When life gives you lemons--Make lemonade and more!: Refried Beans

Friday, May 10, 2013

Refried Beans

This was my Cinco De Mayo dinner.... I know it's past but you can always make this when ever you feel like a Mexican dinner. I usually buy canned re-fried beans but I had a lot of energy? or time? this year and decided to make my re fries from scratch. I found a good recipe in my old Mexican cookbook I got for a wedding gift, I think. This takes a bit of planning because you have to soak the beans first, but I didn't find it hard to do. You can find my Mexican Rice recipe here and my tamale recipe here. Also I made some fresh Pico de gallo, recipe here and served with some fresh steamed green beans, you gotta have your veggies you know. These re-fried beans were delicious!!! Enjoy!

Re-fried Beans
Serves 6 or 8

2 to 3 cups pinto beans
1 medium onion, diced
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter (or you can use lard, or bacon grease... I used butter-just call me Paula Dean)
Salt and Pepper
Ground Cumin, optional
Chile powder or chipotle powder, if desired
1/2 cup grated Monterrey Jack cheese , if desired

Rinse beans and place in a large soup pot with 8 cups of water and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Over medium high heat, bring the pot to a boil and let boil for 2 minutes. Turn off heat, and let beans soak for 2 hours.
Drain the beans.
Place the drained beans and diced onion back into a 3 quart pot and add enough water to cover the beans and onions by 1 inch. Bring this to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and let simmer until beans are very tender and mash easily (about 2-1/2 hours or so). Add water if needed as they are simmering.
Once the beans are tender, drain BUT save about 2 cups of the liquid. Also set aside about 1 cup of the whole beans. Then, with a potato masher or in a food processor, mash (or whirl) the rest of the beans until coarsely pureed adding about a cup of the reserved cooking liquid.
Melt butter and add to the pot with the mashed beans and the whole beans. Cook stirring constantly over medium-high heat until the butter is absorbed and beans are very hot (about 10 minutes) While this is cooking add a little more of the reserved cooking liquid until you get the right consistency. I think I added about 1- 1/2 cups all together. Turn the heat to low and season to taste with the salt and pepper, cumin and chili or chipotle pepper powder as desired.