Does anyone have a favourite recipe for refried beans they'd be OK with sharing, possibly with a short note about what sets it apart? I've got a pretty good basic one worked out but I'm looking to elevate my game from just "tastes pretty good" to "kick down a bank vault door to get some".
food, long
It's refried pinto beans time. This isn't perfect yet but I'm real happy with it so far.
In the morning, chuck into the slow cooker:
- 450g dried (rinsed) pinto beans
- 1tsp red pepper flakes
- 1tsp salt
- 7.5c water
In the evening:
- 1 sweet medium onion
- 3 jalapeños
- 2 shallots
- 4 garlic cloves
- 5 limes (not 2)
- 1tsp cumin
- 1tsp chili powder
- salt, pepper
Finely dice the veggies, then cook aliums until starting to brown. Add cumin, chili powder, jalapeños. Fry down.
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food, long
You want to add the spices after the onion, shallots, and garlic have visibly browned because after the chili powder and cumin are in there everything will look brown anyhow. Once the spices have bloomed a bit, add the jalapeños; cook until fragrant.
Then add
THE BEANS
I used a slotted spoon to more easily control the bean to liquid ratio, then used a thick wire potato masher to get some of those starches out and cooking down; then I added a couple of ladles of the bean liquid.
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food, long
Oh right, the cilantro. Did I fail to mention that earlier? We're going to need a lot of cilantro. Rinse it well, dry it off, chop off the bulk of the stems, chop it well, then mix it in with the beans.
Add salt and pepper to suit your taste as you go. Stir constantly: nothing must stick and burn at the bottom. Add a ladle of bean liquid at a time until it's all in.
After the first two additions, add your lime juice too, and taste. I needed three more, for a total of five!
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food, long
Turn off the heat when your beans are just a little more liquid than you want: as they cool they'll soak up the rest of the liquid and firm up. Taste one last time for seasoning.
Serve with more cilantro and crumbled white cheese. (Thanks for that crucial tip, @federicomena !)
This made a batch big enough to last us at least a week, I think. We'll see. It tastes _amazing_. Honestly it was more work than using canned beans, but I'm never going back.
VICTORY
I finally finished the last of that batch of slow cooker refried pinto beans! Lasted about a week and a half, and stayed delicious to the very end.
Tomorrow I'm going to try the recipe again, but black beans instead of pinto, and removing only the seeds from the jalapeños rather than the seeds and the ribs - it could stand just a little bit more heat. Still going with the slow cooker instead of the pressure cooker though, following the principle of changing (approximately) one thing at a time.
