If you’ve heard the term succotash but never knew what it was beyond Warner Brother’s favourite expletive, let me enlighten you. Native people of North America have long benefited from corn in their diet and likewise discovered both the gardening and culinary benefits of matching it with beans. Sure you could talk about complete essential amino acids and nitrogen-fixing fertilizers but the bottom line is they’re delicious together.
My own history with succotash doesn’t come close to the hundreds of years of documented accounts in the New World that likely extend much farther back than recorded journals allow. Colonists quickly learned from the First Nations folk how to blend beans and corn as crops and soon after in their cooking pots. In my household it was complimented by the addition of tomato and summer squash, both also New World crops, to make a quick stew suitable for both side dish and mains just as the harvest bounty fills baskets with produce. Fresh fat lima beans are my variety of choice but any will work and for me a mix of yellow and green courgettes make it beautiful to behold.
Gently simmered just until cooked, I like a good black peppercorn kick to mine but resist the temptation (usually) to lump in chiles or anything hotter so the flavours of each fresh component don’t get masked. And while I think autumn is the perfect time to make succotash for a litany of reasons, you can also whack together a fair substitute in the middle of winter using good tinned tomatoes and frozen veg. Preferably home preserved if you can’t get through all your garden harvest in October. That’s classic succotash if you stop right there and serve it with plenty of crusty bread on a cool autumn afternoon. Hopefully with some fresh cider.
As delicious as the traditional can be, I wanted something a bit more substantial for dinner after the third batch last week. A bit of head scratching made me realize the method for good vegetable biryani from India would make a fine way to turn my beloved succotash into something more filling. This entails layering soaked and par-boiled rice on top of sauteed vegetables with enough flavourful liquid added (often a saffron, cardamom, and cinnamon laced yogurt or ghee) to finish the cooking with steam generated by a short stint in the oven. In the experiment below, I used instead great homemade vegetable stock so as not to overpower the squash in the mix but stayed true to my black peppercorn obsession. You can also see I had to improvise around a lack of lima beans by using cupboard-available black beans. Made the whole affair look like a beehive gone wrong but it tasted just fine in the end. No matter your ingredient and spice choice, once you get the technique down the rice turns out fluffy and flavourful every time.
The sweetness of fresh corn and chew of properly cooked beans match perfectly for my tastes but carnivores could add a small measure of sausage to really satisfy their desires. The main point is to let all the glorious veg cook together with the rice so it gets flavoured throughout. One pot simplicity finished in a low oven with very little additional attention needed past fluffing with a fork at the end. More time to make dessert I say since dinner will be so healthy.
Succotash & Rice Meet In The Oven
While harvest fresh is preferred, frozen or tinned varieties of the vegetables can be successfully substituted off season, including any dry beans you have to hand soaked and simmered separately until barely tender.
300g (roughly 1 1/2 cups) rice, any variety but Basmati preferred
2 ears fresh sweet corn
1 large onion, diced, any variety
1 stalk celery, washed well and diced
2 + 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
freshly ground black peppercorn to taste (start with 1 teaspoon)
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 clove garlic, crushed
375g fresh beans, lima or broad bean preferred
3 – 4 medium summer squash, a mix of any thin-skinned variety (courgettes, yellow crook-necked, etc.)
3 large garden tomatoes, diced (include any juice exuded)
1 +/- litre vegetable stock, broth, or similar
fine sea salt to taste (usually 2-3 teaspoons)
Yield: Serves four comfortably
Soak the rice in cold water for 45 minutes. Drain and run fresh water into the bowl until clear. Bring at least eight cups fresh well-salted water to the boil and add the drained rice. Cook for 4-6 minutes depending on the variety chosen leaving the rice with some resistance when bitten. Drain completely of the cooking water, add 2 tablespoon oil, toss briefly to coat, and set aside.
Carefully cut the kernels from the sweet corn using a large kitchen knife or mandoline. It is easiest to do this with the ear of corn held upright in a very large bowl to catch the kernels and corn milk. Use a slicing motion with the full length of your knife. Cut the bottom half of kernels from the cob then invert to finish for the safest approach.
In a heavy cast iron Dutch oven over medium heat*, add the onion and celery with remaining oil and saute until slightly softened, about three minutes. Add the spices and garlic stirring constantly until fragrant, about thirty seconds, then immediately add the beans, squash, tomatoes, and cut corn along with one cup stock to prevent scorching. Adjust salt to taste. Reduce to low and simmer ten minutes. Preheat the oven to 175C (350F).
* For a sausage-laced, carnivore-friendly version, begin by frying 200g of your sausage of choice to render any fat. Proceed with the recipe from there, possibly substituting chicken stock for the vegetable stock later in the process.
Layer the par-cooked rice on top of the vegetable mixture and add the remaining stock in as even a pour as possible over the top of the rice. Cover the pot tightly by wrapping the lid in layers of parchment or foil to make a good seal which holds in steam well. Bake for 20-40 minutes depending on the rice chosen until the grains are your preferred tenderness. Wear a colonial pilgrim’s hat at the dinner table and serve steaming bowlfuls with generous mugs of cider.
