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Rancho Gordo Beans and Bean Club

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    #31
    I used the Raquel Beans that came with my Rancho Gordo Bean Club delivery to make a modified version of Bourbon Pork Pinto Beans found in The Great Big Pressure Cooker Cookbook . Raquel Beans are described here. To me they look sort of pinto-ish, just larger.

    Anyway, it turned out pretty good. I liked the recipe, especially with my modifications (bacon instead of ham, for instance). It had some interesting ingredients that I had not used before with beans.

    Instant Pot Bourbon Pork Pinto Beans (original recipe modified)

    2 cups dried pinto beans (Raquel beans if available)
    1 medium naval orange
    12 oz sliced bacon cut into 1/2 inch lengths
    1 medium red onion, chopped
    1/2 sweet red pepper medium, chopped
    1 Tbl minced garlic
    1 tsp dried rosemary
    1/2 tsp ground cloves
    1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
    1/4 cup bourbon
    1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
    6 Tbl canned tomato paste
    2 cups homemade chicken broth
    1 cup water from the soaked beans

    Directions
    1. Soak the pinto beans as directed, usually 12-16 hours. Soak the (fresher) Raquel beans 6 hours.
    2. Remove the zest from half the orange and chop finely.
    3. Peel the orange and chop the orange sections, removing any seeds
    4. Set the pressure cooker to Saute on High.
    5. Brown the bacon; remove and drain on a paper towel
    6. Add the onions and peppers to the bacon fat. Saute until the onions are translucent, about 3 minutes
    7. Add the garlic and saute until just fragrant, about 30 seconds
    8. Add rosemary, cinnamon, and cloves and stir to combine
    9. Add the bourbon and let cook for 1 minute.
    10. Add the bacon, brown sugar, tomato paste, minced zest and chopped orange. Stir until everything is well coated.
    11. Add the drained beans, the broth and bean water.
    12. Place lid on cooker and set to High Pressure (9-11psi) for 18 minutes for pinto beans 35 minutes for Raquel beans.
    13. Use the quick release method. Test beans and add cooking time if necessary.
    14. Take 1 cup of the cooked beans and mash with a potato masher in a small bowl. Add back to pot.
    15. Heat for 2 minutes longer then serve.




    Optional:
    Serve with hot sauce or chopped jalapenos for folks who like a little heat with their beans.
    Salt and pepper as needed.

    Kathryn
    Last edited by fzxdoc; June 8, 2018, 02:10 PM.

    Comment


    • Mr. Bones
      Mr. Bones commented
      Editing a comment
      Sounds fantastic, Kathryn!
      Thanks fer sharin yer receipt!

    #32
    Another simple bean recipe. From what I understand, Queen of Rancho Gordo Beans is the Marcella Bean, named for the famous Italian cook, Marcella Hazen. It's a Tuscan-style white bean with a very thin skin.

    I found the perfect way to cook these Rancho Gordo Marcella Beans (similar to cannellini beans) in the Instant Pot.

    My goal was to have perfectly creamy beans (without a single underdone one) while maintaining the bean shape--no split beans.
    • 1 lb dried Marcella beans, well-rinsed and checked for debris
    • Place beans in medium size bowl. Add water to cover them by 1-2 inches.
    • Soak for 4-6 hours. Add more water to keep the beans covered if necessary.
    • Add beans along with their soaking liquid to the IP. Add more water (or broth) to fill to the 2.5 liter mark. (IP half full)
    • Saute 1 small onion, 2 cloves minced garlic, ground black pepper and any herbs that sound good to you. I like to add parsley because it would go well with other fresh herbs that I might add later as I use the beans for salads, soups, etc.
    • Don't add salt until the beans have finished cooking, then add salt to taste.
    • Instant Pot settings: High Pressure. 25 minutes cook time.
    • Allow for natural release. On my IP, that takes about 45 to 55 minutes.


    The end results: melt-in-your-mouth creamy-textured beans in a yummy simple broth.

    Kathryn

    Comment


    • fzxdoc
      fzxdoc commented
      Editing a comment
      So far (two servings--one right from the pot and another reheated) they've been perfect, ColonialDawg. They need a lot of salt (for my taste) added just before eating. I was going to make a white bean salad with some of them for supper (https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/17...te-bean-salad/ ) but they taste so good just simply warmed up and salted that I hate to spoil the simplicity.

      K.

    • ColonialDawg
      ColonialDawg commented
      Editing a comment
      I bet they would be good on some crusty bread and a little olive oil.

    • HouseHomey
      HouseHomey commented
      Editing a comment
      I think those are the one we use at work. Those and another giant black/brown bean. I don’t use them in my food but I’m always almost knocking them over.

    #33
    I'm still a member of the Rancho Gordo Bean Club and enjoy the quarterly deliveries of heirloom beans it provides. You can buy many of these heirloom bean varieties right on their website without being a bean club member. A lot of top notch chefs (like Thomas Keller) source their beans from Rancho Gordo.

    Anyway, I got an email today from them, describing some of their beans, providing recipes and information about their cooperative project with a group of Mexican farmers to bring good quality Mexican oregano to the US. This is a wonderful video (pretty short but impactful) that shows these farmers making a meal and describing their oregano crops. Heartwarming is a word I would use.



    Kathryn

    Comment


      #34
      fzxdoc I can’t join that club, since my family is not as enthusiastic about bean dishes as I am (wife really hates them). I’ve bought from Rancho Gordo before. In fact I won’t make cassoulet without their beans! There’s just no point. It’s a great business & worth every penny.

      Look up the America’s Test Kitchen articles on brining beans. It might help your problems with having to add tons of salt after cooking your Marcella beans. There are a lot of incorrect folk tales out there for beans; salt does NOT harden them. Acid will, but not salt. America’s Test Kitchen and a few others (Kenji Lopez) have applied a really stunning amount of scientific testing to the humble bean. Old recipe books can be awful for perpetuating bad practices, such as adding baking soda.

      I’m glad to hear you have a pressure cooker. I went on a quest for authentic black bean recipes by asking every Hispanic person I knew for their family recipes. The finding: only English and Americans soak their beans. Latins "just throw those suckers in a pressure cooker and crank up the heat." Quote from a Cuban co-worker. . In fact it’s necessary for real black bean sauce, since soaking them will strip out color. I have three or four different sizes of stovetop Indian pressure cookers just for bean.

      Fun stuff! I look forward to hearing about some of your discoveries.
      Last edited by Anton32828; June 16, 2019, 07:27 AM. Reason: iPhone predictive text screws up again.

      Comment


      • Anton32828
        Anton32828 commented
        Editing a comment
        I should add: sometimes soaking beans does make sense for a recipe (or for brining them). But a pressure cooker then makes very short work of cooking them, versus the usual recommendation to soak overnight and then simmer for a few hours.

      #35
      Rancho Gordo does not recommend soaking for their beans, since they are fresher (a few months old) than the ones we find in the grocery stores (often a few years old). At most, a 2-3 hour soak is "allowed", but again not necessary. If RG beans stay in water too long, they'll begin to sprout!

      I seldom soak my Rancho Gordo beans; sometimes I do it to remind me that I've got to get the pressure cooker going before the other suppertime preps.

      Interesting about adding salt to beans. If I soak, I add the soaking water to the Instant Pot along with the beans. So perhaps I'll add a bit of salt in the soaking water and see how I like it--when I soak, that is. I'm wary about adding salt in the beginning because it concentrates as the cook progresses. But I'll give it a try and see if I like it better.

      Disclaimer: I love salty foods, and can eat them because I typically have the blood pressure of a snake (read: low), but my husband needs to watch his salt intake, so I'm sensitive to that in my cooking.


      Kathryn

      Comment


        #36
        Rancho Gordo is a great source. I have been using them for many years. Good for other product than beans also. Oregano Indio, hominy, pop corn, etc.
        Not a member of the club but frequent buyer.

        Comment


          #37
          We use their popcorn and some beans.

          Comment


            #38
            Thanks for sharing this fzxdoc . One of the first things I saw was this recipe https://www.ranchogordo.com/blogs/re...asted-tomatoes and I said I got to try some of these.

            Comment


              #39
              Ohmigosh, I made this recipe last night with Rancho Gordo's Eye of the Goat beans. I served it with Trader Joe's Chicken Tikka Samosas. Since I had cooked the beans earlier in the week in my Instant Pot, it was a quick dinner to pull together on a chilly evening.

              It was so delicious: a North Indian bean soup/stew (depending on how much broth you make as you cook the beans).

              In fact, a tech was working on our dead wifi and came upstairs to report that all was well as I was simmering the soup. I asked if he'd like to take a container of the hot soup with him. His eyes lit up. He said he already had a spoon in the van. He didn't hesitate to take the soup. Music to a cook's ears.

              Anyway, it's from the Rancho Gordo blog on their site. I'm putting the entire post here for convenience. There are a lot of ingredients but it cooks up quickly. I shop at an Asian market and have accumulated a pretty large collection of spices needed for Indian-based cooking.

              Written by Steve Sando, the owner of Rancho Gordo Beans:

              Rajma Recipe: Beans in a North Indian Style
              My Annoying Opinions is the blog of a Minnesota-based teacher; it started out as a whisky blog but is increasingly branching out into restaurant reviews and recipes. I’ve known the author, an intriguing but anonymous international man of mystery, for years. He is, in fact, incredibly annoying but also very talented and funny, and if you tell him I said this, I’ll give you such a pinch!





              1 lb Rancho Gordo Eye of the Goat, Red Nightfall, Sangre de Toro, Moro, or Ayocote Morado Beans cleaned and soaked overnight with three inches of water covering the beans.
              1 large piece of cassia bark (or a cinnamon stick)
              4-5 pods of small green cardamom
              2-3 cloves
              1 dried cassia leaf (I used a fresh bay leaf on this occasion as I have a bunch to go through from my now dead garden)
              1 medium red onion: chopped
              3/4 tsp garlic
              3/4 tsp fresh ginger root

              pound the ginger and garlic to a paste together in a mortar

              The following ground together in a spice grinder (no need to roast anything first):



              1 very small pinch of fenugreek seeds (very bitter so don’t overdo it)
              1 small pinch of black mustard seeds
              1-3 dried red chillies (depending on how hot you want the result to be) or 1/3-1 tsp chilli powder
              1/2 tsp powdered turmeric
              1/4 tsp powdered ginger
              1/2 tsp coriander seeds
              1/2 tsp cumin seeds
              1 pinch of white peppercorns
              1 small pinch of aniseed (or fennel seeds)
              1/3 tspn amchur (dried mango powder)
              2 tablespoons tomato paste or equivalent chopped tomatoes (a cup?)
              1 tspn sugar
              Salt to taste
              Vegetable oil
              2-3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro for garnish (optional; I left it off this time because we unaccountably had none in the fridge)
              1-2 tablespoons of chopped raw onion for garnish (optional)
              1 minced Thai green chilli or similar for garnish (optional; serrano and jalapeno are not appropriate substitutes)

              Place the soaked beans in a medium pot, cover with 2-3 inches of water and bring to a rapid boil over high heat. Keep at a rapid boil for about 10 minutes, then add enough water to keep the beans covered with at least 2-3 inches of water, cover the pot and simmer till almost done. Almost done is when you can bite through a bean with just a bit of resistance and no raw bean flavour (this will happen shockingly fast with Rancho Gordo beans). At this point lower the heat further and keep simmering while you move to the next step.


              Heat oil in a skillet and add the cassia or bay leaf, the whole cardamoms, cloves and the cassia bark. Stir for a couple of minutes over medium heat till they become nice and fragrant (and if the cassia bark was curled to begin with it will begin to uncurl).


              Now add the chopped onion and saute over medium-high heat till it just begins to brown on the edge.


              Then add the ginger-garlic paste and continue to saute till the fragrance loses the raw edge.


              Add the powdered spices, reduce heat to medium and saute for a minute or so being careful not to let the spices burn. (It’s not a bad idea to turn an overhead exhaust fan on at this point.)


              Then add the tomato paste, sugar and salt and stir till well mixed. Add a ladleful or two of the beans’ pot liquor to the pan to get the tomato paste to not stick but don’t let it all get too thin. If using chopped tomatoes saute till they completely cook down.


              Once you see oil separating in the pan pour the contents into the bean pot and mix thoroughly. This is also the time to add more water to the pot if necessary. Raise the heat to get a strong simmer going, lower again to a gentle simmer, cover and cook till the beans are done (perfectly tender but holding their shape—this is another reason to use Rancho Gordo beans). When finished the top layer of the beans should be just visible over the surface of the sauce.


              Transfer to a serving dish, add garnish if you like and serve with either steamed white rice or chapatis (good whole-wheat tortillas are an inadequate but not entirely implausible substitute).




              As I mentioned, I actually cooked the beans a day earlier in my Instant Pot. I now cook "Instant Pot" dried (Rancho Gordo) beans this way:
              • Rinse well, culling for any foreign matter
              • Soak 4 to 6 hours, covering the beans by an inch or more of water
              • In the Instant Pot, saute 1 small onion and 4 cloves of garlic, minced (add garlic after the onions have softened and saute for 30 seconds only)
              • Add the beans along with their vitamin-filled soaking water. No salt. (although Cooks Illustrated has a case for adding salt to dried beans). Add water to the 2.5 liter mark.
              • Set the Instant Pot to High Pressure. 65 minutes. Natural Pressure Release.
              • Salt to taste before using immediately in some other recipe, eating immediately, or storing in the refrigerator.

              The beans turn out great every time. A few may be split, but I don't care. At least every single one is creamy and cooked through. I used to Instant Pot the beans at 25, then 35, then 45 minutes, and then 60 minutes, all with NPR. Each time a few of the beans were still not cooked through. That's when I finally landed on 65 minutes, with or without pre-soaking. I prefer to pre-soak if I can remember to because fewer beans split that way.

              Kathryn
              Last edited by fzxdoc; November 16, 2019, 03:32 PM.

              Comment


              • fzxdoc
                fzxdoc commented
                Editing a comment
                I have made this recipe several times now, 58limited , and it's always a winner. I've made it with Eye of the Goat, Hidasta, and with Ayocote Morado beans and all three beans worked well for it. Most of the time I cook the beans beforehand, no soaking, in the Instant Pot. I almost always have a batch of "Instant Potted" beans in the fridge awaiting some recipe or another.

                Kathryn

              • 58limited
                58limited commented
                Editing a comment
                I'm using Eye of the Goat beans.

              • 58limited
                58limited commented
                Editing a comment
                These turned out really well. After eating some with my tri-tip I ended up getting my big soup cup out and having some more.

              #40
              Opps! 60's moment. I just noticed this is an old thread and I even responded to it before. DUH!


              I have bought beans from Rancho Grodo for years. Have always been happy with the results. They also have hominy which I use often. Never thought about the monthly club.
              I think you will be happy or at the very least acquire and good stock of beans.
              Last edited by ofelles; November 16, 2019, 03:48 PM.

              Comment


                #41
                Yup. I quit the Bean Club because I had a big bean backlog, ( ofelles ), then re-upped after 6 months. Just ordered some hominy last week because I'm hungering for a good posole and I've got some pulled pork in the freezer saying "eat me".

                Kathryn
                Last edited by fzxdoc; November 17, 2019, 12:05 AM.

                Comment


                • ofelles
                  ofelles commented
                  Editing a comment
                  Now I'm hungry for some Posole! Damn you Kathryn

                #42
                I joined the Rancho Gordo Bean Club in April 2018. By February 2019 I had a boatload of beans, not just from the club but from additional purchases with the free shipping option that the Club offers. So I quit. After a few months my bean supply was dwindling so I re-upped. I was on a wait list for a couple of months before a slot opened up.

                Well, I'm back to a bunch of beans in the pantry, so I thought to quit my membership for a few months and renew it when my stock got low, just as I had done in the past. So I wrote to Rancho Gordo, telling them my plan. They wrote back with an Are You Sure? email. They told me that they have 14,000 people on their Bean Club waiting list now. Wowza!

                So I kept my spot. Beans for dinner.

                Kathryn

                Comment


                • Craigar
                  Craigar commented
                  Editing a comment
                  fzxdoc Hey Kathryn, if you get too inundated with beans you could hook a brother up on the black market. 😎

                • fzxdoc
                  fzxdoc commented
                  Editing a comment
                  Craigar ,

                  K.

                • Mr. Bones
                  Mr. Bones commented
                  Editing a comment
                  Beans is Good, Sister...

                #43
                Well, I’m still waiting to get into the Rancho Gordo club. Meanwhile, I keep buying their beans that look interesting. Recently bought a couple pounds of Marcella, which is a cannellini and a couple pounds of Flageolet, an alternative bean choice for cassoulet.

                I just cooked a stew using the Marcella beans. OMG, these things are crazy good. I think I could just cook them by themselves, use some ham bone stock, some onion, garlic, and these beans.

                Comment


                  #44
                  I’m a big fan of their beans too. I also love their New Mexico red Chile powder and oregano indio.

                  Comment


                    #45
                    Originally posted by ecowper View Post
                    Well, I’m still waiting to get into the Rancho Gordo club. Meanwhile, I keep buying their beans that look interesting. Recently bought a couple pounds of Marcella, which is a cannellini and a couple pounds of Flageolet, an alternative bean choice for cassoulet.

                    I just cooked a stew using the Marcella beans. OMG, these things are crazy good. I think I could just cook them by themselves, use some ham bone stock, some onion, garlic, and these beans.
                    Marcella beans are my favorite of all of theirs that I've enjoyed so far, over the 2.5 years that I've been a Rancho Gordo Bean Club member. So creamy and delicious. I like them best cooked with a bit of onion, garlic, salt, and pepper. That way you can really appreciate their taste. They're good, cooked this way, both served at room temp in a salad or hot as a side dish.

                    There are over 14,000 people on the wait list for the RG Bean Club. That said, Steve is making some changes in the very near future to open up some more slots in an effort to whittle down the wait list. Stay tuned.

                    Kathryn

                    Comment


                    • ecowper
                      ecowper commented
                      Editing a comment
                      Kathryn, check out my Chicken and Beans Fall Stew that I just posted ... Marcella beans are truly fantastic

                    • fzxdoc
                      fzxdoc commented
                      Editing a comment
                      Will do! ecowper
                      Thanks!
                      K.

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