Untitled black bean project no. 1

The other day while poking through my cupboards I discovered a bag of black beans. First question which came to mind was 'I wonder how long I've had these?' Then came 'what to do with them?' Make soup naturally. So I popped over to my computer and searched Epicurious.com for recipes with tagged with 'soup' & 'black bean'. And here's what I selected, which is now on deck for the next batch.

Black Bean Soup with Cumin and Cilantro

Bon Appétit | February 2000

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Black-Bean-Soup-with-Cumin-and-Cilantro-102984

Thing is I have never had much luck using dried beans or legumes in recipes before. I know there are different methods to prepare the dried versions for cooking. But no matter what means I have used in the past the result was always the same: crunchy.

So with that impressive track record I decided to try an experiment with the black beans recently emancipated. The recipe calls for 2 cups of dried black beans. I measured out 2 cups and placed them in a non-reactive bowl, and then filled with cold tap water, until the beans were covered to a depth of 2-3 cm. Over the next 24 hours I changed the water on several occasions, and rinsed the beans in a colander under running water, and replaced the water.

After a day of this I finally decided it was time to cook the beans. They were still definitely on the crunchy side. It was now or never. I strained and transferred the beans to my Ikea smaller soup pot (thanks Grant!) and filled with cold tap water, again to a depth of about 2-3 cm over the beans. I added 5 bay leaves, a pinch of salt, and a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary, and turned the stove up to MAX for a boil. After boiling I simmered the beans uncovered for about 30 minutes, and then covered for another 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally.

The beans turned out perfectly.

Black beans