Last Night's Dinner 10

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Hot Pot

A recap on the various ways to cook black beans as well as a very simple hot pot to use them in….

Black beans often end up in some smoky, chipotle rich, coriander thing in this house, mainly because my lot are tortilla obsessed and the zillion variations of tacos with black beans are easy dinner wins for me. But yesterday I totally lucked out because I got good scotch bonnets from the corner halal shop. This is a rarer occurrence than I would like - too often the peppers I can find in London are habaneros not scotch bonnet - good in their way, but although they have the heat their flavour is more generic - they certainly don’t have the unique, floral, fruitiness of scotch bonnets, the scent of which is probably in my top 10 aromas of all time. So last night some of the flavours I associate with the Caribbean went into the pot. Bay, thyme and parsley instead of coriander, scotch bonnet in place of chipotle. Lots of allspice (Jamaican pimento).

I had a full tub of black beans in the fridge ready to use - the result of making the most of another “free electricity” hour - I always batch cook as much as I can in that time and I usually manage at least one batch of beans or pulses, tomato sauce, a grain and a couple of other shorter cook things too.

The various ways to cook black beans:

1. Slowest method, biggest fuel saving

Soak over night in plenty of water, with a teaspoon of salt. Strain and put in your pressure cooker with fresh water and another teaspoon of salt and any aromatics you like in a bouquet garni. I favour bay, thyme, lightly crushed allspice berries and a sliver of cinnamon bark - but just a sliver as the flavour intensifies and pushes through to the beans, big time. If you don’t want to use a bouquet garni, I would recommend using ground spices instead - it is really hard fishing allspice berries out of a pot of black beans and you don’t want to bite down on them - they go very soft, but the flavour is just too intense.

Bring up to high pressure, cook for 1 minute, then remove from the heat and leave until the pot has cooled down. This will be at least an hour, probably longer. They should be tender but not mushy - ie., still have integrity.

2. Quick soak method

This is a good one if you decide to cook black beans on the day you want to use them but want a little more control over texture. Because of course we don’t always know we what we want to eat the day before. Put the beans in the pressure cooker and cover with cold water. Add a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of oil, just in case the beans give out any foam - they wouldn’t normally at this stage, but you never know. Bring up to high pressure, cook for 2 minutes then remove from the heat and leave for 5. Release any remaining pressure - be careful, again, because of the possibility of foam.

Strain the beans and cover with fresh water. Add another teaspoon of salt and any aromatics you like (see above). Cook for 4-6 minutes, depending on the PSI of your pressure cooker and leave to drop pressure naturally - don’t leave once they have dropped pressure as they will keep cooking and there is a risk they will be mushy. OR cook for 1 minute, remove from the heat and leave to drop pressure and cool down.

3. Unsoaked Method

Put in the pressure cooker with plenty of water, a teaspoon of salt, any aromatics and a tablespoon of oil. Bring up to high pressure and cook for 22-25 minutes depending on the PSI of your pressure cooker. Remove from the heat and leave to drop pressure naturally. This method is the most erratic in terms of how well the beans cook. To help prevent them going mushy, you can add something acidic - like tomato puree or vinegar. Although the salt helps with this too.

Caribbean Black Bean Hotpot

This is a vegetarian dish. If you want to add meat, you can do so easily. A little diced bacon at the beginning, some shredded or pulled ham or pork added as a garnish. When sour oranges are in season I douse refried pulled pork in their juice, and caramelise lightly with brown sugar and chilli. A mixture of orange and lime juice works the rest of the year. If you have spring onions/scallions, their finely sliced greens make a good garnish too.

Oh, and another good garnish is some fried plantain. Get unripe ones, harder to peel, but worth it, then slice on the diagonal, drop into lime water so they don’t go black, then drain, pat dry and fry until crisp. Then add more lime juice, plenty of salt and a sprinkling of chilli pepper (or Tajin if you have any).

Ingredients:

1 tbsp coconut oil or olive oil

1 onion, cut into slim wedges

1 red pepper, diced

1-2 sweet potatoes, depending on size, peeled and diced

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

750g cooked black beans

1 x 400ml coconut milk

100g cherry tomatoes

6 blocks frozen whole leaf spinach (I might use amaranth if I see it at the farmers market - Jamaican callaloo)

A few sprigs fresh thyme

A scotch bonnet pepper, left whole, pierced with a knife tip

Spring onion greens, finely sliced (optional)

To serve:

Rice or flatbreads

A squeeze of lime juice