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Member since 10/29/03
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Posted on: 5/12/07 1:11 PM ET
I found Anasazi beans at my bulk food store & bought some. I've never used them before, but since I like dried beans, I'm sure I'll like them. Are they cooked & used like any other dried bean?
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Beverly
  
Member since 4/8/02
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Posted on: 5/12/07 3:37 PM ET
In reply to BJ1400
Beverly> I googled anasazi bean recipes and got too many hits to give you links to them all. I thought it was interesting that one site said the bean is the ancestor of the modern day pinto bean.
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Posted on: 5/12/07 6:47 PM ET
In reply to Karla Kizer
Thanks Karla. I'll try that.
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Beverly
  
Member since 9/29/04
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Posted on: 5/12/07 6:52 PM ET
I love Anasazi beans and I can't get them here! I cooked them frequently when I lived in Texas, and yes, I cooked them like any other dried beans. I never used any recipes because what's difficult about cooking a pot of beans? They may well be the forerunner of the pinto bean because they are similar but the Anasazi beans are creamier. I buy Cranberry Beans (dried) at a local Amish grocery store and I love those too. BTW, I learned this tip from Penzey's Spices as they posted it in one of their catalogs. If you do not want to use meat for seasoning in your beans you can use three pods of cardamom and you get a flavor very close to the same as bacon but not sat fat. I do it all the time now because I have to watch the fat and carbs. Anyway, I know the Anasazi's were an American Indian tribe who lived in the southwest and were sort of cliff dwellers. I read a book (fiction) about the tribe one time and it was very interesting and I think the author had really done her research on this tribe.
-- Edited on 5/12/07 6:54 PM --
  
Member since 10/18/03
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Posted on: 5/13/07 8:57 PM ET
I discovered another great bean flavoring ingredient recently after reading about it at www.glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com. It's Muir Glen brand Fire Roasted organic canned tomatoes. It's about $2.79 for a large can, but boy do they add some pizazz to a vegetarian pot of beans. Check 'em out!
  
Member since 11/13/06
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Posted on: 5/13/07 9:08 PM ET
We love anasazi beans and use them in refried beans, chili, bean dip, soup ... anywhere that pinto beans would be good, the anasazi work great! Enjoy!
  
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Posted on: 5/13/07 10:17 PM ET
In reply to llr23
Oh! another fan of Penzey's spices. They have a store in KC and I am there constantly.

I love using cardamom pods and seeds as we love Indian cooking. I get that from flying to England a lot.

Beans and rice are my staple for when I am sewing up a storm and I need a couple of days meals for the family. Throw in some cornbread and we are all in heaven!

If anyone is interested, Penzey's has a website: penzeys.com and they have the best spices known to man. I got Cindy Lou hooked on making her own cinnamon vanilla sugar, and OPGal can vouch how wonderful it is in bread.

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Member since 2/7/04
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Posted on: 5/14/07 5:26 PM ET
I live in Anasazi bean country - SW Colorado. The beans are said to be less gas producing than pintos!! So I send them to my older Texas relatives, poor dears (although maybe it's their mates who suffer?).

The beans take less time to cook than pintos, and anything like that helps at our high altitude. DH comes home with 10 lbs every August from a local golf tournament, so they're a regular.

Love hearing about cardamom pods!

Annie


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Maya Angelou
  
Member since 1/21/06
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Posted on: 5/14/07 5:49 PM ET
In reply to Ody
Hi Everyone,

I was very interested in this discussion about the cardamom pods. Would you clarify something for me?

I love Penzey's too. Here is what they say about cardamon:

"An extremely flavorful and ancient spice native to India, cardamom's use has spread throughout the world, with nearly every culture having its own distinctive use for the flavorful seeds. In India where both green and black cardamom are used, it is an important ingredient in meat and vegetable dishes. In parts of the Middle East the seeds are mixed with green coffee beans before brewing. In Northern Europe (especially Scandinavia) white cardamom is used to season baked goods such as Christmas stollen, cakes, cookies, muffins and buns. Green cardamom is preferred in India and the Middle East. Cardamom is a pod consisting of an outer shell with little flavor, and tiny inner seeds with intense flavor. Fancy white and green pods have no splits or cracks in the shell, so the flavor keeps well. Stored in a glass jar, cardamom pods will stay fresh indefinitely. Shelled or decorticated cardamom seeds are inexpensive and flavorful, but sometimes need to be crushed or ground before use. Ground cardamom has an intensely strong flavor and is easy to use (especially in baking, where the fine powder is desirable). "

(HERE is where I need more information:)

"Black cardamom, long a staple in African cooking, was originally used in India as a cheap substitute for green cardamom pods. Black cardamom has a unique smoky flavor and has developed its own following over the years."

So, can you tell me....is it just the BLACK cardamom that you use in the beans?

Thank you in advance.

Also, I use only my pressure cooker to cook beans. The new generation of cookers makes this so easy. I use Lorna Sass's "Great Vegetarian cooking Under Pressure" as my bible for this kind of cooking. NO fuss, fast, easy, great flavor.



Carla

Penzey's

Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure
  
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Member since 7/30/02
Posts: 8991
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Posted on: 5/14/07 6:28 PM ET
So, you think it is worth using the pressure cooker for beans? It seems that by the time it cools off & you can open it, it would have been just as fast to cook them in a pan. Although perhaps they come out better?

I don't care for the flavor of black cardamom, at least not when I make Indian style dishes. I've not tried them in beans, though. Perhaps that would be a good use for that bag of them I bought from Penzey's a while ago, before I realized I didn't like them! (Black cardamon, that is, not Penzey's.)

And do you do anything else in your pressure cooker? Do you speed-cool it in any way? I have a small one that I never use; I only use my big one for canning.


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