A Complex Red Bean Stew From Georgia

[elleng]

'Many Americans fall in love with the food of Georgia (the country, not the state) after sampling khachapuri, a savory cheese-stuffed bread often served with a runny egg on top. For others, it’s a plateful of handmade khinkali, the country’s meaty version of soup dumplings.

For me, the obsession started with a humble bean stew called lobio.

I’d heard about lobio from my friend Alice Feiring, who went to Georgia on a research trip to write a book about the country’s ancient tradition of winemaking.

Back in New York, she couldn’t stop talking about the tomatoes, potatoes and beans. Georgia has been famous for its fruits and vegetables, including plums, grapes and pomegranates, for centuries. Many of its crops are still farmed in traditional, not industrial, ways.

The boiled potatoes, she told me, were heartbreakingly profound, with an earthy, clover blossom sweetness.

The tomatoes have never had the bitterness bred out of them, she said, making them especially complex, with a snappy acidity in their ripeness.

And the beans! Mottled red kidney beans boiled until velvety soft and mashed with pungent raw garlic, browned onions and a thrilling-sounding mountain herb called blue fenugreek.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/dining/bean-stew-recipe-lobio-georgia.html?

Red Bean Stew With Fried Onions and Cilantro

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019186-red-bean-stew-with-fried-onions-and-cilantro

[JDC]

1. The article, not recipe mentions "fenugreek" as an herb in traditional recipes

I've honestly never heard of it. Anyone know what it's "like?" I see the recipe calls for Oregano, so that's my assumption.

Thx for the post. My kinda recipe.


On Edit: the google tells me fenugreek has a bitter, maple syrup taste.

[elleng]

2. It's one of the ingredients in McCormick's curry powder (which I use.)

Fenugreek (/ˈfɛnjʊɡriːk/; Trigonella foenum-graecum) is an annual plant in the family Fabaceae, with leaves consisting of three small obovate to oblong leaflets. It is cultivated worldwide as a semiarid crop. Its seeds and its leaves are common ingredients in dishes from South Asia.

Fresh fenugreek leaves are an ingredient in some Indian curries. Sprouted seeds and microgreens are used in salads. When harvested as microgreens, fenugreek is known as samudra methi in Maharashtra, especially in and around Mumbai, where it is often grown in sandy tracts near the sea, hence the name samudra, "ocean" in Sanskrit. Samudra methi is also grown in dry river beds in the Gangetic plains. When sold as a vegetable in India, the young plants are harvested with their roots still attached and sold in small bundles in the markets and bazaars. Any remaining soil is washed off to extend their shelf life.

In Turkish cuisine, fenugreek seeds are used for making a paste known as çemen. Cumin, black pepper, and other spices are added into it, especially to make pastırma.

In Persian cuisine, fenugreek leaves are called "شنبلیله" (shanbalile). They are the key ingredient and one of several greens incorporated into ghormeh sabzi and eshkeneh, often said to be the Iranian national dishes.

In Egyptian cuisine, peasants in Upper Egypt add fenugreek seeds and maize to their pita bread to produce aish merahrah, a staple of their diet.

Fenugreek is used in Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisine.[9] The word for fenugreek in Amharic is abesh (or abish), and the seed is used in Ethiopia as a natural herbal medicine in the treatment of diabetes.[9]

Yemenite Jews following the interpretation of Rabbi Shelomo Yitzchak (Rashi) believe fenugreek, which they call hilbeh, hilba, helba, or halba "חילבה", to be the Talmudic rubia "רוביא". When the seed kernels are ground and mixed with water they greatly expand; hot spices, turmeric and lemon juice are added to produce a frothy relish eaten with a sop. The relish is also called hilbeh;[10] it is reminiscent of curry. It is eaten daily and ceremonially during the meal of the first and/or second night of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana.[11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenugreek

[JDC]

3. Thx! Way better than my google quick look.