Red Chillies Butter Beans and Chickpeas

I took the recipe from 101 Cookbooks and revamped it to its entirety, almost, due to resources restriction. First off, adobo sauce from canned chipotle pepper. Never see fresh or canned chipotle pepper for sale here in Bangkok. I once read somewhere that I could substitute adobo sauce with cayenne pepper, and had been doing it a few times. Now I'm curious about this sauce. I found a homemade recipe here. The only dried chillie they sell here is either Thai chillie or red chillie. I have both but I have no idea if they are different or same. Not knowing which to use best in place of anaheim, I decided to give each type an equal chance.

Homemade Adobo Sauce

• 4 dried red chilies
• 4 dried Thai chilies
• 2 garlic gloves
• 1 TB flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• lime juice
  
• sea salt to taste

Roast chilies in hot pan fragrant and not burnt.

Pour in enough hot water to cover and soak for 30 minutes.

Puree chilies with soaking water. Add the rest of the ingredients and puree to a paste.

Heat a spoon of pure sesame oil. Cook paste for a few minutes until thickened. Taste and season with salt and lime juice.

The recipe mentions use of any big white beans. I saw dried butter beans in the store and despite not having heard of it before, they looked familiar enough that I picked them over haricot beans. It took 0.17 seconds for Google to come out with 670,000 search results, faster than the time I took to click on the link that sounded like the answer I was looking for. Apparently butter beans are large, flat and white lima beans. Mystery solved.

Adrian and I also have some reservation about canned tomatoes. First of all, I didn't know why anyone would buy canned whole peeled tomatoes and crushed tomatoes if it's tomatoes you need. Convenient, perhaps? Having returned from our trip in The State and France, I came to accept what my friend Dia once told me: there's no good tomatoes in Thailand. Also Sandra who once defended her love for canned tomatoes because of the consistency in quality. Like strawberry and avocado, tomatoes just don't taste as good here as they do in the West.

Summer display of tomatoes of various shapes and colors at Seattle's Sunday Farmer's Market on Broadway.

Having said that I'm still concerned about the chemical leach that claimed to happen with canned tomatoes due to acidity of the produce. So what to do? For now, I'll make myself contented making crushed or whole peeled tomatoes with local tomatoes, or, I can pay double the price for French tomatoes. NOT. So how do you make crushed tomatoes?

Throw them into hot boiling water and remove to cool running water (or iced water) once the skins start to break. Peel the skin (or not) and crush them however you like. Done.

I somehow managed to make the adobo sauce just right (newbie's luck!), and used just enough of the paste for the right amount of spiciness. The taste went well with the slightest hint of saltiness of feta, and the toasted breadcrumbs were best to have more than less!

Red Chillies Butter Beans and Chickpeas

• Dried butter beans and chickpeas, soaked overnight, cooked according to instruction.
  
• 1 big pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1 generous pinch of sea salt
  
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• Two medium-size home-crushed tomatoes
  
• 1/2 tablespoon fresh basil leaves and rosemary leaves, chopped
• 1/2 - 1 tablespoon homemade adobo sauce
• 2/3 cup kale, washed, de-stemmed, and very finely chopped
• 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
  
• 4 slices of whole grain French bread (process into crumbs and toast in a skillet with melted butter, or buy ready made bread crumbs)
  
• Green Pesto (Instead of cilantro pesto as suggested in 101 Cookbooks, I used every wilting-greens in the fridge: cilantro, basil and parsley, and blend them with garlic, parmesan and extra-virgin olive oil.)

1. Preheat oven at 200C.
   
2. Gently saute red pepper flakes, garlic and salt over medium heat until just fragrant. Do not brown the garlic.
3. Immediately add crushed tomatoes and herbs. Stir and cook for a few minutes.
   
4. Remove from heat and add adobo sauce. Taste and adjust with salt or more adobo sauce to your own liking.
5. Toss beans, kale and sauce together. Transfer to a baking pan. Sprinkle with feta cheese. Bake for 30 minutes or until cheese brown and beans are crusty. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
6. Top beans with toasted breadcrumbs. Drizzle with green pesto just before serving.