Can’t Cook a Bowl of Bean Soup — How Can You Talk of a Marquisate? | Grandma Kouzi

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I. The Bean Soup That Won a Marquisate

In a previous article I mentioned wheat meal; this time, let us continue with bean soup. These two humble home-cooked dishes carry an enormous amount of information. One must tidy the kitchen, tend the stove, and treat them with due seriousness. In his commentary on the Jijiupian by Shi You of the Western Han, Yan Shigu of the Tang dynasty writes: “Wheat meal is wheat ground with its bran still attached and then cooked; sweet bean soup is made by boiling adzuki beans in rice-washing water. Alternatively, one may make a soup of adzuki beans without any vinegar or sour seasoning, its flavour being purely sweet, hence the name ‘sweet bean soup.’ Wheat meal and bean soup are nothing more than the fare of rustic folk and tillers of the soil.” Whether it is called bean soup or sweet bean soup, whether cooked with rice water or plain water, in my understanding, at its very root it is simply a pot of bean porridge.

When wheat meal and bean soup meet, countless stories follow. The Hou Han Shu, “Biography of Feng Yi”: “When Wang Lang rose in revolt, Emperor Guangwu galloped southeast from Ji, making rough shelters by day and night, until they reached Wulou Pavilion, Raoyang. The weather was bitterly cold; the whole party was famished and exhausted. Feng Yi presented bean porridge. The next morning, Emperor Guangwu said to his generals: ‘Last night we received Gongsun’s bean porridge, and both our hunger and the cold were banished.’ Upon reaching Nangong, they were caught in a great storm. Emperor Guangwu drew his carriage into an empty house by the roadside. Feng Yi carried firewood; Deng Yu lit the fire; Emperor Guangwu dried his clothes before the stove. Feng Yi then served wheat meal and tu-jian beans. They crossed the Hutuo River again and reached Xindu. Emperor Guangwu dispatched Feng Yi separately to recruit troops in Hejian. Upon his return, Feng Yi was appointed Assistant General. In the campaign that crushed Wang Lang, he was enfeoffed as Marquis of Ying.”

One can well imagine the depths to which the grand generals Feng Yi and Deng Yu had been reduced—one kindling the fire, the other tending the flames—when Liu Xiu’s party was so utterly destitute. Had Feng Yi not come up with bean porridge and wheat meal in time, history itself might have been rewritten, and there would have been no Emperor Guangwu to come.

● A portrait of Feng Yi from the Qing-dynasty work Donghan Yanyi Ping.
Regrettably, there was no Foodthink back then, or it would surely have given a far more thorough account of the key players in the Biography of Feng Yi: bean porridge and wheat meal. Still, every dynasty has had its Roadside Press. A man strides ten thousand li in search of a marquisate—after Feng Yi was enfeoffed, all manner of Roadside Press dispatches swept the wind across the clouds: “Hear this, good villagers: picking the right founding stock and following the right CEO is of course important, but tens of thousands followed Emperor Guangwu too—you cannot rely solely on backing the right boss… you must also know your bean porridge and wheat meal, foraging wherever you go and eating wherever you land, not only keeping yourself alive and running sustainably, but, more importantly, helping your child rise above their peers…” The history intertwined with food lingers between hearth and stove, its fragrance returning across a thousand years.

II. Bean Porridge Is Wonderful, but Beware Phytic Acid

I am passionate about bean porridge, especially mixed-bean porridge, and my household is always well stocked—not just the raw ingredients for cooking, but finished bean porridge, ready to serve. When I cook bean porridge, I use around ten kinds of beans alone: black beans, soybeans, pigeon pea, peas, chickpea, red beans, mung beans, runner bean, white beans, Zhuangyuan bean. Among the grains, I commonly use wheat berries, pearled wheat, buckwheat, corn, millet, sorghum, red and black long-grain glutinous rice, and various brown rices…

“Why so many beans?” I think this should hardly be a question. Everyone knows: the more varieties, the more complete the nutrition. Among the beans I use, under the black bean category there are green-cored and yellow-cored varieties; pigeon pea is further divided into brown pigeon pea and Hainan white pigeon pea…

● This is a staged shot. To see how many kinds of grain the Villain Valley pantry holds, you can also read the earlier article “Cooking Oil Crisis: Do We Really Need to Eat That Much Oil?”, which features my grain storage cabinet.

Choosing the right beans is only half the story—one must also choose the right way to cook them. A whole basinful of such beans is surely a feast of colour and nutrition, but if one simply tips these pearls and gems into a pot and boils them straight, one will swallow the nutrition and, regrettably, the anti-nutrients too—phytic acid.

Phytic acid (phytic acid), also known as inositol hexaphosphate, is the form in which plants store phosphorus; each molecule contains six phosphate groups. If you have read this far and are thinking, “Ha, wonderful—so much phosphorus, just what I need as a trace-element supplement”, congratulations, you are wrong.

● Molecular formula of phytic acid. Image source: Wikipedia
Humans, perched at the top of the food chain, eat whatever they can lay hands on—animal or plant, nothing is refused. But whether animal or plant, no living thing came into being to be eaten by us; the instinct of all life is to perpetuate itself, to carry on the line. In order to survive long enough to reproduce without being devoured, animals fly and flee; plants can only defend themselves passively. Their usual physical armour is a hard shell—grains, beans, nuts, each wears a coat of mail. And phytic acid is the chemical weapon plants evolved to ward off the tooth. Modern science puts it thus: “The chelation of minerals and other trace elements, as well as proteins, by phytic acid makes these nutrients difficult for the gut to absorb.” In plain language: the plant knows full well that its physical armour has limited power, and so it carries a chemical weapon on its person as well.

“Phytic acid contains six negatively charged phosphate groups, giving it a powerful capacity for chelation of proteins and minerals; for example, calcium magnesium inositol hexaphosphate (phytin) chelates calcium and magnesium…” The Roadside Press version would go: once phytic acid is swallowed, each of its six phosphate groups is a warrior who faces death as though returning home, expert at mutual destruction. Calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc are all essential nutrients, but once phytic acid has seized them and locked them into calcium phosphate, magnesium phosphate, iron phosphate, zinc phosphate—well, that is a different matter altogether.

At best, they pass out of the body in urine or stool, leaving you to have eaten for nothing; the consequence is a deficit of all manner of nutrients. At worst, the various phosphates make camp inside the body, and once they huddle together for warmth there is a risk of forming stones. Phytic acid’s motto is simply: “Come on, come on—let’s hurt each other.”

In the outer layers of grain, such as rice bran, phytic acid is most concentrated; in beans, it is found mainly in the cotyledons, or bean halves. Modern scientific analysis shows that plant-based foods—grains, beans, nuts—all contain high levels of phytic acid. The moment I read that, I collapsed weeping on the kitchen floor—all these are the foods I love!

III. The Art of Cooking Porridge

As a foodie who does not eat meat, there is little left to eat besides beans. Can I have all these, and yet none of their phytic acid? After careful study I have reached a conclusion: it is possible. Cooking bean porridge in this way is one such method.

When I eat beans, they all go through a 48-hour soak first, so that sprouting can convert the phytic acid.

Scientific research has confirmed that sprouting and fermentation can effectively degrade phytic acid. Once a plant initiates the germination response, it concludes that the threat to its survival has passed and it can enter reproduction mode. The chemical weapons stored inside are now obsolete, so it immediately repurposes them on the spot into nutrients.

Of course, it must be noted that the most effective way to convert phytic acid is not sprouting but fermentation. Sprouting can convert about sixty per cent of phytic acid, while fermentation achieves up to ninety per cent. Counting purely in terms of phytic acid conversion, fermentation is the best method. Turning rice into sweet fermented rice or rice koji, or turning beans into natto or tempeh, is rather labourious and does not guarantee success, but cooking porridge is foolproof—zero barrier to entry, a hundred per cent success rate.

● Sprouting just slightly—this is the perfect moment to cook the porridge.

I usually change the soaking water every few hours; during the fiercest heat of summer I simply shove the whole bowl of beans into the refrigerator to stop them from turning sour. In truth, there is no need to soak for a full forty-eight hours—twenty-four hours will do. The beans’ germination response has already begun by then.

The rice must go in a separate bowl. Never be tempted to save effort and soak everything together in one pot, for when cooking porridge one must also proceed in two stages. First cook the beans—pre-cook them. Beans contain many treasures we do not want, not only phytic acid but also purines. Purines dissolve in water, especially hot water, so I recommend a good boil to wash away a thousand sorrows.

Ten minutes after the water comes to a rolling boil, tip the soaked grains into the pot. If they are all new-season grains, turn off the heat immediately; wait a couple of minutes, then drain the hot water. If they are older grains, I suggest cooking them together for two minutes before turning off the heat and draining. The rushing water carries away not only phytic acid and purines, but also the “astringency” of brown rice and the stale flavour of older grains—this, too, is an effective method for ridding grains of anti-nutrients.

And so, after soaking, sprouting, pre-cooking, and draining, the porridge can at last be cooked in earnest.

I use a large electric cooker to cook my porridge—a whole potful. Some will worry that this will make the pot “boil over”. If we place a bamboo steamer basket on top of the pot, it will not overflow. The physics behind this I shall leave unexplained here.

A pot this enormous will likely feed no fewer than ten people and still have leftovers. Never mind—eat what you can, freeze the rest.

Some will surely say that thawed-out porridge “does not taste as good”, but hundreds of experiences from this foodie tell me: for bean porridge, it is good. A microwave preserves the original flavour best. I usually bring a small pot of water to a boil, add the thawed cold porridge, and let it simmer gently for five minutes—the texture is barely different. You can also reinvent it: cook it with porridge oats for a mixed-bean and oat porridge, or float a few hibiscus flowers on top for extra fragrance and silkiness… The Roadside Press has long said: all roads lead to a marquisate—it depends whether you are willing to put in the effort. Spend time mastering wheat meal and bean soup, and even if you are not as fortunate as Feng Yi in stumbling upon a marquisate, you will at least eat healthily and deliciously, will you not?

Since we have touched on freezing, let me say one more thing: this frozen porridge of mine (note carefully the word “frozen”) not only removes anti-nutrients but can also transform the weight-gain villain (starch) into a slimming ally (resistant starch).

From the pricey resistant starch and its derivatives hawked by every diet advert going, let us take only the definition: “In an environment below 4 °C… starch ages; the molecular chains coil, dehydrate, and shrink, thereby reducing the surface area exposed to amylase, which in turn lowers digestibility…” The Roadside Press version would be this: a man’s life’s work is to earn a marquisate; a woman’s life’s work is to shed pounds. Whether it is cooked porridge, steamed buns, or rice—any cooked carbohydrate you love but fear will make you fat—freeze it for a day or more, and resistant starch will form irreversibly. You can warm it back up and the taste and texture will return, but the resistant starch will not revert.

Having read this far, do you not feel that the thawed bean porridge taken from the refrigerator is not only delicious but also rather lovable?

● A hearty Villain Valley dinner featuring a bowl of bean porridge.

Foodthink Author
Grandma Kouzi
Farmer and endurance hiker, village winemaker. Full-time foodie, part-time farmer, amateur writer.

 

 

 

Unless otherwise noted, all images are provided by the author.

Editor: Wang Hao

Published by Foodthink