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The $3 Tuesday stew at the church kitchen in Dayton taught me more than any cookbook
My budget got tight back in March after my car needed a $600 repair, so I started eating lunch at a church kitchen in Dayton that serves anyone for $3 on Tuesdays. An older guy named Harold sat across from me the first week and watched me pick around the lima beans in the stew, and he said, "Son, beans are the cheapest thing on this earth, learn to love them and you'll never go hungry." He told me his family ate bean stew three nights a week when he was a kid in the 60s, and his mom stretched one ham hock across a whole pot for flavor. That one lunch made me rethink how I shop, because I was spending $4 on frozen single meals instead of $1.50 on a bag of dried beans that lasts me multiple dinners. Harold passed me his recipe on a napkin, and now I make a pot every Sunday with whatever veggies are marked down. Does anyone else have a dried bean trick that actually tastes good without a ton of meat?
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wade4389d ago
My grandma used to drop a piece of kombu in her beans and it made the broth taste like it had meat in it even when there was none. Seaweed sounds weird but you can get a bag at the Asian grocery for a couple bucks and one strip flavors a whole pot. Also save your bacon grease in a jar in the fridge and throw a spoonful in when you start the onions, that smoky taste goes a long way. Read somewhere that a splash of apple cider vinegar at the end wakes up the whole pot too, something about the acid cutting the earthy taste. Harold sounds like a good dude, that napkin recipe is worth more than most cookbooks on my shelf.
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