Moving to the US: the bean saga

Mudar para Português

I moved to the States to live in a small town in New Hampshire called Hanover. My husband was studying at Dartmouth College and we lived there for two years. Besides the town receives students from all over the world, it is hard to find imported food in the area. People from this region also have a great appreciation for local products (which with time learned to value too).

Curious as I am, I tried to taste everything from the local cuisine. However, after a while, I felt a desperate need to eat what I used to have in Brazil. I was tired of Mac and cheese, ribs, pizza, burgers, wings and other things that may seem delicious (and they actually are), but I wanted my Brazilian food, I wanted rice and beans!

In Brazil, most part of people eats at lunch, and sometimes at dinner, a very typical and health combination dish: rice, beans, a protein (could be chicken or beef) and salad. Nowadays this is my everyday lunch too.

Prepare rice is quite simple. My challenge was to prepare beans. The first thing I thought: I need to buy a pressure cooker. Every Brazilian house has a pressure cooker to cook beans. So, I bought one online, the less expensive I could find. I tried to cook my beans. However, as soon as the pot had pressure, it exploded. I was in panic. I could have suffered a very serious accident because of that pot.

I got so sad and disappointed. Who already moved to a complete different place knows how difficult the adaptation could be. A simple bean can make you to feel down.
 
After, I learned how to buy a neutral bean. If you want something similar to Brazilian beans, you need to look for Pinto beans (what is so weird, because Pinto means Dick in Portuguese). Then, try to find those with no flavor or salt only.  There are several brands, but I already bought Goya, that is pretty good.
 

Then, to try to solve my problem, people gave me some advices. I had the possibility to buy canned beans. In Brazil, we do not have this kind of beans. By the way, we can find almost everything in cans in the United States. I confess, for me it was kind of weird and interesting at the same time. When I arrived at the grocery store was surprising: I’ve never imagined that could be so many kinds of canned beans. I chose one called pork and beans. I thought it could have a bacon taste. Well, my mistake. The beans are sweet. Traditional American beans recipe calls for brown sugar. But, I wanted Brazilian beans, not sweet beans.

But, the canned beans can be good, but it does not have the same texture and the same taste of baked beans. Besides, canned beans contain many preservatives and sodium, it is not very healthy , especially for those who consumes it every day.

I still didn’t know how to cook beans. I tried to cook in a regular pot, but it took me four hours and I needed to stir and add water all the time. Then, a friend of mine introduced me the slow cooker, also well know as its brand name CrocPot. It is very well-known in the US, but few people knows it in Brazil. I felt in love with my slow cooker and now I cook everything in it. The slow cooker works exactly the opposite way of the pressure cooker. It cooks everything slowly. As the water never boils, the food does not burn and you can leave cooking without supervision. You don’t need to stir, to add water, nothing.

Finally I will be able to tell you my bean recipe HERE. After all this saga, I can cook my beans at home and I hope you can do it too.

And you? Do you have any tips or stories about beans?

See you