i've been distracted lately, as if plugged into a current that only the diligence of turning hard, dry beans into soft, edible ones can ground.
ultimately, the question of soaking, boiling, and simmering dried beans to soft pillowy perfection may be a cheap endeavor, but it's a privilege of time which is also a privilege of money. it's true that for most occasions, canned beans work just as well — they're ready when you want them, and i suppose they're practically as cheap.
but i've wanted to make cassoulet ever since reading this article on heirloom beans ("the best staples make a virtue of blandness") and it demanded using dried beans: beautiful rancho gordo Marcella beans that look like bespoke mancala marbles. i ended up spending an entire day with them from morning to night (when i say they take time, i mean it) and even carried them to a second location in a jar with water, like fish from the county fair.
cassoulet, of sorts
yeah, so this isn't actually cassoulet, because who can mess with sausages, duck confit, and pork, etc when you're bringing beans to life from their dormancy? reader, a very very tiny percentage of the world has time for this nonsense, which is why cassoulet is on all the glossiest french menus. but at the very same time you can kind of hack it, because though there's a lot to its specialness, it's a pot of aromatic beans at its very core. i tossed a hunk of pancetta in the bean broth and sizzled up some lamb quickly to serve along with it, to call it a day. as my sister pointed out, bacon's a simple substitute for pancetta. i've committed to throwing in some sausages with attitude next time, for a kick. after that'll come my graduation to duck legs. but that's far off. in the meantime, give yourself an afternoon and see what comes of a hard white bean (with water and a few aromatics to nudge it along).
you'll need
1 bag of dry white beans (tarbais, flageolet, lingot, great northern, or cannelini are the ones typically enlisted for a traditional cassoulet — i used rancho gordo "marcellas")
1 yellow onion, sliced in half top to bottom from the root end
3 celery stalks
1 head of garlic, sliced like this
3 whole carrots (i got some colorful carrots, to keep the dish bright and festive, but that's not necessary really)
whole cloves
a few sprigs of fresh thyme, rinsed and shaken dry
a thick slice of pancetta (1/4 inch - 1/2 inch, from the deli counter)
salt
pepper
olive oil
crusty bread
on you go
rinse your beans at least 8 hours ahead of time. keep covered with water with a two-inch clearance. soaking matters, trust me — it cuts down on actual cooking time (even if it's still a lot) and it breaks down the mystery stuff that makes you gassy. more science on that later, but in the meantime, it's not worth not doing.
once beans have soaked a great deal (the more the better) rinse them off. place them in a large pot or dutch oven with aromatics (celery, carrots, garlic, and onion halves, punctured with a clove each — this is called "onion pique" and you can pin on a bay leaf, too, like it's a thumbtack.) add thyme, a good glug of olive oil, and pancetta. sprinkle a pinch of salt and a healthy amount of black pepper. bring to a hard boil. (some people, like me, believe that boiling your beans immediately is like letting your kid eat dirt — everyone'll be healthier/better for it later on. and if not, who'll ever know?)
once the pot of goodies has been at a rolling boil for about 4 minutes, turn down the heat and let simmer for several hours, adding water as beans start to grace the surface. keep taste-testing the beans, because you'll know when they're cooked. if you've soaked them well, it'll be about five hours or maybe even less. if you need to speed up the process, you can always cover the pot or turn the heat up, but don't do that unless you absolutely have to.
add salt & pepper to taste, and feel free to discard the mucky celery/onion, garlic bits when you're done -- but i think they add charm, no? serve with torn up crusty bread & let soak in the broth, for dumpling-like bready goodness. try this as beans on toast for breakfast, or sizzle them up in the skillet again with a fried egg and sausage. freezes nicely.
your workhorses
dry beans | imagine the first person to find a bean and turn that small rock into something worth eating. there are so many varieties of them —40,000 in fact! plus, they're often beautiful. before you cook them, you can look at them. shake them like a maraca on new years. fiddle with them. let them fall, carbuncular, between your fingers like marbles. and then — consuming time and water... and more time... and more water... they're nourishing. predictable fellows, beans. a great virtue to behold, when so much of life is not!
crusty/stale bread | when it's not soft anymore but also not moldy: soak it in soup or stew. broil with butter and spread it with jam.
soundbites
a good bean soak: spotify
piece of power
a recent article by Frank Shyong for The Los Angeles Times uses an annotation tool to define cultural terms. "we're doing this because we want the people who already understand those terms to feel like our target audience." for the LA Times, which reorganized its food section earlier this year, a whole team was behind the effort.