Cooking Failure
This is a cooking post. It contains little or nothing of technical value.
So on one hand, learning to cook has been interesting from the organizational changes that result. For example:
- We're going through way more vegetables per week when cooking.
- I typically have two or three meals planned through for the next week.
- Big supermarkets operate on the pareto principle – they're great at getting the normal things, but not the not-so-normal things.
As a result, I have found myself stopping by local grocery stores and going to the farmer's market on the weekend. It is not a bad thing to be shopping cuts of meat and oddly shaped vegetables on a Sunday morning, but I also understand places like Gus's and Falletti's very differently now.
I also had my first cooking disaster on Sunday. It was a white bean chili that I honestly thought I didn't need any help with.
There was only one problem. The recipe called for two cans of cannellini beans, and I only had dried beans. Not a problem. I pulled in an instant pot recipe and then brought up Letta and asked it to cross-reference it with the recipe and resize it for me.
I see now, Will! Let me help you with the right proportions.
I checked the white chicken chili recipe, and it calls for 2 cans (15 oz each) of cannellini beans, which is about 3 cups of cooked beans.
For your Instant Pot Duo Mini (which is 3 quarts), here's what I recommend:
Scaled Bean Recipe for White Chicken Chili:
- 1/2 pound (8 oz) of dried cannellini beans
- 4 cups water
- 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2-1 teaspoon salt
- 1-2 cloves garlic (optional)
- 1 small bay leaf (optional)
This will yield approximately 3 cups of cooked beans, which is perfect for your white chicken chili recipe. The cooking time remains the same - 35-40 minutes at high pressure for cannellini beans.
Remember:
- Don't fill your Instant Pot Mini more than halfway
- Let the pressure release naturally for best results
- The beans will expand as they cook
This is much more efficient than cooking your entire 1 lb 8 oz package in multiple batches. You'll have exactly what you need for the chili without excess beans to store.
I stuck it in the Instant Pot, set it to 37 minutes, and felt very pleased with myself.
After that, it was pretty simple. Add onions, add chicken, try to brown the chicken (it never takes 5 minutes, the chicken always releases juices and then there's extra liquid – I don't know why recipes keep saying this), and then simmer for 20 minutes. I flubbed a little by not having chili powder, but I remembered from one meal that I could substitute taco seasoning as "chili+cumin" so I thought I was safe.
And then we tried it.
The beans were… well, not crunchy exactly. More like the texture of unripe avocado. Oddly stiff and chalky. Not bad, but not good. Not something you'd want someone to eat unless they had to.
I biked out and picked up Souvla instead.
Later on, I told Chef about it, and it was confused until I mentioned that the beans were from 2020. It immediately said "Ah, there's the culprit!" and explained that older beans had to be rehydrated for at least 75-80 minutes, or should have been pre-soaked or softened with baking soda. It also mentioned that beans effectively have a shelf-life of one or two years as past that point they become unpredictable. It recommended always doing taste tests to make sure of the ingredients before starting the rest of the recipe, which is fair but also very much a "this is why we taste-test, dumbass" moment.
So, lesson learned: even dried beans have an expiration date.