Frijoles Negros & Refritos

FRIJOLES NEGROS

Time: About 8 hours prep, 3.5 hours cooking time

Makes about 8 servings

Part 1:

1 lb. black beans

10 cups water

1 green pepper

Part 2:

¾ cup olive oil

1 large onion

4 garlic cloves

1 green pepper

4 tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

¼ tsp. oregano

1 bay leaf

2 tbsp. white sugar

Part 3:

2 tbsp. vinegar

2 tbsp. vino seco (white cooking wine)

2 tbsp. olive oil

Directions (Part 1):

1. Weight 1 lb. of beans. Sometimes there may be stones or strange beans in a bag, so in small batches, lay them out on a plate and remove unwanted pieces.

2. In a large pot, wash the beans well with water and drain. Do this rinse about 2-3 times.

3. Pour the 10 cups of water and a quartered green pepper into the pot with the beans.

4. Leave beans to soak until they swell up. This takes about 8 hours, so it is best to leave overnight.

Directions (Part 2):

1. When beans are well swollen and without removing anything from the pot, bring to a boil on high heat over a stovetop. As soon as it boils, bring to low heat and leave to cook until they soften slightly, approximately 45 minutes (Towards the end, dice the onion and green pepper for next step).

2. In a frying pan, heat the olive oil on low heat and sauté the diced onion and minced garlic until soft, then add the diced green pepper and saute until soft.

3. Add about one cup of beans (without water) in the pan and mash them in with the onion, garlic, and green pepper.

4. Put everything in the pot with the rest of the beans. 

5. Add salt, pepper, oregano, bay leaf, and sugar. Bring to low heat and cover the pot, leave for 1 hour.

Directions (Part 3):

1. Add the vinegar and cooking wine and continue cooking for another hour, with pot covered. 

2. If there is still too much liquid after this, uncovered and allow to cook longer until it reduces to desired level.

3. Add the two tablespoons of olive oil, then serve.

FRIJOLES NEGROS REFRITOS

If you have left over black beans, refried beans is a great way to use them.

Directions:

1. Puree the beans in a blender, immersion blender, or force them through a sieve with a masher.

2. In a pan, add about a tablespoon of oil and cook the pureed beans on low, stirring constantly to prevent from sticking to bottom of pan.

3. Continue cooking until it reduces to a thick paste. Served with sprinkled hard-boiled egg and/or grated cheese. Makes a great dip for chips as well.

Notes & Comments:

• Frijoles negros can be served straight up as a soup, or served over rice. To make it a simple meal, place a fried egg over the rice and beans.

• You an skip Part 1 (soaking beans and green pepper overnight) by cooking in a pressure cooker for about 30-40 minutes (you may have to experiment with your pressure cooker). Remove cover and resume Part 2 as normal.

• These are even better the next day after refrigerating. They also freeze well.

• I would personally add more salt, vinegar, and olive oil, and reduce/remove the sugar.

• Normally bay leaves bought it bulk have week flavor. Unless you are using a high quality bay leaf, you can add more to enhance the flavor.

• I've always learned that garlic should always be added last since it burns easy. I would add onions and green peppers first, then add the minced garlic once they soften.

• The mashing beans step is unnecessary in my personal opinion, I would skip it next time.

• Play around with other flavors, like red peppers and other spices.

• Some people put all the aromatics, aka anything that's not black beans, in a cheese cloth and cooks this in with the beans. When done cooking, you can then squeeze all the juices into the beans. This then allows the black beans to have nothing else floating in it. But personally, I like the chucks of onion and green pepper. 

• It is also somewhat traditional to use ají cachucha instead of green peppers. These are very small, yet sweet, peppers that can be either chopped finely or added whole. They give a great added flavor, if you can find them (more common down south).

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Recetas Originales

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FRIJOLES NEGROS

1 lb. de frijoles negros ½ cdta. de pimienta

10 tazas de agua ¼ cdta. de orégano

1 ají grande 1 hoja de laurel

¾ taza aceite de oliva 2 cdas. azúcar blanca

1 cebolla grande 2 cdas. de vinagre

4 dientes de ajo 2 cdas. vino seco

1 ají grande 2 cdas. aceite de oliva

4 cdtas. de sal

        Lave los frijoles y póngalos a remojar con el agua y un ají. Cuando estén bien hinchados póngalos a cocinar en esa misma agua hasta que se ablanden (aproximadamente 45 minutos). En una sartén caliente el aceite. Sofría la cebolla picadita, ajo machacado y luego el ají también picadito o molido. Eche aproximadamente una taza de frijoles en la sartén y aplástelos bien. Échelo todo en la cazuela con el resto de los frijoles. Añádales sal, pimienta, orégano, laurel y azúcar. Déjelos hervir aproximadamente una hora más. Añádales luego el vinagre, vino seco y cocínelos a fuego lento durante otra hora para que queden bien cuajaditos. Si ve que todavía tienen mucho caldo déjelos destapados para que espesen. Al momento de servirlos añádales las dos cucharadas de aceite. Da aproximadamente 8 raciones.

FRIJOLES NEGROS REFRITOS

        Cuando sobran frijoles negros, quedan muy sabrosos si se pasan por un colador para reducirlos a puré. Luego, en una sartén, ponga una cucharada de aceite y cocine el puré de frijoles revolviéndolo constantemente hasta que se despegue de los lados de la sartén y esté como una pasta bien espesa. Sírvalos polvoreados con huevo duro picadito; también con queso rallado resultan deliciosos.