How I use to loath stamp & beans.
Oh how much I enjoy it now.
Eating it by choice, not because of circumstances.
How it brings back memories of my childhood and my family that’s thousands of km’s away.
With my reminiscence of home, I’m craving my mother’s speciality Samp and Beans. She makes it so well. I’m not sure when she became so good at cooking because growing up she didn’t cook much. But since I left home she now makes the best steam bread, imifino and Samp & beans.
This recipe is inspired by my mother and some techniques stolen from her.
Dinner tonight: Samp & beans served with bacon bits and lamb neck cuts.
What to do?
The prep starts a night before. Soak 1 cup of red beans in boiling water overnight.
Cook the beans in salted boiling water for 1 1/2 hrs. Ensuring the water is at least 3 quarters of the pot the whole time.
After 1 1/2 hrs add 1 cup of Samp and let this cook for another 2 hrs. Continuously adding water and stirring.
NB: the Samp easily sticks to the bottom of the pot, so please stir every 20 minutes.
After the 2 hrs, drain the liquid from our Samp and beans.
In the same but now empty pot, soften onions and garlic in low fat margarine. Then add the drained Samp and beans and combine.
Season with 1 tsp each of : paprika, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, coriander powder. Add salt to taste. Let these flavours mix in for 5 minutes. Then take the pot off the stove.
Clean a wine or beer quart bottle and use this to crush the Samp grains against the sides of the pot. Making sure they are at least all split, not whole. This usually takes 10-15 minutes. Quite a biceps exercise. This is my mother’s secret to creamy and not constipation causing Samp and beans. It’s usually my husband’s job to do the crushing, he doesn’t enjoy it very much but I do all the cooking and my son helps with the chopping. So he has to contribute as well.
He’s suggested I use a food processor, but it won’t be the same: tradition… And it’ll probably go all mushy.
When done crushing, taste and season accordingly. And rest it.
In a hot pan with jalapeño flavoured oil (or use normal oil and season meat with chili) brown the lamb neck pieces dusted in salt & pepper. When browned, deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup of red wine and cover the pan for +- 5 minutes.
When done, add the lamb pieces into the Samp with the red wine sauce and let this rest for another 10-20 minutes.
In a separate pan, brown diced bacon/ bacon bits.
When it’s all rested. Dish up in a bowl ideally, sprinkle with bacon bits and fresh coriander.
And Enjoy.
This is a piece of home for me. There’s definitely enough for at least 3 days suppers for us. And the best thing is, it always tastes even better the next day. 😋
