Darcy v. The Pressure Cooker, Round Three

It had me against the ropes, doubting my abilities as a cook, wondering if I had wasted all that money buying the Fagor instead of something cheaper, but then after a long round that started Sunday night I finally claimed victory in the pressure cooking beans battle. This time it was chickpeas.

After a mushy round two a few weeks ago I sat down with Google for a few minutes and learned that America’s Test Kitchen (producers of Cooks Illustrated magazine as well as a great public television show) recommend brining the beans. That’s right. Going against all conventional wisdom that beans and salt should not touch until after the beans are cooking they recommend soaking dried beans in salt water (3/4 Tbsp. of salt per quart of water) prior to cooking the beans. I gave it a try and the results were beautiful.

I got the beans soaking Sunday night in four quarts of water with three tablespoons of sea salt. When I drained off the soaking liquid yesterday evening there was not a split skin in the entire pound of chickpeas. I exaggerate not. I rinsed them thoroughly to remove all of the salty water then dumped them in the pressure cooker as usual with fresh, unsalty water and cooked as I had been all those other times. The results were stunning. Every single chickpea remained whole and intact. Not a speck of mush was to be seen, and they are the best tasting chickpeas I have ever put in my mouth though I say it myself. I see chickpea tabouleh, hummus, and all sorts of beautiful curries in my future.

I can’t wait to try it again with another batch of black beans. Yippee!

How Many More Have to Die?

This week another person died from the new e. coli strain. First beans and then cucumbers were blamed. Then “they” said, “Maybe not.” It could very well be that cucumbers are the vehicle by which nearly three thousand people were sickened by the virus, but they can’t be the cause. That would be a biological impossibility, and I’m stunned that anyone connected with investigations into this new e. coli would suggest such a thing.

E. Coli is an intestinal pathogen, meaning it infects animals. Cucumbers are not animals. Cucumbers can be contaminated by e. coli certainly, but that would mean coming into contact with a substance that had come from an infected animal. The most likely culprit would be an irrigation water supply that has been contaminated by factory farm waste.

Factory farmers, in their quest to fulfill our insatiable hunger for cheap meat, routinely pump their animals full of antibiotics just to keep them alive long enough to make it to market because they live in such cramped and unsanitary conditions. These feces-filled farms are breeding grounds for all sorts of bacteria and other dangerous microbes. Long-term use of broad spectrum antibiotics, as any medical doctor will tell you, eventually renders the antibiotics ineffective. Viruses and bacteria are adept at mutating new strains that are resistant to standard treatments. These new strains are present by the trillions in waste matter from these animals, which not only contaminate the meat the farms produce, but also surrounding water supplies which are used to irrigate crops.

Tragically children are especially vulnerable to these diseases. Is your beloved meat really worth risking your life or the lives of your family? How long will it be before we realize that we are doing this to ourselves because of our desire for a mere food product? It would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad.