Your Favourite Bean Recipes

Bf109

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

A Kenyan recipe fed to schoolchildren in rural areas is as follows:

Take maize. Take beans. Boil in salted water over a wood stove (remember no electricity except for diesel generators).

Serve in a bowl.

I am not making this up, I promise.

--

Ultimate survivalist food. Best served with a shotgun and tin foil hat.

Actually very nice. Used to have this when I was a student in SA. You have to use hard, dried mealies - "stamp mealies" - and boil them for hours with the beans. Very good and very cheap - more money for beer

Vastly improved by throwing a pork rib into the mix though.

moanymoany

Bf109 wrote: »

Actually very nice. Used to have this when I was a student in SA. You have to use hard, dried mealies - "stamp mealies" - and boil them for hours with the beans. Very good and very cheap - more money for beer

Vastly improved by throwing a pork rib into the mix though.

Ah, so 'mealies' are dried maize - I always wondered! Can you buy them here? They would probably do well in a slow cooker.

Bf109

moanymoany wrote: »

Ah, so 'mealies' are dried maize - I always wondered! Can you buy them here? They would probably do well in a slow cooker.

Well, mealies are just maize, or "corn" to the yanks.

"Stamp" mealies are the dried variety - Much, much harder than your teeth and you need to boil them for hours before they soften.

I have never seen them in the UK but then have never looked. Maybe in an african/carribean market or summink?

LillyJ

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

A Kenyan recipe fed to schoolchildren in rural areas is as follows:

Take maize. Take beans. Boil in salted water over a wood stove (remember no electricity except for diesel generators).

Serve in a bowl.

I am not making this up, I promise.

--

Ultimate survivalist food. Best served with a shotgun and tin foil hat.

I lived on this for nearly 3 months in Zambia. Often we didn't have any beans though, so it was just the maize. Big lumps of dirt used to get into the pot and I used to eat them by mistake.
About 3 times we got cabbage, and that was SUCH a luxury, I remember nearly crying with relief as I ate it.
It got to the stage that I couldn't eat the maize on it's own without gagging, but I just had to look at the kids who were all eating it and realise they weren't going back to England next month for a roast chicken.

It wasn't whole mealies it was ground and boiled (called nshima in Zambia). Had it again in Lusaka and it tasted fine, it was just the way it was cooked with all the dirt!

Love everything maize related (except nshima with mud in!), so loved the food in South Africa, especially some bread I had made for me by a Xhosa lady, it was delicious.

Bf109

LillyJ wrote: »

I lived on this for nearly 3 months in Zambia. Often we didn't have any beans though, so it was just the maize. Big lumps of dirt used to get into the pot and I used to eat them by mistake.
About 3 times we got cabbage, and that was SUCH a luxury, I remember nearly crying with relief as I ate it.
It got to the stage that I couldn't eat the maize on it's own without gagging, but I just had to look at the kids who were all eating it and realise they weren't going back to England next month for a roast chicken.

It wasn't whole mealies it was ground and boiled (called nshima in Zambia). Had it again in Lusaka and it tasted fine, it was just the way it was cooked with all the dirt!

Love everything maize related (except nshima with mud in!), so loved the food in South Africa, especially some bread I had made for me by a Xhosa lady, it was delicious.

This is quite different though. Nshima (or Nsima in Malawi) is a thick maize porridge - stamp and beans or "gnushu" in Xhosa is made from whole dried kernels boiled up with beans.

Were you a VSO?

LillyJ

Bf109 wrote: »

This is quite different though. Nshima (or Nsima in Malawi) is a thick maize porridge - stamp and beans or "gnushu" in Xhosa is bade from whole dried kernels boiled up with beans.

Were you a VSO?

I worked in a health clinic in Zambia for 3 months, about 4 years ago. Then I went to South Africa last year and worked in a state hospital in a township as a researcher for 2 months in Zululand. We then travelled round SA after that.

It is the porridge I hate. I know what you mean about the whole kernels, I didn't see them in Zambia, but did in SA.

moanymoany

LillyJ, it is not an easy path you choose to tread - my greatest respect to you. :A

LillyJ

moanymoany wrote: »

LillyJ, it is not an easy path you choose to tread - my greatest respect to you. :A

Ah thanks.

There were some hairy moments at times in Zululand- I was studying the access to healthcare over there so had to spend a lot of time in A&E. It was interesting to say the least.

Zambia was much less scary, in fact felt utterly safe, but the suffering was immense. We took over doctors and medicines from the UK, and most people had never, ever seen a doctor in their lives.

That is why I get annoyed sometimes when people complain about their lives over here; in context, the vast majority of us have it so good, especially when you have seen 3 year olds die from AIDS.

Sir_Humphrey

LillyJ wrote: »

I worked in a health clinic in Zambia for 3 months, about 4 years ago. Then I went to South Africa last year and worked in a state hospital in a township as a researcher for 2 months in Zululand. We then travelled round SA after that.

It is the porridge I hate. I know what you mean about the whole kernels, I didn't see them in Zambia, but did in SA.

In Kenya, they have unsweetened Millet porridge for breakfast. Very Oliver Twist.

I spent a couple of weeks in Kenyan schools when I was a student. After a day it became obvious that the Maize and Beans was indigestable, so for a suitable sub, we had cabbage, goat and Ugali with the teachers. They also had tomatoes courtesy of the UN World Food Programme. They act as wholesalers in drought regions to supply the local traders.

moanymoany

Barneysmom wrote: »

But do they have beans recipes? I thought I was going to find some new ones here, but everybody is talking about hillbills or something?

Oh yes, lots of them. Have you looked at Weezl's thread where she lives on 50p a day per adult for food! Whew

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/beanrecipes.htm

for one!

Also lots of patterns to make re-usable STs, should you be interested.