Rosecoco bean rajma

I bought a bag of rosecoco beans sight unseen simply because of their lovely name, a few months back. It never occurred to me to look up the beans anywhere to find out what they were, and it certainly didn’t cross my mind (or even came anywhere within a few light years of my mind, never mind within crossing distance) that I might not like the beans – because a bean or legume that I dislike has not yet been invented.

Yes, there are certain ways of cooking/using beans and legumes that I might dislike (the gooey texture of cooked urad dal by itself, for instance), or certain additions to the cooked beans that I would not eat (anything non-vegetarian, in other words)… but the beans themselves are never at fault. Thus I repeat, I have no fear of meeting a bean and not liking it.



And so it was with the rosecoco beans (= cranberry bean = borlotti bean = saluggia = shell bean = salugia bean = crab eye bean = rosecoco bean = Roman bean = fagiolo romano). Not only did they look pretty, speckled and brown and prettily pinkish (or did I imagine that because of the rose in their name?), but they cooked up beautifully, too.

I have made rajma before, with the dark red kidney beans that are traditionally used for this recipe. This recipe is slightly different, if for nothing else other than I used my beloved slow-roasted tomatoes to make the gravy. I have said this before and I say it again – using oven-roasted tomatoes intensifies beautifully the flavour of any gravy. It’s well worth keeping roasted tomatoes handy. They usually last in my fridge for a week - and maybe could stay good for longer, I don’t know - covered with cling wrap.

I’m sure, as I’ve said before (again!), that you could puree the tomatoes and freeze it in ice-cube trays for convenient future use... but I haven’t done so thus far, because – er, I don’t have ice cube trays. If you’re wondering what we do for drinks, well – I buy ice. Maybe I'm just lazy, but I find the pre-frozen ice cubes convenient, and man, they last for absolutely AGES in a drink. I don’t know what it is about that ice, but the cubes – actually they’re not cubes, they’re beehive shaped, for some strange reason - just don’t melt as quickly. (Please, don’t tell me it’s because the ice has preservatives.)

Anyway, digression apart, here’s the recipe for rosecoco bean rajma, and my mother will vouch for the fact that it was lip-smackingly gorgeous. I love my rajma, I do.


Dry rosecoco beans (left) and soaked overnight (right)

Recipe for: Rosecoco bean rajma



Ingredients:



1 cup rosecoco beans, soaked in water overnight
3 small red onions - two chopped, one minced finely
1/2 cup roasted tomatoes, pureed
1" piece ginger root, sliced
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 dried red chillies
2-3 fresh green chillies, sliced into thin rounds
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp chole masala/garam masala
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
2-3 cups water
2-3 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped, for garnish

Method:

1. Grind the two chopped onions along with the ginger root, dried red chillies and cumin seeds



into a fine paste.



Reserve the minced onion.

2. Heat the oil in a small pressure cooker, add the sliced green chillies and turmeric powder.



Fry the chillies for 30-45 seconds on high, stirring it meanwhile.

3. Add the minced onion now and stir it in; cook this for 2-3 minutes or till the onions begin to turn soft.



4. Now add the red onion paste along with coriander powder



and fry the mixture for 4-5 minutes.



5. Now stir in the roasted tomato paste



and add 1/4 cup water.



6. After two minutes, add the soaked beans.



Fry the beans, stirring them into the masala, for 3 minutes or so, stir in the garam masala/chole masala,



then pour in 2-3 cups water.



7. Let the water come to a rolling boil, then close the pressure cooker. Put the weight on the cooker once it's steaming well, then cook it for 2-3 whistles on high heat. Now turn the heat down to low and let the beans pressure-cook for at least 20 minutes. Finally allow the cooker to come up to pressure again and switch it off after a couple of whistles.

Once the cooker can be opened, add salt to taste to the rajma and stir it in well. The beans should be cooked such that they can be easily squashed between two fingers. If the gravy is watery, let the rajma boil on high heat till the excess water evaporates and the gravy is to the desired consistency.

Serve hot, garnished with coriander leaves, along with cumin fried rice.

Rajmah with coriander

The first cookbook I was gifted was from my best friend when she was a reporter - for some reason she got the book (Rohini Singh's The Wonderful World of Indian Cookery) at a press meet - I imagine it was so she could review it, but I'm not certain. Whatever, when she was done with it, I asked to have a look at it.

It wasnt out of interest in cooking, because I didnt care to spend time in the kitchen at that point in my life. I suppose I was just curious to have a look at the inside of the book. But as I flipped through it, one photo in particular caught my fancy, and that was of a dish of rajmah (red kidney beans). (My camera doesnt do it justice, but it was the only way I could take the photo without obliterating the page with the flash reflection!)



I dont know if it was the hungry look on my face or what, but right there and then my friend scrawled an inscription in the book and handed it over to me. What she had written was: Here's hoping you develop the patience and have the time to cook.

Looking back on that, I dont think I ever, even for one moment, imagined that one day I would find cooking an interesting, pleasurable and rewarding experience. Or that I would have a food blog. But here I am, and I think it was with that rajmah recipe that I made my first proper entry into the kitchen. Of course at that time I doubt I was even aware of the existence of canned food. I'm not sure that tinned food was available in the shops in India. Maybe it was, but I must have walked right past them without their presence ever registering. Tinned food was just NOT done in our home, or in the home of anyone I knew. It's only after coming to the UK that I've actually conceded the usefulness of some tinned food. Sometimes. Mainly beans.

Anyway, the whole recipe was done from scratch - soaking the beans overnight, cooking them in the pressure cooker and so on. The first few times I made rajmah was exactly as per Rohini Singh's recipe, nose pressed to cookbook - ok, not literally, but the liberal stains and dried sauce marks on the page (no, I'm not going to show anybody that page - it's not a pretty sight!) testify to my having the book open to the page and VERY close to my cooking arena!

After all that rambling, let me get to today's recipe. Rajmah made my way, with *gasp* tinned pre-cooked red kidney beans! Let me tell you, it tastes just as good and saves all the trouble of soaking and waiting and checking to see if the rajmah is sitting in the pan like hard little red stones, or whether it's cooked to the right softness.

I've found that the "raw" smell of ground uncooked onions never really disappears from any sauce, unless oodles of oil is poured in to literally fry the paste and thus get rid of the smell. But then I discovered that if you grind other items with the onions - coriander leaves and ginger, for example, the nasty raw smell never appears in the first place. So that's how I made the sauce for the rajmah.

Recipe for: Rajmah with coriander



Ingredients:

1 cup fresh coriander leaves, chopped
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
2 large tomatoes, blanched, skinned and chopped fine
1 tin of kidney beans (or one generous cupful)
2" piece of ginger, chopped
5 green chillies (or to taste)
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp garam masala or 1 tsp chole masala
1/2 cup water
Salt to taste
2 tbsp heavy cream (optional)
Fresh coriander leaves for garnish
Thin matchsticks of ginger, deep-fried, for garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Grind the ginger, coriander leaves, green chillies and onions in a mixie.



Add a little water while grinding, if required, to make a smooth paste. Reserve.



2. Blanch the tomatoes in hot water for a few minutes, then peel the skin. It will come off easily.



Chop the skinned tomatoes finely and reserve.

3. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the minced garlic for 15 seconds or so.



4. Add the reserved onion-coriander paste and fry on high heat, stirring, for about 3 minutes.



5. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry on high heat for 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water and lower the heat, stirring once in a while, till the tomatoes cook down to a thick sauce.



6. Now add the coriander powder and cumin powder. Stir well.



7. Let the sauce cook for another 3-4 minutes, then add the kidney beans, reserving a spoonful. Mash this and add to the sauce to thicken the rajmah.



8. Stir in the salt and garam masala/chole masala and let the rajmah bubble for 5 minutes or so. Stir in the cream if using, garnish with coriander leaves, and serve hot with plain boiled rice, papad and pickle for a satisfying meal.