The Cornbread Gospels (53 page)

1 pound dried soldier beans, Maine yellow-eye beans, or white beans such as navy, Great Northern, or pea beans

1 bottle (12 ounces) beer, ale, or stout

Vegetable oil cooking spray

1 large onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

⅓ cup tomato paste

⅔ cup pure maple syrup, preferably Grade B

⅓ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon mustard powder

2 tablespoons finely minced peeled fresh gingerroot

1 canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, diced, with about 1 tablespoon of its sauce

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, plus extra as needed

Finely grated zest of 1 orange, preferably organic

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, or butter

6 whole cloves

2 small onions, unpeeled

6 ounces extra-firm tofu, well drained, diced (optional)

Boiling water or bean stock, as needed

Cornbread, for serving

1.
Pick over and rinse the beans. Soak them overnight in enough water to cover them by 2 inches. Drain well the next morning, rinsing the beans several times.

2.
Place the beans in a heavy pot or Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid. Pour the bottle of beer over the beans, and then add enough fresh water to barely cover. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer, and let the beans cook, covered, until almost tender, about 1 hour. Give them the occasional stir, adding a little more water if you need to.

3.
Preheat the oven to 250°F and spray a bean pot or any other deep, lidded casserole with oil. Scatter the chopped onion over the bottom.

4.
Cool the almost-cooked beans, then drain them, reserving the liquid.

5.
Place the drained beans in the prepared bean pot over the chopped onion.

6.
Whisk together about 4 cups of the reserved bean liquid with the garlic, tomato paste, maple syrup, brown sugar, mustard powder, gingerroot, chipotle and adobo, salt, 1 teaspoon pepper (or more to taste), orange zest, and oil or butter. Whisk well, and add this to the beans. Give the beans a couple good stirs to distribute everything nicely.

7.
Stick 3 cloves into each of the small onions and add to the pot along with the tofu (your faux salt pork), if desired. Pop the bean pot, covered, into the oven.

8.
Bake the beans slowly for 7 to 8 hours, checking every so often and adding boiling water or bean stock as needed to keep the beans from drying out. During the last hour or so, uncover the beans so they have a chance to develop a nice crust. Serve, hot, with the cornbread of your choice.

S
ERVES
4
TO
6,
WITH CORNBREAD AND SALAD

Let’s start our look at the third constant cornbread companion—soups and stews—with this luscious but simple soup. After all, it could have been placed under greens, beans,
or
stews. However you categorize it, you will love it with any slightly sweet cornbread, such as Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread (
page 12
), Gold-and-White Tasty Cornbread (
page 58
), or Mary Baird’s Johnny Cake (
page 57
).

If you are a wild-greens aficionado, this is one terrific place to use them. And don’t miss the lemony Middle Eastern variation. Varying the seasonings makes it almost an entirely different soup.

1 pound lentils, picked over and rinsed

1 bay leaf, broken in half

About 2 quarts (8 cups) vegetable stock or water

Vegetable oil cooking spray

3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

2 large onions, chopped

1 head of garlic, peeled

2 carrots, sliced or diced (optional)

1 celery rib, halved lengthwise and diced (optional)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pound fresh spinach, well washed, stems finely chopped, leaves sliced

Cornbread, for serving

1.
Place the lentils in a soup pot with the bay leaf, and cover with the stock or water. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and cook until the lentils are very soft, 45 to 60 minutes.

2.
Meanwhile, spray a large cast-iron skillet with the oil and place it over medium heat. When it’s hot, add 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, then the onions, lowering the heat slightly. Sauté, stirring often, for about 8 minutes. Between stirs, coarsely chop about half the garlic.

3.
When the onions have reached the 8-minute point, add the carrots and celery, if using. (You may need the additional tablespoon of olive oil at this point.) Continue sautéing for another 2 minutes, then lower the heat, add the chopped garlic, and sauté, stirring, 2 to 3 minutes more. You want the onions very soft but not browned.

4.
By this point, the lentils are probably about half-cooked. Scrape the vegetable sauté into them, deglazing the skillet with a little of the lentil cooking liquid. Let the lentils continue cooking until very soft, then add salt (you’ll need quite a lot) and freshly ground pepper to taste.

5.
When the lentils are soft, scoop out a good ladleful of them and transfer them to a food processor with the remaining (raw whole) garlic. Buzz to a purée and transfer this wonderfully heady purée back to the soup. Give a stir, add the spinach, and stir again.

6.
Turn the heat down still lower, partially cover the pot, and simmer until the greens have softened and the flavors have blended, 10 to 15 minutes more. Taste again for salt and pepper, and serve, hot, with cornbread.

The seasonings make all the difference here, and a delicious difference it is. Sometimes I like the plainer version of this soup, sometimes this one. Follow the original recipe, making the following changes: Omit the carrot and celery. Add, with the garlic in step 3, 2 teaspoons cumin seeds and 1½ teaspoons ground coriander seed. When you add the sauté to the simmering lentils in step 4, also add 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves and 1 tablespoon tomato paste. When the soup is done, stir in the juice of 1 or 2 lemons. Serve, garnished with a scatter of chopped fresh parsley and cilantro mixed together, and a lemon slice, including rind, floating atop each bowl. This variation is just perfect with Corn Thinbread with Olives, Walnuts, Feta, and Sun-dried Tomatoes (
page 106
).

S
ERVES
8

A rich African vegetable stew, this is typically served over a starchy side dish—fufu or ugali (cornmeal mush), mashed plantains, rice, millet—but it’s every bit as good with cornbread (see the Kwanzaa Karamu menu,
page 47
, for suggestions). Like many cornbread-friendly stews, it includes greens. Although I’ve given the main recipe using frozen spinach and fresh cabbage, the variation that follows, using robust fresh greens, is no doubt closer to the original.

You can turn the spiciness up (use 3 peppers, leave in their seeds and white fiber) or down (use just 1 or 2 peppers, seeds and fiber removed).

Vegetable oil cooking spray

2 tablespoons peanut or other mild vegetable oil

1 large onion, diced

1 tablespoon peeled, minced fresh gingerroot

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 to 3 hot chile peppers, such as serranos, finely chopped, to taste (with seeds and membranes for heat, without for mildness)

1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut in ½-inch dice

1 medium rutabaga or turnip, cut in ½-inch dice

2 medium carrots, sliced in ½-inch rounds

2 to 3 small red potatoes, skin on, cut in ½-inch dice

¼ head of cabbage, thickly sliced

3 cups canned diced tomatoes in juice

½ cup vegetable stock or water

½ cup smooth peanut butter, preferably natural and unhydrogenated

2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon honey

1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed (optional)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1.
Spray a large, nonreactive pot or Dutch oven with oil, then add the peanut oil and place over medium heat. When it’s good and hot, add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until it starts to get limp and brown around the edges, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the gingerroot and sauté for 3 minutes longer. Add the garlic and chiles, and sauté for 1 minute longer. Lower the heat.

2.
Add the butternut squash, rutabaga or turnip, carrots, potatoes, and cabbage. Stir well to coat them with the oil and the onion-gingerroot-chile sauté. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes longer. Then add the tomatoes and stock or water. Simmer, half-covered, until the vegetables are tender, 12 to 15 minutes.