The Guardian - 01.08.2019

• The Guardian
  Thursday 1 August 2019 7

A s crisis engulfs

us and thoughts turn to stockpiling,

I spend a lot of time thinking about

chickpeas. It was the same in 2008,

although it is salutary to remember

that the phrase “food shortages”

never even came up at the height

of the fi nancial crisis. “ In case the

cashpoints run out of money, should

I have a load of dried chickpeas?”

I asked the other day. “No,” said

a friend. “The point is not to raise

yourself above everyone else. You

have to meet it with solidarity.” “OK.

But chickpeas are really nice.”

I don’t think it was really about

chickpeas; I think dried beans in

general are a security blanket. They

give you a veneer of self-suffi ciency.

Who needs manufacturing and cold

storage when you have agrarian-era

skills and a big bag of beans?

And they do have to be dried. There

isn’t a canned chickpea anywhere

in the world that tastes as good as

the most average, nubbly little dried

number that you found in a corner

shop behind some nappies. There is

more textural variety in beans that

you soak yourself – partly because

some of them tenderise faster than

others – as well as a subtlety and

depth because of the stage at which

you add salt. Principally, with a dried

Legume it

may concern

Zoe Williams

PHOTOGRAPHS: CHRISTOPHER THOMOND/THE GUARDIAN; GETTY; ALAMY

Who needs

manufacturing

and cold storage

when you have

agrarian-era skills

and a big bag

of beans?

beans. Nothing will persuade me to

quick-soak a bean, any more than

I would go swimming straight after

food or have a dream in which I die,

because these are the things that will

defi nitely kill you. But sure, try it.

On that tenderising : too much

bicarbonate makes any bean taste

of soap, and some people can taste

the soap even in trace amounts, so

it is fi ne not to use it, especially if

your beans aren’t very old. Beans

are 16% moisture when they leave

the warehouse, and that steadily

drops off , while the skin hardens and

makes them less absorbent until,

after a year (according to Delia Smith)

or 15 years (according to my mother),

they won’t become tender whatever

you do. There’s a freezer method –

quick-soak, freeze, thaw – that breaks

down the tough wall that older beans

develop , but here you have to ask

about your bean footprint.

Returning the next day to your

Wolfert-soaking chickpeas, rinse

them and put them in a clay pot with

60ml of olive oil, a bay leaf, a grated

onion and water to cover. Something

truly peculiar happens to the

onion: it dissolves to make a thick

sauce and, unless you had made

it yourself, Rumpelstiltskin could

lock you in a room for a year and you

wouldn’t be able to say what it was.

Seal the pot with fl our and water.

Cook on a very low heat (130C/110C

fan/ gas mark ½) for three hours. You

could eat these for ever. You could

add diff erent things (chilli sauce in

the morning, feta in the afternoon, a

poached egg at night) and have them

for every meal, then also as snacks.

Napoleon’s more famous food

legacy is his fl ouncy pudding , but

Napoleon beans , which he is said to

have eaten every other day during his

exile on Saint Helena , are standard

whites distinguished by their

dressing. I’d get them to an edible

state the same way as the chickpeas,

then dress while warm with mustard,

tarragon, parsley, chives and

shallots. They are really nourishing

and satisfying even if you’re not

trying to get over losing an empire.

Fava beans sound exotic and a

bit intellectual because of Hannibal

Lecter, but of course they are just

broad beans, with all the ball ache

for which broad beans are famous

• you really have to peel them.
  It’s enough of a faff when they’re
  fresh and raw, but when they have
  been dried, soaked and cooked, it’s
  more or less impossible unless you
  have a fi dgeting disorder, and even
  then you’ll only end up with seven
  or eight. They make a great dip,
  though. All beans make great dips,
  apart from kidney beans.
  Is it an illusion, the off -grid,
  survivalist, Gloria Gaynor can-do
  attitude fostered by a dried bean? If
  so, it’s a delicious one.

Dried beans In these troubled times,

beans on the shelf are a security blanket –

that just happens to taste delicious

bean, you’re sticking your oar in more

often, making more interventions

at each stage of the cycle, and each

one can, if that’s your game, make

it more delicious.

When it comes to rehydrating

chickpeas , I follow the American

genius Paula Wolfert and add to the

water a teaspoon of salt and one

of bicarbonate of soda, which has

a tenderising eff ect. An overnight

soak is non-negotiable. There is such

a thing as a “quick soak”, where you

bring beans to the boil from rock

hard, take them off the heat and

leave them for an hour in the water.

I’ve never done it, as my formative

years – the 80s, the height of bean-

mania, crucible of restaurants such

as Cranks that didn’t sell anything

but beans, era of the fart joke – were

full of stories about food poisoning

from undersoaked and undercooked

• planning

goes a long way, whereas something

like steak is very poor value.”

Treat yourself early in the week

Use prime ingredients with a short

shelf-life early, as through the week

you will accumulate leftovers that

require retooling – into a sausage,

tomato and cabbage chilli pasta, say,

or a one-pot stew. “I use more curries

and bolognese-type recipes at the

end of the week, where it doesn’t

show if a courgette’s gone past its

best. It’s more forgiving, especially

things with spices,” says Beckwith.

The freezer is your friend

A well-organised freezer is the

bedrock of minimal-waste meal

planning. It allows you to save most

leftovers or tired, withering items

(bananas, pureed fruits, chopped

onions and garlic, herbs blitzed into

a pesto etc), and maintain a stash

of meals to fall back on when you

are too busy or cannot be mithered

cooking. Clearly label everything,

including the date frozen and ideal

use-by date, which will usually be

within three months.

Make the most of the weekend

“ An hour or two of prep each

weekend ( making meals for the

freezer , perhaps ) will make it far

more likely that you stick to your

meal plan during the week.

A warning: test any recipes before

you XXL them. Making a huge vat of

revolting veggie chilli for the freezer

that you reluctantly trudge through

over several weeks will defi nitely

erode your enthusiasm for this

whole meal-planning malarkey.

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