American Classics with Scott Peacock: Beans and Cornbread

" - Today beans and cornbread."

" -Yes indeed! And we're gonna start with the cornbread."

" -Well, I don't know, this just not look like a cornmeal that I'm used to."

" -It's white cornmeal. It's a very fine grind."

" -It's like flour."

" -It's a little bit like flour. It's finer. It's not very coarse cornmeal, it's an extra fine grind but the good thing is you can make this recipe with any cornmeal."

" I'm just using this. It's my favorite. So we got 1-1/2 cups of a fine cornmeal or any cornmeal from the grocery store. And we're gonna put a teaspoon of salt--"

" -Okay."

" -and a level teaspoon of baking soda."

" -Okay."

" -So we'll just start a little bit and then we're gonna crack a couple of eggs. This is the simplest recipe you can possibly have. I'm gonna break these eggs up a little bit. We pour the butter milk in the eggs forming."

" -Yes it here goes!"

" -Please, dump it. And then, we're gonna stir this into the dry. So we got this iron skillet with our butter than we've pre-heated in the oven and then we're gonna pour this into the butter, swirl it real rough first to make sure you cool the pan."

" -Now, why do use a skillet to bake them."

" -Well, that's a very traditional way of making cornbread. It has great solid even heat. Just a cake pan would work just fine."

" [unk] plenty of cornbread in cake pan. And then, this goes back into the oven. So, now we're gonna cook our [unk] beans."

" -Okay. What kind of beans are we using?"

" -Well, we're using pinto beans but you can use your favorite dried beans. So I'll just pit through these carefully to make sure there we're no crack beans, no split beans, no, no bits of stone. You'll rinse these"

" -Uh huh."

" -and then we're gonna put this in here because you have to soak them. So you need a container large enough to hold them comfortably because they're going to swell a lot."

" -Okay!"

" -And then cover them really thoroughly with water all the way up to the top of the containers."

" They have lots of room to grow as they soak up that water. Well these have soaked overnight and you can see how much they've swollen. So it's time to cook the beans and a few important things."

" -Okay!"

" -First of all, you need a big wide mouth pot."

" -Okay."

" -So we've got the soaked beans. We drained it and we rinse them really well."

" -Uh huh."

" -And we put them in a pot. Then the amount of water is really important."

" -Okay! How much?"

" -You want plenty of water in there to cover by at least an inch or so."

" -Above the beans?"

" -Above the beans?"

" -Okay."

" -And then we've got some country ham."

" -Why country ham?"

" -Country ham has the richest most intense and wonderful depth of flavor."

" -Wow!"

" -So we'll just put two or three pieces in here. This has a lot of salt in it too and it's going to give some flavoring to it."

" -So it seasons that the beans?"

" -Yes Exactly! And then we're gonna bring this up to a boil and then we're going to put a lid on it, partially covered. Get really low temperature for about an hour until there are almost done. And then we're gonna cook up some garlic and onions and tomatoes that we'll add to do a final flavoring."

" -Wow."

" -So get some finely chopped onion."

" -Okay!"

" -Let the onions to cook a little bit first before you add the garlic and at the beginning it might burn."

" -Scott, so why did you crush these by hands?"

" -Well because I don't want too much tomato juice in the beans. So you could use crushed tomatoes, but there are packed in tomato juice and then you wind up with too much in the final bean."

" And well cook this for about five or seven minutes to mellow it out.-Okay!"

" -Taste it real carefully and then we'll add it to our beans. All right so Nancy, you can see these beans have been simmering, and now we can add to these, our beautiful tomato onion garlic mixture. So we're gonna keep cooking this for about half an hour--"

" -Okay."

" -to really get the flavor going in there and it's going to be delicious."

" -These just look so fantastic. I can't think of anything better on a cold winter day. For Better, I'm Nancy Hopkins."