little tabasco if you like.

I don't know if I'll be ordering another bag when I finish these. It's nice to use different varieties of beans in different dishes. I'm still doing that, but feel a guilty twinge and a call to go for the pintos, since their virtue seems to be mostly in their freshness. If I lived in the southwest, I'd sure try to grab these guys at the grocery whenever I wanted some pintos.

Comments

I'm a vegetarian. You get a bookmark.

Andrew

The Darn News
www.darnnews.com

Posted by: Andrew Johnson | June 14, 2005 at 12:59 PM

Andrew-I think if you have not already checked it out, you should go and have a look at the hungry tiger, the long standing, wonderful, and entirely vegetarian foodblog of the admirable redfox, who happens to be my daughter. I'll bet many people who read it have not noticed that it is entirely vegetarian, because it is not about being a vegetarian, but rather about very good food.

Posted by: Lindy | June 14, 2005 at 03:39 PM