"I love beans, but the perfectly cooked legume has long eluded me. Finally, after years of trial and error, I have struck upon a system that produces the creamy, tender beans my heart desires every time. (Don't you hate it when a chef on a reality show has run out of time and calls his or her undercooked beans "al dente"? Nobody likes them that way!) I am sharing my bean-cooking tips with you here in my recipe for Black Beans and Rice, My Way, so titled because the dish adheres to no special culinary tradition—it's just heavy on the ingredients I like." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet