Jose Andreas.
Marcella Hazan.
Jacques Pepin.
Elena Zalayeta
Masaharu Morimoto
Marcus Samuelsson.
And on and on and on…and on.
These women and men have enriched the American culinary world.
Immigrants all.
So here, in the spirit of recognizing and celebrating the creativity, drive and good food that immigrants have brought to the American table is my adaptation of Marcus Samuelsson’s recipe for Black-Eyed Peas With Coconut Milk and Berbere . Here is the link to the original recipe: Black-Eyed Peas With Coconut Milk and Berbere. My dish substitutes white beans, actually Rancho Gordo Marcella Beans, for Samuelsson’s black-eyed peas. You could choose to go either way. I’ve made this before with black-eyes (and featured the original recipe on Blue Cayenne ( Black-Eyed Peas With Coconut Milk and Berbere). Made with black-eyes, this is a sweeter dish. Made with Marcella white beans, the dish is a bit more savory.
Here is Samuelsson’s recipe as I adapted it to my kitchen.
White Beans With Coconut Milk and Berbere
Ingredients
- 2 C. dried white beans
- Kosher salt
- 4 T. unsalted buter
- 1 large red onion (minced)
- 1 1/2 T. fresh ginger (minced)
- 3 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 jalapeno chile (seeded and minced)
- 2 t. berbere seasoning
- 1 t. ground turmeric
- 3 medium tomatoes (chopped)
- 1 C. full-fat coconut milk
- 1 C. vegetable stock
- 1/3 C. chopped cilantro
- 2 green onions (thinly sliced)
Directions
- Step 1 Prepare dried beans, drain, cool and set aside. Alternatively substitute drained and rinsed canned white beans. The original recipe used black-eyed peas, by the way.
- Step 2 Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven. Saute onion, ginger, garlic and chile until softened and beginning to brown. This will take about 10 minutes.
- Step 3 Add berbere spice and turmeric to the onion mixture, stir and continue to cook for 2 minutes.
- Step 4 Stir tomatoes into the onion mixture and cook for about five minutes until the tomatoes soften. (Tomatoes are out of season here so I used an equivalent amount of San Marzano canned tomatoes.)
- Step 5 Stir the coconut milk and vegetable broth into the onion mixture. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat until your tomatoes begin to break down and the sauce is thickened. This will take about 20 minutes.
- Step 6 Add the cooked, drained and rinsed beans to the onion mixture. Stir. Continue to cook for another 10 minutes until the dish is heated.
- Step 7 Garnish with cilantro and green onions.
