Jamaica Me Crazy Beans

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I had some dry Adzuki beans in the pantry that had been in there for a while, so I had to think up a way to use them. I wanted something different from a typical bean soup. I spotted Pickapeppa Sauce in the door of the fridge, and it sent me towards Jamaica. You could substitute other beans (black, red, black-eyed, kidney, pidgeon pea, etc.) for the Adzuki beans. You can also used canned beans. I didn't use the bean broth, but you could certainly do so. These beans are pretty mild, heat-wise. If you like things hot, you can use more cayenne or add fresh chile peppers. Scotch Bonnet peppers are typical in Jamaica. You could also use habenaro or serrano or jalapeno or whatever you prefer. You could also use tomatoes with chiles instead of plain tomatoes to turn up the heat a notch. Pickapeppa Sauce will also add a bit of heat (as well as tangy sweetness) to your beans.

Kari's Jamaica Me Crazy Beans (serves 4)

3 cups cooked Adzuki beans (from 1 cup dry)

Spice Mixture:
1 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/16 tsp ground cloves

1/4 cup water
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced (1 cup)
1 cup diced carrots
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp minced ginger
1 can (14.5 ounce) diced tomatoes
2 cups vegetable broth
salt, to taste
*Pickapeppa Sauce (optional)

Combine spices in small bowl and set aside.

In Dutch oven, saute onion, bell pepper, celery and carrot in 1/4 cup water for 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger; saute 2 more minutes. Add spice mix and cook 1-2 minutes to toast spices.

Add tomatoes and vegetable broth. Simmer, covered, over low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Serve with Pickapeppa Sauce, if desired. Can be served with rice.

*Pickapeppa Sauce is a Jamaican condiment which contains tomatoes, onions, sugar, cane vinegar, mangoes, raisins, garlic, salt, peppers, thyme, and cloves. It comes in a small 5 ounce bottle with a parrot on the label.

Along with the beans, I served homemade bread. Isn't it pretty?

100% Whole Grain Brown Rice Bread

(Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day)

My very first loaf of artisan-style bread! Eldest daughter really liked it. I think maybe the dough could use a little sweetener.

Cranberry-Orange Relish

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The picture above is my Thanksgiving dinner. Clockwise from top: roll, carrot & sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus, mashed potatoes & vegetarian gravy, Sweet Black Rice Salad, Tofurky, and cranberry-orange relish.

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I find I prefer to eat tofurky cold the next day. I don't like the stuffing they put in it. Too pasty. I suppose I could have made some stuffing/dressing, but I made the rice salad instead. I like the sweet baste recipe that comes with the tofurky. I put sweet potato instead of white potato in with the carrots and onions around the tofurky roast. The baste gives them a nice flavor. The orange-cranberry relish is a crockpot recipe that I found online years ago. A few years after, I found it again in a cookbook by Natalie Haughton called The Best Slow Cooker Cookbook Ever. This may be the original source, I don't know. I don't make the recipe exactly as written. The recipe calls for adding the raisins and apricots along with the nuts after the cranberries are cooked. I prefer to put the raisins and apricots in to cook with the cranberries. When that's done, I stir the walnuts in after it's cooled down. I've used dried peaches and nectarines in place of apricots several times. I always use regular raisins instead of golden raisins that the recipe calls for. This year I used orange-pineapple juice concentrate instead of plain orange juice concentrate. I think you could mix things up with different dried fruits. This relish is tangy-sweet and delicious. I make it every year.

Cranberry-Orange Relish -- adapted from recipe by NatalieHaughton

In a crockpot, mix together:

1 12-oz pkg fresh cranberries

1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate

1 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp cider vinegar

1/2 cup chopped dried apricots (or peaches, or nectarines, or other)

1/2 cup raisins

Cook on low heat 3 hours, or until cranberries pop. Turn off the heat. Let cool to warm and stir in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Cool completely and transfer to covered container and refrigerate. Can be made a week ahead. Makes about 3 cups.

Rice Noodles and Vegetables with Sweet Soy Sauce

What can you buy for $57 at Lam's in Phoenix?

bag gai lan
bag baby bok choy
celery
3 bunches spinach
3 Japanese eggplant
large mango
2 cauliflower
bunch cilantro
bunch parsley
bananas
10# potatoes
2 bunches scallions
4 limes
3 pickling cukes
2 crowns broccoli
shitake mushrooms
oyster mushrooms
large pkg okra
Thai chiles
fresh thyme
curry leaves
snow peas
Thai basil
2 ears sweet corn
bag bean sprouts
bag green beans
bag shallots
4 heads garlic
12 oz pkg mung beans
3 small pkg fresh udon
fresh tofu
2 firm tofu
Japanese red pepper
1 can mock pork
1 can hot and sour soup
1 can bamboo shoots
1 can baby corn
3 cans coconut milk
jar chile-garlic sauce
pkg shrimp/veggie potstickers (for the husband)
pkg chocolate wafer cookies

One potato, two potato, three potato, four

I don't know who David Kramer is, but he's wrong about potatoes. In a footnote on one of his posts on government dietary advice, he writes:

"¹Potatoes are very fattening. How does this environmentally-"correct" food recommendation jibe with the Brits' former study claiming that obesity causes global warming?"


Potatoes are fattening? I think not. Perhaps he should do a little more research. He can start with Dr. McDougall's March 2009 newsletter where Dr. McDougall writes:

"Most people are completely backwards about the diet that results in health and an attractive appearance. They learn, "Don’t eat starches, because rice turns to sugar, which turns to fat, making you gain weight." If this mantra were true then there would be an epidemic of obesity among the 1.73 billion Asians living on rice-based diets. Confirming this truth, after moving west and replacing their starch with "high-protein" foods, then people from Japan and the Philippines would become trimmer and healthier looking. Is that what you see? "Potatoes are fattening." If true, then why during the 2000 McDougall Adventure trip to Peru, a country where common potatoes are the staple food, were the residents so trim and strong looking? We did see a few overweight people on this trip. The "chubby ones" were the waiters and chefs serving tourists their favorite meat and cheese dishes, and obviously sampling the menu.

"Let’s look together at a globe of the Earth and identify the populations of people who look the youngest, healthiest, and trimmest. Those living in Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines stand out. Their diet is mostly rice with some vegetables. In rural Mexico we will find beautiful people eating corn, beans, and squash. No one is overweight or on a diet there. The men, women and children of central New Guinea are nourished almost entirely by sweet potatoes. These people have no need for Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig. Worldwide, populations with the highest consumption of starch are the trimmest and fittest.1 Learn about the health of these trim people and you will discover that they also have extremely low rates of diabetes, arthritis, gallbladder disease, constipation, indigestion, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, and cancers of the breast, prostate, and colon."


Sure, many people don't want to hear unsolicited dietary advice, especially from government which rarely gets anything right, but that doesn't mean the dietary advice is necessarily wrong. Besides, lamb tastes like wet dog smells. Blech.