Smokin' Dinner: Puerto Rican-Style Smoked Pork Shoulder & Black Beans

When I invited two of my favorite Italian restaurant owners over for dinner, the last thing they were going to hear from me was, "Wait until you try my risotto. I think you'll love it!"

So I went in a completely different direction, to the small island east of Cuba that was hammered so mercilessly by Hurricane Maria a little less than two years ago, an island filled with our fellow American citizens who are still all but ignored in the sturm und drang of our current national crises du jour.

Going into the smoker.

It's hard to find this island's cuisine represented on our local dining scene, and while the flavors of cumin, garlic and chile are found in many Latin cultures, I thought it might be fun to make a dinner based on a Puerto Rican theme. Plus we love their take on pork shoulder, a dish called pernil that, though delicious when roasted in an oven or even on a grill, takes on a whole different character when left for several hours in the smoker.

With Dave primed to spend his day, beer in hand, tending the fire, I needed to come up with a side that would fit in. It just so happened that I had some black turtle beans from Anthony and Carol Boutard of Ayers Creek Farm in the pantry, so I put them on to soak while I did a little research.

Ready to go! (And check out that smoke ring.)

Similar to the black beans I make for taco nights at home, traditional preparations start with a sofrito of onions, garlic, cumin and chile powder, then add in chopped peppers, splashes of wine and vinegar, and chopped olives. These are best simmered for several hours, allowing the beans to get buttery-tender and for flavors to meld into a rich, stewy whole, so I put them on first thing in the morning. Cooking them overnight in a 250° oven would work, too, the only problem being you'd wake up wanting to make huevos rancheros after breathing in the heady aroma of the cooking beans all night.

Dave, of course, did his usual magic with the pernil, allowing the pork to roast low and slow, swathed in the smoke from the mix of charcoal and fresh oak. And the beans got their share of raves, along with sincere thanks from our friends, who, like most chefs I've cooked for, are just grateful to have someone cook for them for once!

Pernil
Adapted from Mark Bittman

1 pork shoulder, 4-10 lbs.
4 or more cloves garlic, peeled
1 large onion, quartered
2 Tbsp. fresh oregano leaves or 1 Tbsp. dried
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ancho or other mild chili powder
1 Tbsp. salt
2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil as needed
1 Tbsp. wine or cider vinegar
Lime wedges for serving.

Heat oven to 300 degrees or prepare a fire in the smoker, allowing it to reach a stable temperature of 250-275°.

Score meat with a sharp knife, making a cross-hatch pattern. Pulse garlic, onion, oregano, cumin, chili, salt and pepper together in a food processor, adding oil in a drizzle and scraping down sides as necessary, until mixture is pasty. Blend in the vinegar.

Rub this mixture into pork, getting it into every nook and cranny. Put pork in a roasting pan and film bottom with water or, if smoking in the smoker, place it on a rack above a pan of water. Roast pork for several hours until an instant-read thermometer reads 180°. [Our 10-lb. shoulder took 6 hrs. - KB]. Add more water to the pan as necessary, until meat is very tender.

Let meat rest for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting it up; meat should be so tender that cutting it into uniform slices is almost impossible; rather, whack it up into chunks. Serve with lime.

* * *

Puerto Rican-Style Black Beans

1  lb. dried black beans, rinsed thoroughly

3  Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1  large yellow onion, chopped

2 poblano peppers, chopped in 1/2" pieces

4 to 5  garlic cloves, crushed

2 tsp. ground cumin

2 tsp. oregano

4 c. water

3  bay leaves

1 Tbsp. salt, plus more to taste

2  Tbsp. red wine vinegar

1/2  c. dry white wine

1/2  c. green olives stuffed with pimentos, thinly sliced

The day before cooking, soak beans overnight in large pot with water covering them by at least 3". The next day drain them and rinse. Set aside.

Heat oil over medium-high heat in large Dutch oven. Sauté onions until translucent, stirring frequently. Add chopped peppers and garlic and sauté until tender. Add cumin and oregano and sauté 30 seconds. Pour in water and add drained beans, olives, bay leaves, vinegar, and white wine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered, for at least 2 hours. Check occasionally to make sure the beans aren't dry. If they are, add more water.

When beans are tender, if beans are too soupy remove lid and keep simmering until liquid is reduced. Remove bay leaves, turn heat down to warm until ready to serve.

Soup's On: Perfect Pot of Winter Warmth

For those of us who don't always have the funds to go out for dinner when we don't feel like cooking—or don't have the time to whip up a culinary feast for our hungry families—I highly suggest jumping off the plate and into the pot. In other words, think soup.

It's almost the perfect winter warmer. Its steaming heat warms the body and fills the belly, especially when you add beans, pasta, potatoes, rice or root vegetables. It's easy, usually taking no more than 30 minutes or so to go from start to finish. It satisfies a crowd, needing only a good loaf of bread and maybe some cheese or a green salad to make a meal. Seriously, it's hard to do better when you're feeding a family or, indeed, a table full of guests.

And I've been making a lot of soup lately, from a Thai-inflected curried squash soup to a Tuscan white bean soup to a split pea soup with bacon to a corn chowder. Though at my house we often call it "stewp" because it invariably turns out to be less brothy and more hearty.

The soup in the photo above was a complete improvisation. I was pressed for time to make dinner on a recent weeknight and was rummaging in the freezer for ingredients I might be able to thaw quickly. That's when I ran across a package of frozen chorizo sausage I'd bought from Don Felipe at the Portland Mercado. Hm. A start.

A bit of digging in the vegetable bin brought up some carrots and a couple of garnet yams, and I found a container of leftover black beans I'd made earlier in the week (though you could always use canned). Perfect.

And, like I said earlier, in just over a half hour we were sitting down to what may be my new favorite soup.

Chorizo, Black Bean and Yam Soup

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 lb. fresh chorizo sausage*

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped fine

3-4 c. cooked or canned black beans

2 large carrots, chopped in 1/4" dice

2 medium garnet yams, chopped in 1/2" dice

4-6 c. water, depending on how brothy you like your soup

Heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. When it shimmers, add the chorizo and brown, breaking up with a spoon as it cooks. Add onion and garlic and sauté till tender. Add black beans, carrots, yams and water and bring to a boil, stirring to combine. Reduce heat to simmer and cook until carrots and yams are tender.

* I highly recommend Don Felipe's Tolucan-style red chorizo sausage, or you can make your own version with this simple recipe.

Sides of Summer

Summer sides around here take the form of cool salads, whether made from potatoes, grains or, one of my favorites, the much-maligned legume. The mention of a bean salad causes most folks to think of those terrible three-bean salads from the grocery-store deli made from canned green and yellow beans, with canned kidney beans and a sickeningly sweet, oily dressing.

So when I ran across this recipe for a black and white bean salad that called for fresh corn, red onion and red pepper, it didn't even take the mention of the cumin vinaigrette dressing to bring me on board. Easy, tasty and ideal even for the vegans in attendance, this salad will be the star of your summer gatherings.

Black & White Bean Salad with Cumin Vinaigrette
Adapted from The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins

For the dressing:
1/2 c. cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. garlic, minced
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. olive oil

For the salad:
2 15-oz. cans black beans, drained (or 8 oz. dried beans, cooked)
2 15-oz. cans cannellini or navy beans, drained (or 8 oz. dried beans, cooked)
1 red onion, chopped fine
1 red bell pepper, chopped fine
1 15-oz. package frozen corn (or two ears corn, boiled and kernels cut off)
1/4 c. cilantro leaves, minced

Make the dressing by placing the vinegar, mustard, cumin, garlic, pepper and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Slowly pour in the olive oil while processing till mixture is emulsified.

In large salad bowl, combine all salad ingredients, pour the dressing over the top and stir gently. Best when refrigerated for at least one hour before serving.

Farm Bulletin: Bluebirds and Beans

Anthony and Carol Boutard's close observations of the diverse plants and wildlife found on their farm in Gaston makes their bulletins a welcome distraction from the hustle-bustle of the city. This week he gave me a new word to look up (see if you can find it!) and a new recipe to try, as well as a kind mention of GoodStuff NW. Thanks, Anthony!

Bluebirds have a beautiful soft warbling call, and they converse with each other as they fly. You hear them well before they come into view. For the most part, they stay in the higher pastures on the flanks of Bald Peak, shunning even the most hospitable croplands. Sunday, in advance of the chill, the bluebirds sought lower ground. Bluebirds have stronger family bonds than other thrushes, with males assisting the hens during the first clutch, and the progeny from the first clutch assisting with the raising of the second clutch. During the winter months they remain as a family group. Working in the field, we heard their nearby conversation as confirmation of a cold snap. They have been hanging around the last few days seeking eddies of warm air where insects are active.

The full moon is often accompanied by a cold spell. Growing up in New England, an early harvest moon meant a short tomato season if the garden wasn't covered with every available bedsheet and tablecloth. In Oregon's January, we cross our fingers as the temperature plummets and the plants go limp, losing all turgor. The wilting response concentrates the plant's sugars and reduces the likelihood that the sharp ice crystals will pierce the cell wall. If that happens, the cell dies. The high winds that accompany these chills make covering the crops impractical. All we can do is wait, and fret at night as the wind rattles outdoors.

Dry Beans

From time to time, Kathleen Bauer includes excerpts of our newsletter in her Good Stuff NW blog, as well as her own riffs on cooking with our beans, &c. In response to our note about beans, one of her readers observed that cooking beans at 250 degrees in a Dutch oven is a very gentle way to cook beans. The reader is right. We cook our beans in a beautiful glazed blue pottery French bean pot that Greg Higgins gave us. Bean pots have lid and a lip that redirects the steam back into the pot. The pottery tempers the heat and no hot spot develops as in a regular saucepan. Every single bean cooks perfectly, and there is simply no better way to cook beans. Bear in mind, it is much slower, taking a couple of hours or more. The Mirador Community Store at 2106 SE Division sells high quality bean pots in various sizes. Mirador also has a good selection of clay crocks, and other odds and ends. Crockpots are another method of cooking beans slowly.

In our last newsletter, we mentioned that we do not recommend Black Turtle Beans for vegetarian cooking. Two of you challenged that assertion. Robin Fox makes the following observation:

"Black turtle beans make wonderful vegetarian chile! I can't give an exact recipe, but the secret is to use fire-roasted tomatoes (canned, Muir Glen), which give it a smokey flavor, and of course lots of onion, garlic, thyme (and/or oregano, but I prefer thyme), and cumin, some chopped green pepper (frozen in the winter), and chile to taste. These beans are so strong flavored that I'm inclined to bring them to a simmer, soak for a few minutes, and then change the water; I don't do this with most of your beans because I think a lot of flavor gets thrown out with the water. Duncan doesn't think I need to do it with turtle beans either--he thinks very, very black-beany chile is delicious. Our non-vegetarian neighbors like it too."

Nancy Steeler sent us the following recipe, noting that it is a hybrid of recipes drawn from Deborah Madison and Lorna Sass, a mighty fine lineage for a dinner. Nancy includes directions for both a pressure cooker and a sauté pan:

Favorite Black Bean Chili

2 c. dried beans, soaked over night or speed soak
2 c. onions, chopped small
4 cloves garlic minced (about 2 Tbsp.)
1 red pepper, chopped small
2 c. chopped tomato (I use my own canned tomatoes at this time of year.)
3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. cumin seeds
1 Tbsp. oregano
1 tsp. fennel seeds
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbsp. chili powder
4 tsp. sweet paprika
1-2 tsp. pureed chipotle chiles, or 2 jalapeños seeded and thinly sliced. Adjust for your own liking. This has just a bit of a kick, not too much.

Drain and rinse the beans. If not using a pressure cooker, put them in a large pot with 4” water over them and boil for 5 to 10 min. or until done with the following step, removing any surface scum.

In the pressure cooker (or sauté pan if not using pressure cooker) heat the olive oil add cumin seeds till they pop, add onions. Sauté for 7 to 10 min. then add garlic, red pepper, oregano, fennel seeds, cinnamon, chili powder, sweet paprika, and chipotle. Sauté for another minute or two.

Using a Pressure Cooker: Add the beans to the pressure cooker and add boiling water to cover the mixture. Lock lid in place. Over high heat bring up to high pressure, then lower heat just enough to maintain high pressure. Cook for 12 minutes, reduce pressure with a quick release method. Open lid with it pointing away from you to allow steam to escape. If beans are not yet done cover and cook till done.

Using a Sauté Pan: Add tomatoes to the onion mixture, simmer for another 15 minutes. then add this mixture to the beans. Continue cooking until the beans are tender, about 30 minutes or so. Make sure the water level stays above the beans by 1 or 2 inches.

Finishing up Both Methods: When the beans are done correct the seasoning with salt and pepper, or add more chipotle if desired. Let sit for a few hours at room temperature, covered. If the chili not thick enough, puree some of the beans and stir back into the pot.

Reheat, and just before serving add cilantro and garnish with avocado and lime wedge.

Note: Never add salt before the beans are thoroughly cooked as this will toughen the skins. I have had this cooking time vary widely. It may depend on the freshness of the beans - with Ayers Creek beans the timing is pretty spot on.