Moros y Cristianos

RACIST! 

Hahahahahaha. 

That kills me. Christians and Moors if you must have it spelled out for you. Hey! Don't blame me. I didn't make this up.  My version is purer than most versions because I wanted my Christians really really white, unadulterated with messy onion, garlic, and tomato paste. The rice pictured above has generous amounts of mint and basil. The beans are topped with some kind of European cheese and raw onion. But here, have a recipe for a more authentic Cuban Moros y Cristianos, you'll probably like it better than mine.

This uses dry beans because we're all about economy over here. If you decide on canned beans, then I don't know what to do with you, you're on your own. 

This makes a lot. Serves 8.

*1.5 cups dried black beans

*sufficient olive oil to saute your stuff

* one large onion, diced

* one large green pepper, diced

* 3 to 4 garlic cloves, smashed, finely diced

* 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1.5 teaspoon if you like cumin a lot, 2 teaspoons if you really really like cumin, 3 teaspoons cumin if your cumin is old and if you're  insane!  

* 1 teaspoon dry oregano, the Mexican type that looks like little flowers. Find it in packages with the Latin seasonings. If you use Greek oregano then use more.

* 1 to 2 bay leaves depending on their size and how much you like bay. I love it so I tend to use a lot.

*3 tablespoons vinegar. I prefer rice vinegar. Second choice, champaign vinegar. Third choice, plain white vinegar, fourth choice, cider vinegar.

* 2 tablespoons tomato paste

* salt to taste. This should take about 2 level teaspoons table salt.

* pepper to taste. I use heavy grinds from a Turkish coffee grinder that literally dumps pepper. For service, I'd use 1/2 teaspoon.

* 1 quart chicken stock or broth. If you use prepared broth or bouillon then definitely use a lot less salt.

3 cups long-grain white rice. 

Sort and pre-boil the beans. Cover with water, bring to a boil, cut the heat. Let stand for one hour. 

Now cook the beans for reals.  Add enough water to cover, bring to a boil, reduce to low, cover and cook for 40 to 50 minutes, however long it takes for them to become tender. These beans are going to cook for an additional 25 minutes combined with all the remaining ingredients. 

Prepare the flavor ingredients for the rice. 

Rinse the rice have it ready.

Sauté the onion and the green pepper in olive oil until tender. Add garlic. Sauté another minute. Add tomato paste, black beans, oregano, cumin, bay leaf and simmer for a few minutes. Then add the rice, chicken broth  and vinegar.  The liquid should cover the rice by one inch. Bring to boil, cover, reduce heat to lowest possible simmer. 

DO NOT OPEN THE LID

The pot is now a steamer. If you open the lid, then the steam escapes and the magic ends. If you have nosy types around that like to lift lids to see what you're cooking then duct tape the lid shut or something, give some clue that you're serious about the lid remaining shut. Trust me, the rice will be poorly cooked if the lid is lifted. 

Time this. Set a timer to 25 minutes. 

Okay, there's no messing around here. You're trying to coax an ordinary pot into being a rice steamer and this is how rice steamers work. 

After 25 minutes, turn off the heat but leave the pot covered for another 10 minutes.

Again, if the lid is lifted then the steam escapes and cooking stops early. 

That's 35 minutes total time steaming completely covered. 

Drizzle generously with olive oil to serve. 

Here's the thing about vinegar and beans. Acid and beans just flat do not get along. Acid prevents beans from cooking properly. Actually, acid protects the surface of beans. If you add acid early then the beans will never become fully tender. You can cook them for hours and they will still be kind of hard. Therefore, add any acid near or at the end, at any point after the beans have already become tender. This includes molasses. It is why the tomato paste is added after the beans are already tender.  

Some people believe that adding salt to beans prevents them from cooking properly, but that is wrong. Salt does not interfere with beans cooking properly, you can add that at any time, but anything acid will mess them up.  Should anyone tell you otherwise, you can now say "Stop! You are wrong."  Ask me how I know.

"Because I said so, that's how I know."  No, srsly, because I had this problem and because I read chapters and  websites about beans. I was mostly interested in the mitigation of a particularly unpleasant side effect of beans.

Fine, gas. Short answer: Beano. 

And I ended up discovering a whole bunch of other bean chemistry-related things. Acid keeps the exterior of beans toughened, conversely alkaline, like baking soda, softens it. Cooking with salt speeds cooking slightly while flavoring the whole interior of the bean, just as it does all other seed foods that are molecularly  compacted starches  which all benefit greatly from salt and mineral-laden salt like sea-salt. Corn or wheat bread or hummus without salt are all totally blah. 

You can confirm this easily [+beans +acid] and [+beans + salt] and [+beans +baking soda] .