Black Bean Patties - black beans

Method

• The North American Indians made patties of black beans and cornmeal, cooking them over campfires.
• Brown rice has been added to give them more substance, though the Native Americans on the plains would have used wild rice.
• For a main dish, you can make or buy a mushroom gravy to serve over the patties, serving with a green vegetable and salad.
• Uncooked patties can be wrapped in wax paper and frozen, then for a quick meal you can defrost and fry or grill.
• This is a nice way to use up leftover rice or beans, but you can also cook some for the occasion.
• For breakfast, you can serve with warm maple syrup.
• Cool the beans and rice, if you have just cooked them.
• Combine all the ingredients well.
• Add more cornmeal as needed to form a stiff dough.
• Form into patties.
• Add corn oil to a frying pan and fry, or grill over charcoal.
• Cooking black beans: put 1 cup dry black beans in 3 cups water and store overnight (a quart canning jar works well for this.)
• Bring to a boil in fresh water and simmer around 40 minutes.
• Cooking brown rice: place 1 cup brown rice in 2 1/2 cups water.
• Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until water has disappeared, about 35 minutes.
• Let the rice rest with cover on an additional 10 minutes.