Some seemingly very nice person left a comment here asking if I had any “Eye of The Goat” bean recipes. I’ve only cooked them once, and I did not follow a recipe, but rather cooked them the way I cook almost all beans:

I took 1/2 a pound of beans and covered them with a couple inches of water. I brought them to a boil then turned them down to a very low simmer, added a generous pinch of salt, partially covered them and let them cook for ~2 hours until they were tender, adding water if needed along the way. When the beans were nearly tender, I sauted about half an onion (chopped) in a few tablespoons of olive oil. When the onions were very soft, I added a few cloves of garlic minced, and cooked them with the onion for a few minutes before throwing the onions, garlic and oil into to the beans. I then salted to taste and let the beans cook with the onion and garlic for about 20 mins.

That is basically the story of the beans. They were really good just simply cooked like that, but they were really spectacular when I served them over some brown rice with some Greek yogurt, grated cheddar, salsa and tortilla chips on the side. I think I could eat that for dinner every night of the week and be quite happy.

I don’t generally soak beans — I just don’t have enough foresight, and it only reduces their cooking time a little, supposedly. I’ve never done a scientific study on this. But maybe I should. Another issue with cooking beans is when to add salt. Some people say they’ll be tough if you add it at the beginning, and some people say they won’t taste properly seasoned if you wait until the end. Lately I’ve been hedging my bets and adding a little after I’ve brought them to a boil, and then salting to taste towards the end.

The “Eye of The Goat” (a.k.a. Ojo de Cabra) beans we got from Rancho Gordo were really great. The second variety of heirloom beans we tried were called “Tepary,” and they weren’t really as tasty. Next week we’re going to have some of Rancho Gordo’s black beans as part of our Vegetarian Passover celebration. mmmmm….

Happy Friday, everyone!