slow pot of beans

One of the cheap electric gadgets that I swear by is a small slow cooker.  For only $10  at Walgreens (make sure you get the kind where the crock pulls out of the electric cooker) you get a little work horse that turns cooking beans, or making soups easy.  And if you get into this, the bigger ones, which hold what looks like a gallon, have high and low settings - perfect for the chili for 10 crowd.

The trick in using one of these is setting up a nice mix of aromatics for the beans to slowly cook in.  Sauteing them together first really helps bring out the flavors.  The five minutes it takes is worth it.  Here is the mexican version:

1) pre soak the beans(unless using lentils or split peas).  I use 1 cup dry(makes 4 servings) and try to soak them for half a day or overnight.  If you forget, you can soak them in boiling water for a few hours.  Look for rocks (really, do!) and stragglers that don't look particularly like they want to be eaten.

2) Saute:

1 yellow onion(it is hard to have too much)

in olive oil with

1 TBS cumin

1 TBS chili powder

salt

until translucently wonderful.

3) decant into waiting crock pot.  For added spice add 1 whole - de-seeded dried Guajillo or Ancho chili.  Rinse the saute pan with about 1/3-1/2 cup hot water and pour that into the crock too (hey, a tasty pre-clean!). Check and see if you plugged in the crock pot. Now drain away, rinse and add the soaked beans.

It will look like this:Then add about 1/2 a large can of tomatoes - oops I got a little excited and filled it a little too high...

... now let it simmer for 6-10 hours.  You can go away for at least  6 hours, but it doesn't hurt to stir it every few hours if you are around or after that point. Sometimes beans or heavy items will stick to the bottom as it gets thickly cooked. Fine tune the seasonings when you get closer to serving.

You want to eat sooner?  You can transfer it back out of the slow cooker and put it on the stove on low heat, stirring occaisionally.  This is a good second option if you are staying at home.

This is also easily adaptable to a brown sugar bean or a soup or a stew. Sear floured & cubed meat and throw it in.  If using split peas or lentils, there is no need to pre-soak either.

The only thing I wouldn't overnight cook in a slow cooker is a grain.  We made oatmeal once and it stuck so bad to the sides, it took two days to soak & scrap it off. Hmmm, perhaps I should have just cooked it off! But you can overnight cook grains in a rice cooker - they are teflon coated (recipe to follow!).

Enjoy!