Hola amigo como estas. Today we will bring you a dish using frijoles blancos – a very popular dish in Spanish.
Today’s dish is Guiso de frijoles blancos, a great choice for chilly days and the upcoming Christmas season. Only with some basic Spanish ingredients and seasoning such as the aroma of smoked paprika, or the specific odor of oregano…, you can immediately have a dish of hot frijoles blancos to savor with your family in these days.
Ingredients
- 300 g white beans
- 1 Onion
- 1 Tomato
- 1/2 Carrot
- 1 Paprika Pepper
- 3 Garlic Cloves
- Paprika
- Thyme
- Whole Wheat
- Cumin
- Black Soy Sauce
- Bay leaf
Again the white bean. How can we talk about a dish related to white beans without the soaking process? Like I have said in recent recipes, both main dishes and tapas like titaina and several fabaceous ingredients like chickpeas.
To me, a perfect frijoles blancos must have a creamy texture, and the white bean must be soft but not too. And of course, to reach this top quality, we’ll have to soak overnight
With today’s recipe, I’ll use a pretty new ingredient. It is black soy sauce. The reason I want to use black soy sauce is that I want to bring a new color, and a new vibe to this dish of food. It will be a little bit Mediterranean, modernized, and no longer belongs to particularly traditional Spanish cuisine. Black soy sauce will bring this dish a certain level of salt and a little bitterness with its typical odor, which will make it a promising experience.
Instruction
Those who have been following my blog for years may know that prepping all the ingredients is extremely essential, and this frijoles blancos is without exception, especially when the ingredients for this dish are numerous.
With soaked beans, we remove the water, quickly rinse them one more time, and finally let them dry in a bowl
With the vegetables, after rinsing them with cold water, we will start cutting them. The onion can be diced into small pieces so that when being sautéed, they can be sweet and odorous to the fullest extent. This will be similarly applied with tomatoes, carrots, fresh paprika, and garlic, peeling them and finely chopping them. As for the garlic cloves, try to mince them as much as possible; therefore, when we sauté them, the aroma will be amplified.
The prepping is done, now we will start cooking this dish
The first step is obviously frying the garlic and onions. Put olive oil and cook it at medium heat in the oven. When olive oil is gradually hotter and tiny bubbles appear on the surface, immediately add garlic to the oven.
When frying garlic, you should increase the heat high and quickly stir it (rising the heat will make garlic smell stronger, but the minced garlic will easily be done, or even overcooked and burnt). Right after the garlic turns yellow-brown and smells good, immediately decrease the heat to medium before the garlic is burnt, and add diced onions to the oven
Decreasing the heat to medium is partly to support for stirring onions. As it is another stew dish, the onions should be stirred until they turn caramel so that they will reach a certain level of sweetness. In order to meet this, we will have to evenly stir at medium heat.
During stirring, add ground-dried thyme and a touch of oregano. Using these two herbs will make your frijoles blancos a little bit bitter, which is not only interesting but able to show the specific taste of the ingredients as well. In addition, the odor of these two supporting ingredients can’t be skipped, as they have a distinctive smell taking resemblance to black pepper, but also containing modern hints of mint.
When the onions change color and the aroma of “supporting aroma ingredients” smells stronger, add the mixture of nicely chopped carrots and red paprika. Evenly stirring them again until the paprika releases a certain amount of juice and starts shrinking.
This is the appropriate moment to add diced tomatoes prepared in the prepping steps. We want the tomatoes to release as much juice as possible, and there is a useful tip that Chef Dani Garcia has applied several times. When stirring diced tomatoes, add some water. This will prevent the tomatoes from being burnt, which may release an unwanted aroma to the dish; also, the tomatoes may release juice faster.
When the mixture is creamier because of the released tomato juice, creating a beautiful light red, we will start seasoning the stewed white bean. This step is dependent on my individual taste, so you have to be flexible to satisfy your own family.
According to Manzanillanyc’s recipe, make a mixture of seasonings with 2 tbsp of salt, 1 tbsp of black pepper, and the same amount of paprika. Additionally, I would like to add some cumin in order to create a Mediterranean taste, as I have used thyme and oregano while cooking (this is 100% optional). Finally, it will be a mistake if there is a lack of whole-wheat, which can make the dish creamier and, therefore more appropriate for a main dish
When the diced tomatoes release approximately 80% of their juice, the whole mixture mingles and becomes condensed, having the pasta-like dark red, the frijoles blancos is nearly completed at 80%. The other parts are basically stewing and seasoning.
Before adding white beans and water to start the stew process, add some drips of soy sauce first, then blend the mixture.
The next step uses the main ingredient of the dish – white beans that have been soaked overnight for 12 hours. Evenly stir so as not to crush the beans and to ensure that the sauce is blended with every bean. Make sure that each bite is able to carry the soul of the mixture.
Ultimately, decrease the fire, add more water and stew the mixture of white beans until it is soft and creamy. Adding a bay leaf and season a pinch of salt, and a bit of sugar if you have a sweet tooth but as for me, I’d rather only a pinch of salt; this is the main dish, so I hope it is not too sweet since white beans are already sugary.
Repeat the stew process and add more water till the beans’ texture suits your taste. I prefer a fluffy texture, which is soft but not as much as porridge. In order to create this texture by stewing in the oven, it will take me 1-2 hours with low heat.
The final step is adding chopped fresh parsley so as to make the dish more attractive, fresher and balance the fatty stew dish. Parsley is only for the last minute, when the dish is about to be finished; we will not want the parsley to be overcooked, which will make the parsley’s taste surpass the stew or even ruin the dish.
Boil for some minutes until the frijoles blancos becomes extremely thick and creamy (or you can let it a little bit watery if that suits your taste), and the dish is ready to be enjoyed.
Serving frijoles blancos
A traditional Spanish dish with white beans, paprika and bay leaf as the main ingredients. This will be the greatest choice as the Christmas season is coming (there is only a fortnight from when this post is written), so we can not only warm up the frostiness of the winter but also feel the tradition of Spanish food.
If this dish is chosen as the main dish, it will be best served with some slices of bread.
In addition, Catalan culinary culture is such a masterpiece itself. I myself one of its biggest fan, and of course, Manzanilla have couple of Catalan dishes waiting for you to explore. Some interesting recipes to give a try:
Guiso de Frijoles Blancos
Equipment
- Oven
- Bowls
- Knife
- Pan
- Wooden spoon
- Plates
Ingredients
- 300 g White Beans
- 1 Onion
- 1 Tomato
- 1/2 Carrot
- 1 Paprika Pepper
- 3 Garlic Cloves
- Paprika
- Thyme
- Whole Wheat
- Cumin
- Black Soy Sauce
- Bay leaf
Instructions
- Soak the white beans overnight.
- Drain and rinse the beans.
- Chop the onions, carrots, peppers, tomatoes and garlic.
- Sauté the garlic and onions, then add carrots, peppers and tomatoes.
- Season with paprika, thyme, cumin and oregano.
- Add soy sauce and the white beans.
- Simmer everything together until beans are soft and creamy.
- Add parsley and adjust seasoning before serving.
Notes
- Overnight soaking and rinsing of the beans is essential for getting the creamy texture in the stew.
- Fry the garlic quickly at high heat so it gets aromatic without burning.
- Adding a little water when cooking the tomatoes helps them release more juice for the sauce.
- Amounts of ingredients and water need adjusting to personal taste preferences for texture and consistency.
- Cooking time required is 1-2 hours to get the beans soft, fluffy and creamy.
