Black Beans blame Gok Wan

curry_monster

I know the thread is a few days old, but have to add a few clarifications.

The dried black beans you usually get in supermarkets are black turtle beans. They're fantastic in chillis and stews but you probably want to treat them as you would red-kidney beans.

In the context of Chinese food, black beans are a kind of fermented soya bean. They're soft in texture (someone said they look a bit like raisins.) The aroma is a little unusual, but it's lovely when cooked.

They're another one of those wonderful things that can be done by fermenting soya beans to make flavouring ingredients (soy sauce, yellow bean paste, miso, etc) that all have their own wonderful distinct flavours.

Get them from Chinese supermarkets - I've never seen them in mainstream supermarkets.