Cranberry Beans the Greek Way

So Schruggling, a frequent commenter and friend of my sister the OBS Housekeeper, e-mails me Thursday and lets it slip that he is heading to Ferry Street in Newark to buy fish on Saturday with his friend John Kaldes, fellow Big Pharma Guy and author of the cookbook Made in Greece (casual sip…). Schruggling’s wife is Greek, and they always make all this great Greek food, and John is going to help them make Greek octopus with tomatoes for Christmas Eve.

Then, after all that, Schruggling does not invite me to come along with them.

Ferry Street in Newark is like, what, 28.4 minutes away from me by MapQuest? And they’re going to be buying fish and talking food the whole time? And John is a real live, honest to goodness cookbook author ? And Schruggling’s not inviting Me???? Me, with the food blog? The food blog that the NY Times Online just linked to? That Me?

Sure that there is some mistake, I email back suggesting that I could join them, we could do dueling octapus dishes, put it on the blog, won’t that be fun?

And Schrugglin’ emails back something like – We’re not sure what time we’re leaving, it’s going to be a last-minute thing, blah, blah, blah. Maybe some other time.

Okay, fine.

It’s a Guy thing. Or a Greek thing. Or a Big Pharma thing. Actually, it’s not even a Big Pharma thing, since they both work for Generic Pharma, it’s a Big Pharma Copycat thing.

What do I care? I don’t need them to hang Greek. Ferry Street isn’t even a Greek neighborhood – It’s Portuguese. I can go to Astoria, a real Greek neighborhood. Plus, I have these Greek friends across the street who have us over for these amazing lamb dinners and who give me olive oil from their family’s olive grove in Crete and who once left me a whole shopping bag filled with all this great Feta and stuff from Astoria, and they have promised to take me shopping with them in Astoria, we just haven’t found a mutual free Saturday morning…

But who cares? I can out-Greek you anytime, Schruggling. I don’t need you and your friend. Your fellow-copycat Big-Pharma, so what if he wrote a Greek Cookbook friend…

Then Schrugglin’ emails me Friday to tell me that he and John have firmed up their plans for Saturday and can I still meet them and how is 10am at the Popular Fish Market on Ferry Street?

And I am so there….

Since this post is getting way too long, I am going to have to save the whole fish market octopus thing for my next post, since it will involve picture of tenacles and suckers and stuff like that and I haven’t even made it yet.

What I will tell you is that Schruggling (who I had never met till today) is really cute and nice and I feel like I’ve known him my whole life, probably because he knows everything about my whole family from OBS. And John is really gracious and nice, and very serious when it comes to this cooking stuff, and I learned a lot.

Thanks, guys, it was really, really fun. And thanks John for putting up with us. And for the recipes. I even bought your cookbook, and can’t wait to try it out.

And I didn’t mean that stuff I said about you guys, or that whole Big Pharma copycat thing…Well, technically, maybe you are copycats, but if you weren’t we’d all be paying thousands of dollars more for drugs.

And of course, there’s a recipe…

Cranberry Beans, Greek -Style

While we were on Ferry Street, John bought some cranberry beans (he called them raspberry beans, isn’t that just so Greek?). So of course we bought some too. And while we were standing in line to pay, John told Mr TBTAM how to make them, and he made them for dinner tonight. I have a feeling we did not do them exactly right, but they were still delish.

1 pound of Cranberry Beans, unshelled
Tomato paste (we used 1 small can diced tomatoes)
1-2 tbsp Olive oil
1 medium onion, diced small
We added chopped garlic and a bay leaf (We couldnt remember if John said to add them, but it semed right)
Salt and pepper to taste

Shell beans and place in saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil and boil for about 5 -10 minutes. Drain and discard the water. (This makes them less gas-producing.)

Cook tomato paste or tomatoes in pot for a few minutes. Add the onion, garlic and olive oil and cook a few minutes longer. Add the beans and a bit of water, barely to cover.

Simmer for 1-1 1/2 hours till soft. Serve on crusty bread as an appetizer, or as a side dish for dinner. We served it as a side dish along with grilled sausages, salad and a nice crusty bread.