While in Burkina Faso, I spent some time in my mother’s village of Nouna, in the southwestern part of the country near the border with Mali. It was a very rewarding and entertaining time during which I got to know my extended family and partake in village activities. I particularly enjoyed helping my extended cousin prepare Tomsos, which she sold every afternoon in front of the house. Tomsos are black eyed pea fritters very similar in taste to the Northeastern Brazilian street food Acaraje. The name Acaraje is derived from the Nigerian Akara, which was brought to Brazil by West African slave. In fact, black eyed pea fritters are a very common West African street food that can be found from Cote d’Ivoire to Nigeria under various names such samsa, tomso, gawoo and akara.

BLACK EYED PEA FRITTERS (adapted from the traditional method)

1/2 lb black eyed peas
1 small onion chopped
2 small garlic cloves chopped
1 heaping spoon chopped parsley
1/4 cup water
Salt and pepper
Vegetable oil for frying

In a food processor, pulse the peas just enough to crush them. Soak them overnight in a large quantity of water. The skin will float on the surface. Using the palm of your hands, rub the peas together to remove the remaining skin and drain the water.

In a food processor, puree the black eyed peas. Add the onion, garlic and parsley and blend until homogeneous. Transfer to a bowl and whisk while adding water gradually until smooth and fluffy. The batter should be just thin enough to drop from an ice cream scoop. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Heat the oil to 360 degrees F.  Using an ice cream scoop, drop the batter into the oil and fry until golden brown.

Drain on a paper towel and serve hot with a spicy tomato dipping sauce.

The other night, that thrifty spirit once again seized me when I discovered that there was almost nothing to eat in my house. My initial reaction was to pick up the phone to call my favorite local Indian joint, but I decided that I wanted to save my pennies and so I reopened my cabinet and refrigerator to see what I could conjure into a supper. (Now I’m assuming that the readers of this blog not only fit the description of thrifty, but also of gourmet. As such, I am going to assume that, like me, you always have certain staples in your cabinet. If you don’t, then I recommend checking out this article by Mark Bittman from the NYTimes – do as he says, and you’ll always have something hanging around out of which to make a meal.)

In the fridge, I discovered a bowl of dried beans that I had forgotten that I had been soaking from the day prior. In my cabinet sat a can of San Marzano tomatoes. Spices and garlic, as always, were also on hand. Good enough. I threw all of it into a pot and baked it. Of course, beans alone don’t make a meal, so I boiled quinoa and sided my legumes with some olive oil, vinegar, and sea salt-dressed greens from the local farmers market. A cheap (using beans and quinoa from the bulk aisle, this entire meal cost under $5 for two) and wholesome dinner.

My roommate came home and saw what I was eating. Always generous with food, I fixed her a plate. As she chewed she said “these beans are amazing! This must have been so much work!” I wiped my brow and said, “Eh, it wasn’t that hard.”

Mexican-Style Baked Beans

1 cup dried pinto beans, picked over
2-3 cups water
¼ cup olive oil
6 canned San Marzano tomatoes, cubed
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
6 cloves garlic crushed
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Pinch sugar (to cut the acidity of the tomatoes)
½ cup queso fresco, crumbled (optional)
¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)

Soak beans for at minimum 4 hours, preferably over night.

Preheat oven to 375. Drain beans and rinse. Place beans in a covered casserole dish and just cover with water. Add olive oil, canned tomatoes, red pepper, cumin, garlic, salt, pepper, and sugar. Bake for two hours, or until all the liquids have been absorbed and the beans are tender. If beans are not tender after two hours, add another ½ cup water and bake until liquid is absorbed. Top with crumbled queso fresco and cilantro. Serve immediately.

A couple of weeks ago in the comments section of my post about cooking with dried beans, there was some discussion of making hummus at home and I was asked to post my husband’s fabulous recipe.  He’s the sort of cook who eschews measuring cups and spoons so I followed him around the kitchen last night with a pad and pencil saying “wait, stop, how much of that did you put in” and transcribed the following recipe.

It’s very important to start with dried chickpeas.  Once you’ve tasted hummus made from dried chickpeas you’ll never go back to using canned ones or buying hummus at the grocery store for that matter.  The flavors are fresh and complex and the texture robust.  The best part is, it’s incredibly easy and inexpensive to make.  For just a few dollars you can make a big platter full for your next party and if you pick up some nice pita bread, vegetables and olives it’s really almost a meal in itself.  Hummus also makes a great sandwich filling.  One of my favorite combinations is hummus, avocado and sriracha sauce.

This recipe is very flexible so don’t be afraid to fiddle around with the amounts a bit if you’re so inclined.  In our house we’ve discovered the amount of lemon people like in their hummus is a deeply personal thing so add a little at a time until you find a balance that you like.  Really, the same goes for most of the other ingredients too, if you want a more pronounced sesame flavor then add more tahini; garlic lovers, put in another clove or two; play around with it until you find your favorite ratios.

Hummus

(adapted from Mediterranean Street Food by Anissa Helou)

Makes about 3 cups

1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked in water for 4 hours or over night
1/3 cup tahini
2 cloves garlic, peeled
salt
5 tablespoons lemon juice or to taste
paprika
fruity olive oil
olives (optional)

Drain and rinse the chickpeas.  Put them in a saucepan and cover them with water.  Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer.  Simmer the chickpeas partially covered for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until very tender.

Drain the chickpeas and reserve the cooking water.  Place the chickpeas in a food processor with the tahini and garlic.  Process into a smooth puree.  Check the consistency, it should be creamy, if it’s too thick add a couple of tablespoons of the chickpea cooking water to thin it out.

Add salt to taste, processing to blend it in.

Add the lemon juice a little at a time, processing to blend, until it tastes the way you like.

Serve in a shallow bowl or on a small platter.  Make a slight depression in the center of the hummus, sprinkle the paprika on top and pour some nice fruity olive oil into the depression.  Garnish with olives if you like.

Serve with pita bread and vegetables for dipping.

A chef once told me: “you can measure a cook’s skills by his or her ability to roast a chicken.” I don’t know whether that’s a verified fact, but what I do know is that mastering the art of roasting chicken proved to be a more than useful skill to me. Not only is roast chicken a delicious option for last minute dinner parties, but leftovers make for wonderful next day creations. From salads to soups, sandwiches, rice dishes and quesadillas, the uses of roast chicken are endless. So, the next time you find yourself with 1 hour to plan a dinner party on a poor man’s budget, think chicken and chickpeas.

Roast Chicken
1 whole chicken cleaned ~ 3.5lbs (giblets removed)
1 tbsp of butter
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of dried herbs de Provence (optional)
Kosher salt
pepper

Heat the oven to 425 degres F.

Trim the chicken of excess fat and pat it dry with a paper towel. Truss the bird with some kitchen twine and generously season it with salt, pepper and the herbs if you’re using any.

Heat up the olive oil in an oven-proof pan large enough to fit the chicken. Brown the chicken on all sides starting with one side, then the breast, the other side and finally the back. Put a tablespoon of butter on top of the breast and roast the chicken on its back for approximately 45 minutes. Baste periodically.

The chicken is ready when the juices run clear and the internal temperature registers ~150 degree F. Remove the chicken from the pan and let it rest while you prepare the chickpea puree. Defat the pan juice and set aside.

Chickpea Puree
1 can of chickpeas drained
1 shallot chopped
1 garlic clove
Salt & pepper

Saute the shallot in the pan used to roast the chicken. Add the garlic, chickpeas and deglaze the pan with 1/3 cup of water. Make sure to scrape the bottom the pan to get all the good stuff. Add some of the chicken pan juice and season with salt and pepper. Simmer for five minutes.

Puree in a blender. Can be served hot or cold.

Thrifty Tip: You can use dried chickpeas as well. It takes a little longer, but it tastes a lot better.

A dip made of pureed white beans, fresh herbs, garlic and lemon zest with some fruity olive oil swooshed on top is a Mediterranean summer delight. Once you’ve made this and other bean dishes using dried beans, you’ll never go back to canned; the texture is far superior and the flavors earthy and complex. Also, dried beans triple or quadruple in weight (depending on type and freshness), so when you buy a pound you’re really buying three or four. That makes them half the price or less of canned, and with less packaging, it’s better for the environment too.

Oh, but it’s so much work, all that soaking and then they can still take forever to cook. It’s not as hard as you think, let’s look at some ways to make it go faster. First, a note on bean cooking in general: I mention cooking times below, but in reality they vary depending on the type of beans, how old they are and how long they’ve been soaked. A ballpark estimate of cooking time is somewhere between 40 minutes and an hour. For the best result, simmer (don’t boil) your beans, partially covered, in three times their volume of salted water. Taste them every 15 minutes during cooking. You want them tender, but not mushy, with an almost creamy interior.

The simplest solution is to make a big pot of beans on the weekend and store them in the refrigerator or freezer for later use in soups, cold summer salads, etc. They will last 7-10 days in the refrigerator and 2-3 months in the freezer. If you mix them with a little acid like lemon juice or vinegar after cooking it keeps them from going mushy. According to food science maven Harold McGee, soaking dried beans for more than four hours doesn’t buy you anything, so start your beans soaking in the morning and cook them in the afternoon.

You can also shorten the soaking time with this technique: Add the dried beans to boiling water; boil for 2-3 minutes; turn off the heat and cover the pot leaving them to soak for one hour. Finally, drain, rinse and cook in salted water until tender.

Often, the dried beans found in the grocery store are two or three years old. The older the beans, the more slowly they absorb water, which makes everything take longer. Older beans can also have a flat, cardboard flavor. Unfortunately, there aren’t any use-by dates on packages of dried beans, but there are ways to find fresher, tastier beans that cook more quickly.

It helps to buy from a store that has good turnover in their bean section. Look for ethnic markets where beans figure prominently in the cuisine (e.g., Central or South America, or the Caribbean). I live in a Caribbean neighborhood and can get away with soaking grocery store pinto beans for 2 hours and cooking them for 45 minutes. Try a few different sources until you find a store with relatively fresh beans.

The best place to obtain younger beans is the farmers’ market. You’ll pay a little more (about the same price as canned) but they’ll be very fresh with complex earthy flavors and a firm creaminess you won’t find in the grocery store. These beans were harvested in Autumn, but even at this time of year they only need about 1-2 hours of soaking and cook in about 40 minutes. One of the bean farmers I spoke with said he has customers who don’t soak at all, but that can be a bit hard on the digestion. Experiment and see what works for you.

Two purveyors of beans at New York City’s Greenmarkets are Cayuga Pure Organics from Brooktondale, NY who sell their organic beans for $4/lb. on Wednesdays at Union Square and Maxwell’s Farm of Changewater, NJ whose beans are priced at $3/lb. and can be found at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on Wednesdays and Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn on Saturdays.

The Fairway market in Red Hook bills itself as the home of “the greatest selection of organic foods in Brooklyn.” I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that if you’re not paying attention, you could miss the organic section’s star attraction: the bulk beans and grains. Push your cart past the granola and you’ll find 47 bins filled with all kinds of rice (jasmine, arborio, basmati, sweet, sushi, etc…), beans (kidney, pinto, navy, lima, lentil, etc…), oats, couscous, kasha and more.

You can even pick up some organic popping corn. It’s strictly do-it-yourself. You not only scoop what you want into a bag, but also weigh it yourself and print your own label. That means you get exactly what you want with no price tag surprises.

I like the convenience of bulk food and the feeling that I’m doing the environment a good turn by forsaking the unnecessary bags and boxes that come with pre-packaged options. And often, that pre-packaged food is more expensive. Elsewhere in the store, I found a 12-ounce container of quinoa for $3.99. For the same price in the bulk food section, I got 4 extra ounces. On my last trip to Fairway, I purchased natural Israeli couscous at $3.49 per pound and red quinoa at $3.99 per pound. Now, I just have to figure out the best way to prepare it — and make it last — until my next Fairway expedition.

When it comes to thrifty ingredients, lentils are generally at the top of the list. But other than lentil soup, most people don’t really know what to do with these little round legumes. I once had a lentil tacos at my friend Sarah’s house and it opened my eyes to the endless possibilities lentil cookery. These tacos were some of the best I’ve ever had. Shortly after that sudden culinary revelation, lentils became a more regular component of my diet. This lentil salad is a great way to get acquainted with lentils. It is also one of my favorite way to prepare this legume. It’s easy, healthy and satisfying.

Ingredients

1 cup of lentils
4 cups of water
1 carrot
1 shallot or small red onion
1 clove of garlic
1 lime (zest and juice)
1 teaspoon of ground cumin (optional)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Cilantro
Salt

Wash the lentils and cook them in 4 cups of water until tender (approximately 25 minutes). While the lentils are cooking, wash and peel the carrot and the shallot (or onion). Finely dice them. Then, chop the cilantro and grate the garlic.

Drain the lentils and transfer them into a salad bowl. Add the diced veggies, garlic, lime zest and juice, olive oil and cumin. Mix it all up and salt to taste. Serve either warm or chilled.

This salad travels well and is perfect for picnics and potlucks.