The Washington Post, September 10, 2008
Refritos (refried beans) belong with lots of different dishes; try a grilled cheese sandwich with a nice layer of refritos and maybe some pickled onions, for example.
If you decide to make the beans authentically, with lard, be sure you use unprocessed lard, not the processed white bricks that pass for lard in supermarkets. Olive oil may be substituted, but aficionados say its use is not authentic.
For this recipe, you'll need to reserve some of the beans' cooking liquid.
4 servings
Ingredients:
Directions:
Melt the lard or oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 10 minutes, until it is soft and fragrant.
Add the beans along with about 1/2 cup of their cooking liquid. Cook the beans for about 15 minutes; use a potato masher to incorporate them into the onion during that time. The longer the beans cook, the smoother, richer and better they will be.
The beans will be done when they are smooth and thick with a bit of bean texture; the onions will have disappeared, and a spoon run through the beans will leave a trail. Season with salt to taste.
About Soaking and Cooking Heirloom Beans:The new "Heirloom Beans" cookbook by Steve Sando and Vanessa Barrington (Chronicle, 2008) devotes four pages to the basics of soaking and cooking a simple pot of beans, but Sando has boiled the key techniques down to a three-minute video on YouTube.com.
Part of the reason these steps work so well is that he uses his Rancho Gordo heirloom beans, which have great flavor and great variety in texture and color. Excerpts, with cookbook information in parentheses:
- Rinse the beans (one pound).
- Soak for about six hours (in a bowl, covered with water by about 1 inch).
- When ready to cook, heat some oil in a medium pot (over medium heat).
- Chop up some carrot, celery and onion (all in big chunks) and smash some cloves of garlic. Add to the pot.
- When the vegetables are soft, add the beans and cover with water by about 1 inch (soaking liquid also may be added).
- Bring the water to a rapid, full boil.
- Reduce the heat to a mere simmer (medium-low) and allow the beans to cook, covered, for about 1 to 2 hours.
- When the beans are soft, add salt to taste. (In the cookbook, Sando recommends adding a scant 2 teaspoons of salt per pot that starts with 1 pound of dried beans. He cooks the beans a while longer so that they soak up the flavor.)
Adapted from "Heirloom Beans, " by Steve Sando and Vanessa Barrington (Chronicle, 2008).
82 calories, 4g fat, 1g saturated fat, n/a cholesterol, 40mg sodium, 10g carbohydrates, 3g dietary fiber, n/a sugar, 3g protein.
