Hi guys,

 

I have a great chilli con carne recipe which I want to cook. I know it's debatable whether or not it should include kidney beans, but I like them so always put them in, add a bit of fibre and vitamins.

 

The issue is that I can only buy them here in bags, the dried ones, and last time I boiled them for about 5-6 hours before putting them into the chilli and they were still hard!

 

What am I doing wrong?

Buy tinned kidney beans from Makro.

I think you're supposed to soak the dried ones overnight.

Edited June 17, 20197 yr by BritManToo

The dried ones cost peanuts but the canned ones are 120 baht and over in Makro!

Put them in water overnight, then cook them.

10 minutes ago, Vacuum said:

Put them in water overnight, then cook them.

Tried that, didn't work, beans were in date too.

Go to a supermarket salad bar and get how many you need there.

 

No need to pay 120 for canned beans.

 

 

23 minutes ago, SteveK said:

The dried ones cost peanuts but the canned ones are 120 baht and over in Makro!

50 baht at Tesco Lotus

Baking soda in the beans and soak overnight.  Slow cook 8 hours the next day.  

beware using heavily chlorinated tap water for dried beans...they will never soften...any bottled water will do for both soaking and cooking...

 

I like the look of them 'Mica' beans in the above post but I've never seen them anywhere...usually end up with the imported (and expensive) 'S&W' canned beans from makro...they also got navy (white) beans and garbanzos, good fer stews and curries...they also got cannellini and borlottis both imported (italian) and similarly expensive...heaving with beans when I push the trolley out the door at makro with enough until the next immigration 90 day report...

 

 

The comment about the water makes sense - thanks for you help.

Tesco (the large superstore) do a pretty decent jar of chilli con carne. I find it in same store area as balti Curry's etc. Its fine IMHO with minced pork and served with rice.

17 hours ago, marcusarelus said:

Baking soda in the beans and soak overnight.  Slow cook 8 hours the next day.  

 

That's pretty bad advice.  Red kidney beans contain a lot of phytohaemagglutinin, a toxin which in humans causes nausea, vomiting, and then diarrhoea.  After soaking the beans should be boiled for a minimum of 10 minutes to destroy the phytohaemagglutainin.

 

Baking soda will reduce the vitamin content in the beans (particularly vitamin B1).

If you don't soak dried beans in water overnight, or slow cook them until tender before adding tomato sauce or other tomato products, they will not soften. The acid content of tomatoes prevents them from softening.

Sent from my Nokia 6.1 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

2 hours ago, NokNokJoke said:

If you don't soak dried beans in water overnight, or slow cook them until tender before adding tomato sauce or other tomato products, they will not soften. The acid content of tomatoes prevents them from softening.

Sent from my Nokia 6.1 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Soak them for 24 hours but you have to boil them hard without a lid to boil of the toxins then you lower the heat and slow cook them,you need to balance the price of a can of cooked beans V the price of dried beans and the cost of the gas/electricity for the up to eight hours to cook them.cans normally win that one.