Red kidney beans in a spicy tomato and coconut cream sauce
A dish sending vibes and tides of the Indian Ocean, powered by the American chili pepper world record holder. The latter alone would warrant calling this dish "fusion".
Serves: 4
Preparation: 15 minutes (excluding soaking red kidney beans overnight)
Cooking: 120 minutes (including 100 minutes unattended, and not mentioning refrigerating it for hours before enjoying this dish at its best)
This recipe is not my entire creation, it was inspired by a friend who shared with me delights from Madagascar. After all, are we ever creating something brand new in our kitchens, or are we standing on the shoulders of giants, re-arranging past experiences in our own way? As an advocate of Free/Libre Software, I believe humanity benefits from the freedom to cook recipes for whatever purpose, the freedom to study how recipes are made, the freedom to redistribute copies of recipes, and the freedom to modify recipes and share their new versions. Of course, the process of doing so bears a cost. Shopping for products, cooking them, photographing or recording the steps, writing the recipe, publishing a newsletter or a book — all of these cost time and/or money. For this reason, I shall never post a recipe from a book without a significant, personal enhancement. And I will always credit the author of public recipes I find online and modified (as I did for sauté potatoes, spinach, and tomatoes with Indian spices (aka saag aloo)).
Back to the recipe. This friend delighted me with mango acards, vanilla sticks from his land in Madagascar, and other spicy bites I don’t remember the name. There was also this simple dish combining red kidney beans in a hot, creamy coconut and tomato sauce. I cooked it myself afterward multiple times, and I was tempted to share a straight-forward version earlier, using a can of peeled tomatoes in their juice, and one of red kidney beans. I decided to wait to find delicious fresh tomatoes for this occasion. In this version of the recipe, dried red kidney beans are soaked in water, however they’re not precooked alone in boiling water. Instead, they’re cooked directly with the rest of the ingredients (and some water). Doing so, they’ll absorb less of the water, and more of the spicy liquid in which they cook — for a greater taste.
I like to cook this dish with fresh Habanero chili pepper, which in my opinion has a perfect balance between pungency and fruity flavor for such recipe. Today, we’re going to the next last level with Carolina Reaper.
About Carolina Reaper chili pepper
Carolina Reaper is a chili pepper developed by an American chili pepper breeder (yes, this is a profession). A chili pepper strength is rated on the Scoville scale, according to the quantity of capsaicinoids (the chemical burning your tongue, mouth, stomach and the rest the day after) it contains. This scale ranges from 0 (no pungency) to 16,000,000 (pure capsaicinoids, the absolute maximum). Habanero chili peppers score between 100,000 and 350,000 (the value varies from one plant to another). Since August 2017, Guinness lists the Carolina Reaper as world’s hottest chili pepper with 1,641,183 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). There are contenders, with unofficial values above 3,000,000 SHU, however the official record holds.
I love chili peppers. I was excited to taste this “hottest chili pepper in the world”, and I was equally cautious when manipulating it. Given how strong it is, it’s a good deal to buy it powdered, so one can use the exact (small, usually) quantity needed. I immediately liked Carolina Reaper a lot. It’s strong, though it’s also flavorful, and fruity. It reminded me a bit of the Habanero (which the Carolina Reaper is an hybrid of), and I felt it had a slight lemon after-taste. I enjoyed in several dishes, including as a twist in an artichoke cream served with pasta.
Ingredients
100 g dried red kidney beans
3 big tomatoes ~ 840 g
2 red onions ~ 220 g
6 garlic cloves ~ 34 g
200 mL coconut cream (90% coconut)
4 heaped soup spoons of ground coriander
2 heaped soup spoons of cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
2 cloves
Half a tea spoon of Carolina Reaper chili pepper (you can add more in the end to strengthen the dish; start with half a tea spoon)
1-2 soup spoons of oil (sunflower, corn, or coconut oil if you want to weight on the coconut flavor like I did)
25 cL water
Salt to taste
Preparation
This recipe requires a quick preparation regarding the tomatoes, onions, and garlic cloves. You don’t need to grind the whole spices, so it shall be short. As usual, I encourage you to complete all steps below before starting to heat your cookware. Chopping the tomatoes finely can be longer than one expects.
Soak the red kidney beans overnight (or 8 hours) in water; remove the water, rinse — my 100 g beans grew to 206 g, take note if you settle to use canned red kidney beans
Peel the red onions, cut in half, then slice length-wise
Peel the garlic, cut each clove in four pieces
Wash the tomatoes, chop them finely
Cooking
I used a basic stainless steel pot, which I can cover with a plate. As mentioned in the Preparation steps, complete all of them before moving with the Cooking ones below.
Heat the pot to medium flame/power
Add 1 to 2 soup spoons of oil (coconut oil in my case); wait for the oil to heat
Add bay leaves and cloves; stir for 30 seconds
Add garlic and red onions; stir, cover for 2 minutes
Add red kidney beans; stir for 30 seconds
Add tomatoes and remaining spices; stir gently for 30 seconds
Add 25 cL water; stir
Lower the heat to 30% of the maximum; cover for 100 minutes — I usually check in every 20 minutes to stir the mix, and lower the heat by one notch should steam escapes from the pot
Stop heating; add coconut cream, mix it into the dish
Add salt to taste (I put 1 soup spoon of flavored gray salt); stir one last time
Your first move once cooking is complete shall be tasting the dish. Read: check how spicy it is for you. If it’s very mild for you, add another tea spoon of Carolina Reaper chili pepper — not more at this stage, you can always add more when serving. If the spiciness level is okay or close to, don’t add more, because it will increase while the dish rests. You can serve right away, however, like for dal, it’s better enjoyed later. To let all the flavors infuse and blend, especially into the coconut cream, you shall let the dish cool down, refrigerate it for a day, and serve it only the day after. I know how frustrating it can be. Remember it’s your kitchen, you can decide to serve it right away, and it will still be great. It can just be greater.
You can freeze this dish, after letting it refrigerate enough time for the above process of flavors blending to operate. You can serve this dish as is, with plain white rice, or you can go wild — I mean with wild rice.
Enjoy!
If you’ve tried the recipe, and would like to comment - whether you loved it, or hated it - please do so. I’m welcoming ideas, even if these are non-vegan recipes I’ll have the challenge to “veganize”.
Here’s a tip before you go
As I wrote above, be cautious when handling such hot chili pepper. The usual recommendations include wearing gloves if it’s a fresh chili pepper, and drinking milk if your mouth is burning. The latter doesn’t work for vegans, as plant-based milks are free from caseins — proteins which have a detergent effect on capsaicin.
My personal tip is to ensure your extractor hood is turned off when adding powdered chili pepper. Otherwise, it will take off before landing into the pot, and fly around until it reaches everybody’s nose. Even a small tea spoon can affect people in your kitchen. This is not a life-saving tip per se, though it can save you from ruining a good time cooking in family — experience speaks.
Wow! Is this a meal or a challenge?!? 🌶️