Brazilian Black Bean Bake

 

Since I had one of my Aunt's recipe boxes out, I decided to pick out a few recipes that might be fun and easy to make.  So today's adventure is a Black Bean recipe.  I have become fairly enamored with this little pea sized mild, creamy and slightly sweet variety of kidney bean.  The black bean dates back some 7,000 years (yep, that's what I said - 7,000 years) as a staple of Central and South American diets.  Just gotta make sure you realize, if my Grandma's were alive today - they would still only be in their 100's. They still aren't older than the black bean. Both of them lived well into their late 90's.  In fact my Grandmother, on my Dad's side of the family, almost made it to 100.  She was always worried about living too long.  Her reason?  When my Grandad died, they went ahead and put her birth year - 1899 and 19__ (expecting her to die before the century ended).  She was known to talk to my dad and uncle about her concerns about her and my Grandad's grave stone. So while when she passed away, we talked about how she almost made it to 100, I know in my heart of hearts, she was relieved that she didn't create some complication that would have messed up that headstone.

I am not surprised to find a recipe like this among my Aunt's recipes.  Her recipes just have a kind of style about them - many of them are rather simple, yet loaded with flavors.  Adding ginger to jalapeño's and thyme isn't something I do often in my cooking, but when I think about how she cooked, dressed, laughed and always made you feel so warm and welcome - this matches who she was.

At dinner, I gave Bubba a history lesson about black beans.  The food critic in him responded...I would eat these for 7,000 years.  I guess that means they were good!

Brazilian Black Bean Bake

1 Cup chopped onion

1 T chopped jalapeno pepper

2 tea minced ginger (I buy chopped ginger in the jar so I always have it)

2 can black beans (I drained them)

1 can diced tomatoes undrained

1/4 cup honey 

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 tea dried thyme

1 tea salt

Bake 350 covered 30 min.

Uncover and bake 1 hour

Makes 4 1 cup servings