Zanzibar Beans in Coconut Sauce

A few years ago, my husband bought World Food Café by Chris and Carolyn Caldicott for me at Christmas. It’s a lovely book, part cookbook and part travelogue. Chris is a professional photographer, and the two have a café in London featuring vegetarian cuisine as they’ve sampled it while traveling the world.

The cookbook is divided by region, and they don’t just have a section for the Middle East and Africa, for example, but break it down into as small an area as they can. Thus, the Middle East and Africa is divided into seven sections, including East Africa, from where the recipe below originates. There are also six sections for India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, five for Southeast Asia and China, and seven for The Americas.

Most of the recipes in this cookbook are from hot climates and quite spicy. A lot of them call for exotic ingredients. If you have been wanting to learn to cook with such things as asafetida and curry leaves, this is a great introduction.

This recipe is fairly true to the original, although it originally didn’t call for edamame, but instead, black-eyed or crowder peas, or pinto beans. This version was actually inspired by a thread on Metafilter (one that started with Oprah Winfrey and ended up being about Suzanne Somers.) Nearly anything can make me want to cook!

Zanzibar Beans in Coconut Sauce

1/4 cup canola oil
1 pound sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 large onion, finely diced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
4-6 serrano peppers, seeded and minced (4 makes this medium hot, six makes it crazy hot)
4 black peppercorns, coarsely ground
6 cloves, coarsely ground
4 green cardamom pods, split
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala
14 ounce can coconut milk
1 1/2 cups shelled edamame
salt to taste
1/3 cup chopped cilantro (optional – I forget this all the time)

Heat canola oil to medium in a heavy saucepan. Fry sweet potato until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove from oil with a spatula or slotted spoon. In remaining oil, cook onion on low until tender and golden, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and peppers, and cook for 2 minutes. Add spices and cook for 1 minute. Add coconut milk and edamame. Heat to a low simmer and cook for 5 minutes or until edamame is tender. Taste for salt. Stir in cilantro just before serving.

Makes 4 – 6 servings.