Cooking with dried beans is for me a little like cooking a souffle: it's fussy and easy to mess up. And when you mess up, it's not likely you'll be able to salvage it. I've had enough experiences with crunchy beans and bland beans to be a little wary.So when I decided to try this recipe, I got more than a little nervous. Did it really say NOT to soak the beans? I read the recipe three times and even had James look it over to make sure I wasn't missing something. Doesn't the author know that soaking beans before cooking is a cardinal rule of bean cookery? How can he just disregard rule #1? But I have learned to follow recipes carefully the first time through, so I took the leap of faith (I did buy a second bag of beans just in case the first batch failed miserably--I'm trusting but not stupid).
I tried the recipe this morning, and it actually worked just like it said it would. The beans were soft after 1 1/2 hours, but I let them cook another half hour just to get a little creamier. I'm not sure I'm going to like the addition of sherry, but it does say the flavor is better after 8 hours, so we'll try them tomorrow before making a final judgment.
If cooking beans turns out to be this easy all the time, I may just have to make this a weekly habit. I'm not holding my breath, though. :)
1 comment:
Bean soaking is my number one obstacle to cooking with dry beans. I'm intrigued by a recipe that requires no soaking time. Thanks for sharing.
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