Coconut Bean Soup

Background: I met my friend Morgan in high school, where we pretty much had all the same science classes. Our friendship continued as we both decided to go to Michigan, do the whole pre-med thing, and major in Cell and Molecular Biology. We bonded over more than just science, though. We both enjoyed all things 80's, which lead to many great 80's parties (and once even an Early 90's party), sitting in coffee shops, procrastinating and food. Once, sometime during senior year, we decided that we were going to find one weird-sounding recipe to make per week, and turn the project into a cookbook. Our first recipe was for a Garbanzo Cake. We had to take the thin little skins off of about 1,000 garbanzos, and the cake wasn't really that good, but hey, it sounded weird. We printed the recipe, and even drew a picture of the cake decorated with pineapple slices, using Morgan's fat Crayola markers. Though clearly we were destined for greatness in cookbookery, this is where our project ended. We graduated, and my would-be coauthor went off to Kenya to be a Peace Corps Volunteer before going on to med school. In the meantime, I went to grad school, got married, and adopted a baby. When Morgan came back from Kenya about a year and a half ago, Jeff and I invited her over for dinner. Not only was I excited to see her again, but we also wanted to hear all about her post-Peace Corps travels around Ethiopia, since we would soon be travelling there ourselves. The night she came over was just a couple weeks before our trip, so it was a ridiculously busy time. Though I would never ask a dinner guest to bring the main course (my mother taught me better than that!), I quickly accepted Morgan's offer to bring over one of her favorite Kenyan dishes, Coconut Bean Soup. It sounds weird, and would have definitely make the cut for our cookbook. However, unlike the Garbanzo Cake, it is delicious. It's rich, hearty and nice and coconutty. Morgan described how to make it, and from her verbal instructions, after a few tries, I have a working recipe. Morgan adapted the recipe for American kitchens and ingredients, which basically means that we're allowed to use coconut milk instead of fresh coconut. This is good, because the one time I bought a fresh coconut, which had a blue ribbon tied around it proudly proclaiming "E-Z Open" or some such thing, was a disaster. It was far from easy to crack open. About an hour and a few dozen tools and kitchen utensils after I started working on it, I had shards of coconut covered in little bits of brown peel from the outside...totally not worth it. Despite her two years in Kenya, Morgan never mastered the coconut either. Whenever she wanted to eat coconut, or make coconut bean soup, she would take her coconut over to the neighbors' house, where their 7-year old daughter would deftly split open the coconut for her with a machete. Canned coconut milk is a wonderful thing. Due to our last-minute dinner plans (did I mention that Morgan and I are great procrastinators?), Morgan made this for us using canned beans, but when she gave me the recipe, she highly suggested that I use dried beans instead...it takes longer, but she was right, the results are definitely worth it. The beans actually cook in the coconut, which adds to the complexity of the dish and just makes the whole thing a lot more interesting. And perfect for nights like this, when the weather is far from Kenyan.

Originally from: Morgan's Kenyan friends

Serves ~4
Approximate time, from prep to table: ~1 day plus 2 1/2 hours (you need to soak the dried beans overnight)

Ingredients:
1 pound dried red kidney beans
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 tomato, diced
1 Tablespoon curry powder
8 cups water
1 can coconut milk
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
The day before you're going to make the soup, rinse the beans and pick out any stones. Place beans in a large bowl, cover with cold water, and let soak overnight.

When you are ready to cook, drain the beans. Heat olive oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper and carrot, and cook until they begin to soften, about 5-7 minutes. Add chopped tomato and curry powder, and stir for about a minute. Add beans, 8 cups of water, and half the coconut milk. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. At this point, the beans should be tender. Add the rest of the coconut milk, and salt and pepper. Using a potato masher or fork, mash about half the beans in the pot, to thicken up the soup. Simmer for another 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally.

Note/Tips:
-I usually serve this over rice, but it's also great with a good crusty bread.
-To make the shortcut canned bean version, just cook the vegetables as directed, then add a couple cans of beans, a can of coconut milk, and as much water as you need to get the consistency you want. Mash some of the beans, bring to a boil, and serve. I really recommend making this with dried beans at least once though...it's definitely worth it.
-This makes great leftovers...the flavors meld together more the longer they sit.
-I once did a google search the suggests that this recipe is actually originally Tanzanian. Not surprising that it would have found its way across the border into Kenya. I'm going to keep thinking of it as Kenyan, since that's where Morgan learned it, but feel free to call it Tanzanian, which may or may not be more accurate.