Beans and rice ratios

[Fritz_Monroe]

So, most of us know that beans and grains make a complete protein. However, I've seen various ratios needed to be complete. I've read that it should be 1 part beans to 5 parts rice. Is this the right ratio? I guess this is by weight?

 

BTW, anyone have a good site with great recipes for cooking up long term storage? I'll pick up a book on it shortly, but haven't done that quite yet.

[CrabGrassAcres]

http://books.google.com/books?id=BlUOXak9h...IvxqSvtfsIOTQzA

 

Here is a google book excerpt you may find helpful.

 

For recipes, don't think "long term storage food". Look for recipes using the ingredients you have on hand. If you will not have meat, look for vegetarian recipes. There are tons of recipes on the web and your local library should have several shelves of cook books. You might want to check out a few and see which you want to purchase. Sometimes books look good in the store, but turn out not to be helpful at all. You can find nearly any book second hand online and save a lot that way too.

[Fritz_Monroe]

Thanks for the link. I'll take a look at it.

 

We are in the process of adjusting our eating habits to include more vegetarian meals. Part of this is that they tend to be healthier. But another part is we are storing for the long term, so we want to make sure we are eating what we are storing. Much of what we are starting to store are the ingredients and things like rice and beans. I'll be picking up some wheat berries just after the new year, so whole wheat will be added to the menu.

 

While there are many recipes online, I was hoping for some sites that you folks make use of that have several good recipes.

[Hippie Dad]

This kind of goes off om a tangent from the idea of complete proteins, but I like to make my own mashed beans from the big sacks of beans my wife, (Leah) brings home. The mashed beans are a good building block.

 

I'm just a dumb Anglo, so I probably don't understand the variety of stuff that can be made with beans, but after we cook 'em, I often mash them with a potato masher and add some salt and chili powder. That gives you "refried" beans without lard, a great low-calorie-high- fiber meat substitute that is very versatile; and when you cook it in a Mexican-style dish, the ingredients tend to assemble themselves in ways that give you good protein.

 

One of my favorite uses for refried beans is stacked enchiladas.

Grease or oil a baking dish; then put in a tortilla; then refried beans; then any kind of tomato (with chili powder) and/or salsa, any kind of cheese (anything from nonfat cottage cheese to regular cheddar, as long as it will melt); and jalapenos if you are not feeding people with delicate palates. Then put in another tortilla and start another layer, repeating till you get to the top, and bake it for 45 minutes or so. Comes out like a Mexican Lasagna. None of the Latino friends I have had over the years seem to have used this; it looks like some weird Anglo variation.

 

Refried beans are also good for bean dips, using some of the same ingredients mentioned above. Man Food

 

Another West Coast food you run into out where we live are adzuki rice balls. You boil red adzuki beans (small red japanese beans, cheap in any bulk food/co-op that stocks 'em); mash them, and add sugar to taste. Then you put'em inside of sticky rice balls (helps to put some sugar in when you cook the sticky rice); though sticky rice can be tricky to cook until you get used to it. Rice balls in general are a good way to get protein-balanced food that is still appealing to eat. Sushi rolls would be a related topic, out here we can even gather free kelp seaweed to wrap 'em in. Hope that gives you some ideas.

 

Peace and Happy New Year from the Left Coast.

 

[Fritz_Monroe]

CGA, that is a really good link. I may end up buying that book, I've at least put it in my wish list on Amazon. I had some others on my wish list, so I ordered "Cookin' With Home Storage" by Peggy Layton and "Country Beans" by Rita Bingham. Both sound really good for my needs.

 

Hippie Dad, your refried beans, do you just soak 2 cups of pintos for 2 hours and cook them for 2 to 3 hours? About how much salt and chili powder?

[Hippie Dad]

My wife and I cook beans a couple of different ways. Sometimes I soak 'em overnight, drain 'em in the morning, then cook them the following day, as is customary in the Boston area where I was born. prevents some of the gas problems, I think it makes them cook better. My wife uses a quick method: pour boiling water on 'em; let 'em sit for an hour; drain; pour boiling water on 'em again, and let 'em sit for another hour; then drain, and boil 'em till they are done. That really gets rid of the gas-producing chemicals and makes them cook well.

 

Though I never measure the salt and chili powder -I do it to taste- I can still give you some comments and approximations.

I would start with a teaspoon of salt per cup of mashed beans.

Add more if you think it needs it.

As for the chili powder, see my next post; I have used up the

maximum space in this box.

[Hippie Dad]

Anyway, Fritz, on the subject of Chili powder, more and more I just make my own. Being a cook-from-scratch guy, living in an area with a large Mexican population, I just buy chili pods and grind them in an electric coffee grinder that I reserve for chili. I don't know if you can get dried chili peppers back east, except for the little red hot bird peppers. I use dried "California" chili pods; red, medium-sized, medium to low in heat; I often grind them with cumin seed. I would guess I use 1 and 1/2 to two teaspoons per cup, but California chili pods are very forgiving if you put too much in. Commercial off-the-shelf chili powder varies tremendously in taste, oxidation and heat. You can grind in dried bird peppers if you want more heat; personally, I also make coarse-ground bird peppers that I use separately. Dried chilis are an excellent long-storage survival food.

By the way, I'd like to make a separate inquiry to you on home brewing...

[Fritz_Monroe]

Thanks for the reply. We are just starting to prep and while we cook a lot of stuff from scratch, we don't do our own spices yet. We will start sooner or later, there's just so much to absorb right now that you have to leave some stuff for later.

 

As for the homebrewing, ask away. I've been doing it for about 5 years make 4 or 5 batches a year. I don't do all grain brewing yet, but like with the spices, I will sooner or later. I recently found a good site on how to malt your own barley, so once I go all grain, I'll start making my own malt as well.

[DenimDaze]

Aha! Thank you HippieDad. I was starting to get annoyed by the gas problem, I had been saving the water the beans soaked in so I wouldn't loose any vitamins(hey, it works with cooking vegetables..)