> wrote in message
...

<snip>

> You have to remember that the recipe was written with the expectation of
> "difficult to soften" beans. Black beans available in the US get softened
> easily and don't require the presoak she recommends. I don't like to use
the
> pressure cooker. I prefer to just cook them in a pot until soft.
>
> I do modify the recipe by adding two ingredients. One leaf of "culantro"
and
> one or two cachucha peppers. I haven't yet figured out what the name of
> culantro is in English. It is not cilantro. It is a longish leaf, about 4
or
> so inches with a serrated edge and a pungent taste. In Puerto Rico it is
> called "recao". The cachucha pepper looks a bit like habaneros but it is
> totally sweet.
>
> I love her recipe for potato salad where she subtitutes part of the mayo
with
> cream cheese.
>
> Saludos
>
> Bert


Saludos Bert!!!

Culantro!!! How can anyone cook Puerto Rican food without it??? I receive
CARE packages of it from my mom and when she comes to visit us in Maryland
she brings small plants (leaves and root systems) wrapped in wet paper
towels and then all wrapped in aluminum foil. I have many of them in pots
all over my house. She also sends me the cachuca peppers (ajies dulces, or
ajicitos). I save the seeds and plant them in whatever is available. All of
the plants (recao and ajicitos) have thrived here despite the weather.
Summer & spring, outside... fall & winter, inside.

Culantro is Puerto Rican Coriander... Eryngium foetidum is its botanical
name... you can buy it in Vietnamese markets where it's called ngo gai... or
in Caribbean markets where it's called Shadow Benny...

Our local supermarket (Weis) sells fresh herb plants with soil in plastic
bags for $1.99. I hardly go there because I love the local farmer's markets
and also because we live in an area where there are plenty of farms... but
this day I went to but cilantro when lo and behold, there right before my
eyes was a bag labeled Cilantro but it had Culantro in it!!! It's a Florida
company that sells both herbs so I guess someone messed up... but I was very
happy!!! Unfortunately they straightened it out and I haven't seen another
culantro plant since.

Thanks for mentioning both of these essential ingredients...

Sandra