Have you ever wondered why corn, beans, and squash are often grown – and cooked – together?
In late summer and early fall, sweet corn, tender squash, and every kind of bean offer a special kind of abundance at our gardens and local farmers’ markets. But with all that bounty, what do you actually cook?
We’re sharing our top 10 Three Sisters-inspired recipes, and by the end of this episode you’ll:
Learn why these crops are called the “Three Sisters,” and get reliable recipes to combine all three – because “what grows together, goes together”
Discover quick and easy ways to maximize all that zucchini piling up, from a simple Korean side dish to a rich and nutritious bruschetta topping
Find out trusted recipes to make the most of corn while it’s here, like an irresistible soup and a weeknight chicken dinner
Tune in now for peak summer flavors, comforting meals, and exciting ways to cook with beans, corn, and squash!
Links:
Our three sister’s episode from Season 2 with Javier Lara: The three sisters: Indigenous wisdom for growing, sharing, and home cooking squash, beans, and corn: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-three-sisters-indigenous-wisdom-for-growing/id1651167933?i=1000635547474
Also from season 2, you can listen to an entire episode about Summer Corn
To learn more about the three sisters, we highly recommend Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass
Corn
Sonya’s corn soup: https://foodfriendspodcast.substack.com/p/sunday-soup-who-cooks-soup-in-the?r=4hec5y&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
Grilled chicken thighs and corn with lime-basil butter by Clare de Boer for NYT Cooking (unlocked): https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1025669-grilled-chicken-thighs-and-corn-with-lime-basil-butter
Beans
Greek marinated gigante baked beans from My Greek Dish, : https://www.mygreekdish.com/recipe/gigantes-plaki-greek-baked-giant-beans/
or a stovetop version from Real Greek Recipes.: https://realgreekrecipes.com/butter-beans-recipe/
And here are gigante beans: https://www.goodeggs.com/simpli/regenerative-organic-certified-gigante-beans/65e66b8d9fb43600139ccdf4?srsltid=AfmBOoqEl35jPYijxChs4y0OiPSVPHSITwpSfay1jCXal2Ys9O0wxgJfFpM&gQT=1
if you’re looking to order some online
Tortilla & black bean pie by Martha Stewart: https://www.marthastewart.com/336692/tortilla-and-black-bean-pie
Squash
Korean pan fried rounds of zucchini (Hobak Jeon) from Kimchi Mari: https://kimchimari.com/pan-fried-zucchini-fritters/
Zucchini bruschetta (aka zucchini crostini!) by Martha Stewart (add a little basil in it too!): https://www.marthastewart.com/1118669/zucchini-bruschetta
All Three
Three Sisters Bowl with Hominy, Beans, and Squash by Sean Sherman (The Sioux Chef) for NYT Cooking (unlocked): https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020565-three-sisters-bowl-with-hominy-beans-and-squash?loginsmartlock&authlogin-smartlock&login=google&auth=login-google
Lobster succotash by David Tanis for NYT Cooking (unlocked): https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017625-lobster-succotash?unlocked_article_code=1.VU8.uw3H.dAeTWQgh5A9c&smid=share-url
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Welcome to Food Friends, a podcast inspiring home cooks to try new dishes in the kitchen by sharing trusted recipes, tips, and friendship. Hi, I’m Sonia. And I’m Carrie. We met in Los Angeles over 15 years ago as personal chefs and haven’t stopped talking about food since. We’re so glad you’re here. [Music] Hi, Carrie. Hi, Sonia. This has to be one of the topics that’s nearest and dearest to our hearts. Absolutely. The three sisters which are corn and beans and squash. And this is the season, the end of summer, the beginning of fall when all of these crops are very plentiful. It’s really a time of year when people are I mean both of us also cooking them individually and then you can also cook them together as a three sisters dish. Yeah. It’s very much what grows together goes together. I love that saying. I do too. There’s a few things to highlight before we get into some recipes. One of which is we’ve actually done an episode on this topic before with our dear friend Javier Lara who is a farmer here in Oregon who grows the three sisters and in fact sources heirloom varieties that are indigenous to where he’s from in Mexico. and he’s figuring out how to grow them here in the Northwest for the agricultural community for whom these ingredients are part of their ancestry and history. So, we highly recommend listening to that episode if you want to learn more about the three sisters and particularly indigenous farming practices. But the short of it is traditionally you plant the corn first, then you plant the beans, then you plant the squash. The corn acts as the sturdy pole for the beans to climb up and the squash leaves create shade for the roots of the plants which helps them remain strong and verdant. Yeah. And also I think helps ward off pests as well. What I love about the squash is that they drop little roots and they take water from all these different places so they don’t steal water from the corn or the beans. So if you plant a three sisters garden, you end up with higher yields. And there’s actually a really beautiful book that is a New York Times bestseller by Robin Wall Kimmeer called Braiding Sweetgrass. And if you’re curious to know more, her chapter on the sisters is one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve ever read read in my life. Robin Wall Kimmeer is truly one of my favorite writers and that book I think is a must-read for anyone who’s interested in nature, in food, in indigenous practices. She also has a wonderful book called The Service Berry, which I also highly recommend, which you gifted to me. Yeah, cuz once I got it, I was like, I can’t keep this to myself. I have to give it to my closest friend. I do think her books make incredible gifts for someone if they haven’t read it. But like you said, at this point, it’s a major bestseller. Many people have read it. But let’s get into the recipes because the reason we’re doing this episode is to really talk about how to use these ingredients because they are so abundant right now. We have to start with the first in the three sisters, which is corn. Who doesn’t love corn? Especially in summer and early fall. It’s just so sweet and good right now. Yeah. I think everybody looks forward to corn cuz it’s such a sign of summer. Having corn on the cob, corn with butter, corn in your salads. We actually also have an entire corn episode. So you we’ll link to that as well. Yeah. And so corn, when it first comes out, all I want to do is eat it with as little interference as possible, grilled or steamed with butter, something really simple, or fresh in a salad. But as corn season progresses, I get more excited to try new things. And for the past few years, actually, since I’ve had my deli, I always start to make a corn soup. And I’m not going to call it corn chowder because I think chowder technically has to have cream. I could be wrong. Do you know the definition of chowder? I actually don’t know the definition of chowder. And doesn’t chowder also usually have potatoes in it? Does your soup have potatoes in it? Mine does have potatoes. So maybe it’s Yeah, I’ve been calling it corn soup. To me, the special ingredient to this is to include basil. And specifically, I’ll often even make a basil oil and drizzle that over it. That’s how we served it at the restaurant because I think How cheffy of you. It’s very cheffy. But this recipe that I’m going to share doesn’t have doesn’t require making a basil oil. It actually keeps it really simple. So, what I do is I take the corn off the cob. Our number one listener, Roy Lambert, told us recently about the Emerald Legosi method, which is to cut your kernels onto a clean kitchen towel so they don’t fly everywhere. And then you take that kitchen towel full of kernels and dump that into your bowl or into your pan. And I thought that was very smart. I think it’s so smart. And I would say I think Martha Stewart also has a claim on that too cuz I was Roy was emailing us and I was had been watching a Martha Stewart video where she does the same thing in case. Yeah. Either way, do what works for you. Okay. So, you remove the kernels from the cobs and then you dice up some onion, celery, garlic, and you peel some potatoes. For this, I like peeled potatoes. I don’t always do that for soups. And it pretty much any potato can work here, but typically I use something like a Yukon Gold. And then in a big pot, you melt some butter. And I think the butter is actually important in this soup because it adds that richness without adding a ton of cream. And so once the butter is melted, you add the diced onion, the celery, you season that. And then what I do is I add the water to the pot. But I also add the corn cobs to the pot at this stage because what I’m basically doing is making a quick stock. And that corn cob has so much corn flavor. And so it’s going to lend itself to this soup, but without having to make a whole separate broth. I mean, I think that’s such a brilliant tip because I have for years been taking all of those corn cobs. I cooked a lot of corn when I was a personal chef and I I had all these cos laying around all the time and I was like, I can do something with these. And so, I’d always be making these broths, but I love that this doesn’t you know me, I hate extra dishes. So, I love that this soup just includes that you put the corn cobs in and then because they’re so big, you can just take them right out. Yeah. So, I throw in corn cubs, throw in a bay leaf. I let that simmer for like 15 or 20 minutes. Then I fish them out. And then I add my potatoes, which need to get tender. So, now they’re going to be cooking in that corn broth. And I add most of the corn kernels. I reserve about a cup and a half separately. And it will make sense why. And then you just simmer that until the potatoes are fully cooked and tender, which is about 20 minutes. And while the soup is simmering, that’s when I prepare my topping. And I combined those raw fresh corn kernels. You can eat corn raw when it’s fresh, when it’s in season. You don’t even need to cook it. And I toss that with sliced scallions and basil and salt and pepper. And then Oh wow. Yeah. So that’s going to have this like almost salady textural topping with all these flavorful herbs. Oh my gosh. You can blend your soup if you want or you can keep it chunky. I like to use an immersion blender for this. I like the kind of contrast of a roughly pureed soup with this corn kernel salad on top, if that makes sense. It’s like a crudeau. It’s like a corn crudeau on top with with all these herbs. And that soup lasts for days in your fridge. You can just keep the topping separate. So you can make this ahead and just serve it with that little salad. Or if you really don’t want to have a separate fresh topping, you can just add all these herbs and corn kernels at the end once you turn it off the heat and then store it like that. It reheats beautifully that way, too. I think people love a corn soup, and I think you can make corn soup with frozen corn and it tastes delicious, but when you make it with fresh corn, it just tastes so different. This sort of like homey cooked corn with potatoes and then this like really beautiful, not difficult special addition that you put on top. And I think that’s such a celebration of what this time of year is, which is you really do like to have things that are cooked and warm, especially as the nights start to get a little chillier, but there’s such freshness in this time of year, too. We’re celebrating both of those things, right? That’s right. Well, Sonia, I’m really excited to share a recipe with you that we made last summer, and it has some overlap with what you were just talking about. It’s grilled chicken with grilled corn and a lime basil butter. I really love this overlap between our two recipes because I do think that corn really loves butter and I always think of corn and butter and maybe like a little bit of scallion, but in the last few years I’ve been adding basil to a lot of my corn recipes and it’s such a perfect compliment because there’s a sweetness and a savor savoriness to basil that just really loves corn. I think that’s why it’s essential in any kind of corn chowder or soup because corn can be kind of one note and can be very sweet, but basil adds that sort of sharp freshness and just something floral, something dynamic, and it really makes the corn stand out even more somehow. Yeah. And this is a pretty simple recipe. It calls for chicken thighs. I remember when we made it last summer, I actually used a boneless, skinless chicken breast, which is not my favorite cut. But because you’re adding this basil butter at the end, it actually adds a richness that’s just really delicious. So, you just take whatever boneless, skinless cutlet of chicken that you want to use, whether it’s dark meat or white meat, and you marinate it in a little bit of lime juice and olive oil and a little bit of garlic. You can do that overnight, or you can even just do it for an hour. One of the things I really love about this recipe, too, is it it walks you through a compound butter, which is basically you just take softened butter and you mix in a little bit of garlic and a little bit of herbs. And in this case, you use basil. But if you wanted to use something else like chives or scallions, you could totally do that. You can also make a double batch and save some of that to put on some pasta another night of the week. So then you fire up your grill and you put your corn cobs on the grill and you get them charred. One of the things that she suggests if you’ve made your butter ahead of time to put your butter out near the grill to kind of get it softened, maybe 8 to 10 minutes, maybe up to 15 minutes, you want to get your your corn really cooked and you can take it off the grill and then you put your chicken on the grill and then you leave your chicken on the grill for a few minutes while you go back inside or just out on your picnic table, cut all of the kernels off of your corn cobs and put that onto a platter and add the dots of the butter of this really delicious butter. And then you just grill the rest of your chicken and you put it on top of the corn on this platter and you add a little bit of this butter on top. You can add some basil leaves or scallion or chive if that’s what you’re using on top. One of the things I like about this recipe is that it’s actually perfect for someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience on the grill. My husband James picked this recipe out when he wanted to learn how to grill something last summer. I love how she really walks you through the steps of like what to look for when your chicken is cooked, how to char the corn, and this was a weekn night meal for my family. I’m someone who really likes a starch with my meal, and I have a 9-year-old son who really likes a piece of bread or some kind of pasta or rice. We didn’t need any of that for this dish. It was like this perfect combination of really delicious summer corn with a little bit of butter and chicken. I will say I definitely ate the leftovers the next day for lunch cold and they were incredibly delicious. That sounds really good. I love that combination of corn, basil, a protein. And when you have corn, you don’t really need pasta or rice cuz it almost also acts as a starch. Also, if someone didn’t want to use butter in these kinds of recipes if they didn’t want to mix dairy and meat, I’ve had really good success with the Miocoo’s non-dairy butter, which is like a coconut oil based non-dairy butter that I really like. And I say that because I’ve also made a lot of coconut corn related recipes. Oh, yeah. So, the flavor that you get from the butter and corn is so specific and delicious, but the flavor from something coconut based and corn is also specific and delicious. I think it would work here if you want to make a compound butter from that. I think that’s such a great tip. And I am also remembering a New York Times recipe from last summer that was a corn soup made with coconut uh milk and it was so delicious. There was such a richness that it adds. So that’s a great tip. All right, so beans. So much has been said about beans on this show. We love beans lately. Carrie, I haven’t talked to you about this yet and I’ve been excited to talk to you about it. I’ve been buying which I think it’s Spanish is pronounced higante beans but is spelled like gagante beans or giant bean. I call them giant beans cuz that’s what they look like and that’s what they are. They’re giant white beans. They’re a lot like butter beans or cantalini beans. They’re just bigger and you find them all over Greece in particular. And in fact, I think the kind that I bought was produced in Greece. Like I got it at Whole Foods and you can find them online too. But if you can’t find Chagante beans or Hagante beans, people say you can replace with LMA beans or Corona beans, butter beans. But what I’ve been loving to do is the Greek preparation of this traditional bean dish, which is a baked bean dish, but it’s nothing like our baked beans. So, put that out of your mind. Like the sweet baked beans that I grew up eating. There’s nothing like it at all. It has no molasses, no brown sugar, no bacon. It’s a purely vegetarian recipe with not too many ingredients. So, what you do is you soak your beans overnight and then you’re adding them to a large pot and you’re getting them tender. So, it’s like you pre-cook your beans. So, you could get canned beans for this if you don’t want to use pre-cooked beans. And then in a big pan, you saute some onions, carrots, celery, and you add a tremendous amount of tomato paste. And these are going to be really tomatoy. And then you add fresh tomatoes or canned tomatoes if you don’t have fresh. Dried oregano. Oregano is such a Greek ingredient. Yes. Sweet, sweet paprika, salt and pepper. And you add those beans to that mixture with a little bit of the bean liquid and the cooking liquid. And then you put them in the oven to bake for about 30 to 40 minutes and it sort of marinates them in this soak up all those flavors. Yeah. Wow. Exactly. And I love this kind of on its own, but it’s a great mess. Like so a lot of times you’ll see these beans served as a first course with crusty bread or with pa or some kind of cracker. You’ll often find a version of this even in those olive bars at grocery stores. I have such a strong memory of eating these beans the one and only time I went to Greece at a little like restaurant run by an older woman. True mom and pop shop. And this is what she served as the first course. And the second course was a whole fish that had just come out of the ocean that she served whole, you know, head and all. And it was such a strong memory. I think I’ve been chasing that and that’s why I’ve been making it more often lately. Well, I think it’s interesting that you’re kind of chasing this memory because the next recipe that I want to talk about is a tortilla and black bean pie. I think I’ve mentioned this in some of our conversations about beans on this podcast, which is that I really grew up just eating those very sweet baked beans in the Midwest. You pop open a can, my dad would add a couple of things like mustard and brown sugar, but they just were never my version of eating beans. And I never really got into them. And so when I started cooking in high school, I was kind of always called to these like vegetarian recipes. And there was this tortilla and black bean pie that I remember trying when I was in high school and it was an absolute flop. And the reason why it was an absolute flop was I didn’t drain the beans. They were canned beans and I didn’t drain them. And I don’t know if I missed that step or the recipe that I was using didn’t use that step. But my I remember my sister and I were making it. It was like a layered tortilla pie. And so when we were talking about new bean recipes for this episode, I found this tortilla and black bean pie and I am so excited to make it because it’s actually a lot like a lasagna. You take flour tortillas and you layer them with beans and cheese. You get a a sauté pan going. You add some onion, garlic, jalapeno, and cumin. And you kind of cook that down a little bit. You add a couple of cans of drained black beans. And there’s a really fun tip which is that you add a can of beer and you cook that down. It kind of reminds me of your chili recipe actually how you add a can of beer which adds so much great flavor but if you don’t want to add the beer you can just add stock or just regular old water and then you add a package of frozen corn at the end. You get it mostly cooked down. The recipe has you make this in a spring form pan which really makes it like a tortilla pie. If you don’t have a spring for pan, you can definitely layer this just like a lasagna into a casserole dish. But you put a flour tortilla on the bottom. You add some of this bean mixture. You add a lot of cheese. You add another tortilla. You layer it all. You cover it in cheese. There’s a great video that goes with it. There’s this recipe developer named Sarah Kerry who has worked at Martha Stewart for like ages and ages. And it’s just a fun video because she kind of says, “I make this all the time at my house. Sometimes I use a spring form pan, sometimes I use a lasagna pan. She says if you have leftovers, I like to put a fried egg on top of it. It’s a very homey dish and it’s a great way to use beans if you just want to pull a couple of cans out of your pantry. And it sounds like it’s flour tortillas, but if you use corn tortillas instead of flour, you could have it be gluten-free and it could embrace the three sisters a little more. And you could even throw some little bit of zucchini or squash in there, right? You could you could totally do all of those things. This recipe is much more of a pantry one as it’s written. But if you have fresh corn, if you have fresh zucchini, if you have corn tortillas, you can sub in all of these things. I like that you’re reclaiming a recipe and saying, “I can do this better. I can have this again.” Because it does sound very simple, easy, delicious, a way to use up those cans of beans, a way to rely on your pantry. And I think those recipes are just always needed. Also, a spring for Pam. I have to say I have seen them a lot at garage sales, especially lately for some reason. I already have a couple. Yes. And I’m always like, that’s a good thing to look out for at a garage sale. I feel like people are always getting rid of them. And if you spot one, it’s worth having because there are recipes that do call for it and it’s fun to have so that you can reveal your cake or in this case your kind of casserole pie that you’re making. Absolutely. Yeah, that’s such a great tip. So, speaking of zucchini, which I just mentioned, zucchini is technically squash. There’s summer squashes and there’s winter squashes. They’re all in the same family, but in August, I’m not quite yet ready for all the winter squashes and definitely sort of not ready to have them featured on their own. Maybe, you know, delicata starts coming out in August and maybe mixed with other things I don’t mind. But I’m still trying to use up my zucchini in August, right? And there’s this thing I’ve been making all summer long. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it. It’s a very traditional Korean dish. And so it uses that kind of squash that sometimes is called Mexican squash. Sometimes it’s called Korean squash. I’m sure there’s a real scientific name for it that I don’t know. But it’s that pale green zucchini squash that’s sort of teardrop pear-shaped. Yes. Yeah. I think most people know that it’s it’s not that verdant green standard zucchini that you know. It’s definitely several shades lighter and gets sort of white speckled on it. Yes. It’s like a very pale minty green with white speckles. And I It’s my preferred form of summer squash because I don’t find it to ever be bitter, which some dark green zucchini can be. It’s far less watery for some reason. The sides of the internal seeds are somehow smaller and so it’s really great for this specific recipe. However, I’ve made this with regular old zucchini, too. So, if you can’t find this variety of zucchini, any zucchini will work, but it’s the simplest thing. It almost doesn’t need a recipe, although we’ll link one. You take rounds of zucchini about a/2 inch thick, maybe even a little like a/ third inch thick. You cut it into rounds. You don’t need to peel it. And then you dredge it in egg and then in flour. So, you just dip it in egg, dip it in flour. It’s not a triple dredge. And then you put that eggy fled zucchini into a sauté pan with oil. And then you brown it on each side. I sometimes add a little bit of potato starch to my flour because I always find if I add starch, it crisps it up. And sometimes crispier. Yes, it’s a little Sometimes I don’t do flour at all. I do 100% starch. So I’ll dip it in egg and then dip it in starch and then it’s very very crispy. You can kind of play around with that. You just lightly fry it and then you can kind of put it on a rack or a paper towel line sheet pan. And this is the kind of thing that’s often served at room temperature with a little bit of a soy dipping sauce. I love to make this as a side dish with just some steamed rice. Usually, I’ll make my tofu that I’ve talked about before, too, the silken tofu with some kind of soy sauce on top. For me, this is a quick summer meal. Yes, I’m using a frying pan to toast up and brown these zucchini rounds, but it happens so quickly that it doesn’t feel too hot or bothersome in the summer. I really love your tip about adding the cornstarch or any kind of starch that you have on hand. I think that’s definitely something I’ve picked up from you over the years. Listen, this is the time of year when zucchini is like coming out of our ears just everywhere and you’re looking for ways to cook it and this is such a simple way. I think frying it makes it feel slightly fancier. There’s an indulgence in that too. This is a great way to just kind of get dinner on the table with a simple bowl of rice. This feels like something I could even make for myself if my family was not around. That’s such a good point because actually the way I first discovered this recipe was years and years ago watching YouTube videos. You know, I love my Korean cooking YouTube videos. I’ve learned a lot of Korean cooking cuz I love Korean cooking mainly because of living in LA where there’s such an amazing Korean community. But there’s a lot of single women who make this dish who live alone. Yeah. That’s where I discovered it. and they were like as part of their meal they were frying up these little rounds of zucchini. Again, it’s so basic and easy. I understand this isn’t a brand new idea, but there is some technique to it and also the type of zucchini does help. So, I think it’s worth a try if you’ve never tried it. Absolutely. Well, Sonia, I have a a simple zucchini recipe, too. This is another one from Martha Stewart, and she calls it zucchini bruschetta, but I would call it zucchini christini. And you know how I feel about a Christini, which is essentially just a toasted piece of bread with something piled on top. And I have to really admit, I am a super zucchini skeptic. The thought of putting something mushy like zucchini on top of a crunchy piece of bread does not really resonate with me. Except when I was looking at this recipe, and by the way, there’s one three-st star review, but hear me out on this because I made this recipe and I really like it. So, what you do is you grate zucchini. There’s a very important step. You put it into a colander. You toss it with some salt. And you let it sit for 15 to 30 minutes. And that makes all the difference. It makes such a huge difference with zucchini. I don’t know how I’ve never done this. I have to admit that I don’t think I’ve ever done this before. I let it sit. I put it into a clean kitchen towel. I really pressed it out. And then the rest of it is super simple. It’s butter in a pan. Cook some shallot. Get the shallot golden. That takes four minutes, five minutes. Add your zucchini, cook it through. The recipe doesn’t call for it, but I actually added basil just because I had some in my kitchen and I added a little basil at the end. And I would have eaten that straight out of the pan. But because I had made the Christinis and I actually followed what they recommended, which was just to toast some baguette, I think in the future I would still do like the Christini method, which is adding a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, put it in the oven because when you just dry toast it, it’s it’s crispier and then when you drizzle with oil, it kind of softens it. So it still gets toasted, but it has that kind of sort of softer in inner. It’s a more chewy bite. Yeah. It doesn’t like shatter as much in your mouth. This to me is a perfect appetizer if you’re having friends over. You can make it all ahead of time. I would assemble it at the last minute, but it doesn’t have cheese. So, this was something that I was always doing as a chef, especially when you’re entertaining, have like cheese or dairy, and you’re kind of trying to balance that out if you have like an appetizer course and a main course and a dessert. So, I like that this doesn’t have cheese. But if you wanted to put some goat cheese on your christini and then pile your zucchini on, no one would be mad about that. And this is such an easy, delicious, seasonal recipe. I just think there’s never enough zucchini recipes to get through zucchini season. And I also think it’s just a kind of blank canvas for so many things. All these techniques though and tips make your zucchini so much better because I think the bad part of zucchini is when it’s bitter, when it’s soggy, when it’s flavorless. And this doesn’t sound like it has any of those issues. So Carrie, we have to talk about how to combine the three sisters because they really do complement each other. And I feel like this episode wouldn’t be complete without sharing an indigenous recipe because so much of how these are grown and cultivated and celebrated is thanks to the indigenous community, a Native American community. And so there’s this amazing chef, the who’s sometimes known as the Sue Chef, Sean Sherman. and he has a book called The Sue Chef, like S I O U X. Yes. That book is one of my favorite cookbooks. It’s so interesting. There’s so many recipes that I discovered because of it. But he also for the New York Times compiled the 10 essential Native American recipes. And this is one of the recipes from that compilation that he did for the Times. It’s called the Three Sisters Bowl with homonyy beans and squash. And in this case, he is talking about winter squash, a harder squash. And it’s such a celebration of the three sisters. And homony is not an ingredient I use often. And I love that he’s using it here. It has that kind of chewy texture. It’s a little I love homin. Right. Yeah. And if you don’t want to cook it, which by the way, I have done. It takes several hours. A can of hominany is a really great thing to keep in your pantry. Yeah. You could absolutely swap canned beans and can canned hominany here, but actually he has he cook the hominany from dried with the beans. So he’s Yeah, he’s having use temporary beans, just a dried bound brown bean, but you could also use a pinto bean or whatever heirloom bean that’s sort of yellowish or brown would work well here. There’s so many varieties now that are available. And so he has you soak your hominany and your beans. And then after they’re soaked overnight, you add them to a pot with water and you simmer them until they’re tender for about an hour and a half to two hours. Because these are smaller beans, too. They don’t take hours upon hours. And I love that the hominany and the beans can cook together. And while they’re simmering away, you roast some acorn squash, which also is a squash I feel like I don’t use enough, but when I eat it, I really love it. I remember just like growing up it was almost the only squash that was around and everyone would either cut them in half and make them with butter and brown sugar and cinnamon or cut them in half and stuff them with wild rice. Did you have those preparations? I knew those preparations and that’s why I kind of always avoided them too. So I love I love a reason to to rethink an acorn squash. So he has you cut them into chunks into onein chunks. No stuffed squash here. And then you roast them until they’re tender. And then you tie everything together in a large skillet where you add some onion, chili powder, sage, which is such an amazing underutilized ingredients. He actually has smoked salt in here, too. And of course, you could use regular salt, but I think smokiness would be nice. And then you’re adding all the ingredients, the squash, the homony, the beans, a little bit of their cooking liquid, and it’s sort of stewy and comforting. And you serve that up in a big bowl. It screams fall. I know we’re not quite there yet, but it’s something I’m putting on my to-do list because I just think this sounds incredible. Well, and we’ve talked about this in the past as you’re describing this stew. You could absolutely serve this with a grain, some kind of rice, uh quinoa, any of those things. Yeah. I think you don’t even need a grain for this because of that homonyy. That homony is going to really is a grain is going to act as that sort of starchy element. He even says like you can add meat to this, but you don’t need it. And I love that you can start with something that is so friendly to gluten-free, dairyf free, meat-ree diets, and that celebrates these three ingredients. Well, Sonia, I’m also bringing a stew idea and it is really the basic way that most of the time you see the sisters combined, which is in a suite. But what’s interesting about this recipe, it’s for lobster suach. And I think there’s there’s something so luxurious about taking this idea and adding this really special ingredient, which by the way, I don’t cook a lot with lobster. Do you? No. We don’t cook shellfish in our home because of keeping kosher style at home. But the idea of lobster in a suach, I think, the thing you think about when you think about beans, corn, and squash, they’re always combined, right? But which is basically a sauté. It’s it’s basically a suite is a sauté. So this is a recipe from David Tannis who is a laotted chef of many many years. He works at Sha Paneese. He does a lot of food writing. He develops a lot of recipes for the New York Times and he really celebrates seasonal cooking. Can I just interject with one thing? Every time I think of David Tannis, I think of you because you invited me to come to his book launch in LA at the Grand Central Market and we met him and I just remember that night so vividly and now I can’t think about him without thinking of you. I always think about him. When I think about David Tannis, I always think about that night and I just think about what a gracious and lovely human being he was and just what he has offered to the food world. He really finds these ways of celebrating seasonal ingredients. So, I would just say if you’re going to think about making this recipe, go to your farmers market. So, it calls for two different kinds of fresh beans. One, shelling beans, which you can find this time of year at the farmers market, which are basically just fresh beans that haven’t been dried yet. So, you shell them and they still need to be cooked for maybe 20 to 30 minutes. And you’ve really taught me more about this than I knew until I met you. I love shelling beans. I’m growing cranberry beans in my garden this year, which has been so exciting. Cranberry bean is a really common shelling bean, but there’s scarlet runners. There’s all kinds of beans that you can find. And I would say if you can’t find a shelling bean, you could probably double the other beans that you’re using, the fresh beans. Well, and so the fresh beans, he calls for a Romano bean. I love a Romano bean. You could definitely add a green bean in this if you wanted to, but you’re basically blanching your Romano beans. You’re cooking your shelling beans for maybe 20 to 30 minutes. And you can do both of those things ahead of time. And then the rest of it is basically all in one pot. So you start with some butter and some onion and you let that get really soft. You add okra and bell pepper which are again so beautiful at this time of year. Finding okra is worthy. I think if you can’t find it in the farmers market, you can definitely use a frozen okra. And then you add corn, zucchini, and your cooked beans. He calls for you to add green tomato or tomatillo. I have seen tomatillos at our farmers market, but I also see them at our grocery store, too. So, I think it’s something that’s worth seeking out. You can also get canned tomatillos. It’s a great flavor. And then a little bit bit of srano chili. And you sauté that gently until everything kind of softens into this beautiful fresh stew. And then you add cooked lobster meat. And this is where I think as someone who doesn’t cook a lot of lobster, and I didn’t cook lobster for my clients either, is you can get a cooked lobster meat from your fish counter. You don’t even have to go through the process of cooking your own lobster if you don’t want to. And then you immediately gather people around your table, around this pot, and feed them. And I think this is such a beautiful recipe for a special dinner party, a birthday celebration. You know, you could serve this with like some crusty bread. You could serve it. He suggests palenta or even grits. Grits would be such a lovely thing to put Yeah. a buttery grit with all these vegetables and a little bit of lobster. I mean, how incredible would that be? Sounds amazing. I mean, what’s interesting to me about this recipe, besides the lobster, which is obviously not something I would have thought of for suaching something that’s more of a stew than a sauté. Sak sakotach typically is something you would sauté in your skillet, kind of drier, not soupy or stewy. And this sounds like there’s a little bit of the liquid, a little something to soop up. And I like that there’s a contrast, but it’s still celebrating suatach. And I would say I would make this without the lobster because it’s an unusual suotach. The things that you’re describing in it, the okra, the Romano beans, the shelling beans, that’s not what I typically make my suhatach with. So, I love that he’s kind of changed the narrative around suotach, which I think he does sometimes. And it’s such an interesting recipe. Yeah, it’s such a celebration of the season. Well, this is really putting me in the mood to cook more with all three sisters. Absolutely. And I’m so glad that we have these recipes because when this time of year rolls around, it’s a way to celebrate all that seasonal abundance that just really marks this time of year. I totally agree. Well, until next time. Until next time. Bye bye. Thanks for being our food friend. If you enjoyed our podcast, please subscribe, leave us a review, and share this episode with friends. We love hearing from you, so follow us on Instagram or drop us a line at foodfriend.com. Yes, we’d love to hear from you and your food friends. Happy cooking and eating.
Dining and Cooking