Frijoles referitos y'all

Sawsheezle promised refried beans and Sawsheezle delivers. The "refried" is easy, but needs to be shared for all the gringos out there. First one has to cook beans though before one can "refry" them. This is an attempt at Cuban-style black beans...don't freak out....the process work for pinto beans too! First gather ingredients and take a picture:

Here we have:

1lb dried black beans
1 onion
several garlic cloves w/ fancy garlic press
rice wine vinegar
bay leaves, coriander, cumin to season

Cuban-style calls for bell peppers as well, but I didn't have those. I diced up the onions and added everything to my pressure cooker. Didn't measure the vinegar, but I put in a few tbsp I suppose used generous helpings of coriander and cumin 1-1.5 tbsp each. After adding water, everything went into the pressure cooker and cooked for 40 mins under high pressure letting the cooker cool off on its own. After they were done I tasted them and they were a bit bland. Note that salt may be a key ingredient when preparing beans from scratch. This recipe could have used more of everything and I will seek to add chile powder and other Caribbean spices to it in the future for perfecting things. Also, the amount of water you use is somewhat debatable: you don't want to use too little or your pressure cooker will dry out and you don't want to use too much or things will over flow. Once you find the right amount make sure to keep the water around for the refrying part...we need the startch! Let refry things now! Get oil/lard/whatever and heat it up in a skillet and then take a boring photo. Don't use olive oil though...wrong flavor profile. Lard is traditional, but I'm just using a vegetable oil, sunflower specifically.

Can't see the super hot oil? It's in the skillet. I put in enough to cover the bottom of the skillet. You will have to experiment with how much oil you use. Also, I read that adding more seasoning to the hot oil is a great way to really extract some more flavor from any additional seasoning you may add at this time. Now it is time to add you beans and begin to fry. Add them in a thin layer and try not to add too many...you can add more later.

 

We're trying to make a sort-of-roux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roux which is a thickening agent made from starch and boiling grease. Thanks what we're trying to do. Once things are frying you can begin mashing. I didn't cook my beans with enough water so I added a bit (1-2oz) to help thin things out a bit.

Just keep mashing and using the masher to stir a bit. The heat is on high and things are cooking.

Once things are well-mashed, let the beans cook until then are bubbling a bit leaving behind small craters. Stir occasionally while cooking to help keep things from burning on the bottom. And don't use a teflon skillet with a stainless steel masher gringos! The consistency should be a bit runny once you turn off the heat, but it will quickly thicken up as it begins to cool. Here is a sample meal idea:

Refried black beans, scrambled eggs, cheese, tomatillo salsa, served with limes and cholula of course.

Keep on cooking gringos!