Refried Beans

Cooked beans tipped into hot fat and crushed in the pan as they fry, never mashed beforehand.

Not vegetarian — contains lard.

Ingredients

• 400 g dried pinto or black beans, soaked overnight
• 1 bay leaf
• 60 g lard, or 4 tablespoons oil
• 1 small white onion, finely chopped
• 1½ teaspoons salt

Method

1. THE BEANS ARE MASHED IN THE FAT AND NOT BEFORE THEY GO IN. Whole cooked beans go into the hot pan and are crushed against its base with the back of a wooden spoon or a potato masher as they fry, a few at a time, over several minutes. Each crushed bean meets hot lard at the moment it opens, and that is where the flavour comes from. Mashed to a purée in a bowl first and then tipped in, the fat only ever touches the outside of a solid mass; it heats through and tastes boiled, however long it is left.
2. THE COOKING LIQUID IS KEPT AND ADDED BACK BY THE LADLE. Beans drained dry and fried go stiff and grainy. A ladle of their own liquid stirred in whenever the pan tightens keeps them moving and loose, and three or four ladles go in over the course of the frying. Water does the same job and tastes of nothing; the bean liquor is thick with starch and is most of the body of the finished dish.
3. THEY ARE SALTED ONLY AFTER THEY ARE SOFT. Salt added to the pot at the start firms the skins and the beans take half as long again to cook, and some never quite give in. Salted once tender they absorb it readily.
4. THE FAT IS A REAL QUANTITY AND CUTTING IT CHANGES THE DISH. Sixty grams to four hundred of dried beans. With a spoonful instead, what comes out is mashed beans -- pleasant, lean, and not this. The fat is the reason the finished pan is glossy and holds a scoop.
5. THE PAN IS TAKEN FURTHER THAN LOOKS NECESSARY. Keep going until the mass pulls away from the sides in one piece and leaves a clean trail behind the spoon. That is five or ten minutes past the point where it looks done, and it is the difference between beans that sit up on a sope and beans that run off it.
6. The soaked beans drained, covered with fresh water by 5 cm, the bay leaf added, and simmered 1 to 1½ HOURS until completely tender. NOT salted yet.
7. The salt stirred in and the beans left 10 minutes off the heat. Then drained, KEEPING ALL THE LIQUID.
8. The lard melted in a wide frying pan over a medium heat and the onion cooked in it 6 minutes until soft and translucent.
9. A ladleful of beans added and CRUSHED against the base of the pan with the back of a spoon.
10. More beans added a ladle at a time, each lot crushed as it goes in, with a ladle of the cooking liquid whenever the pan tightens.
11. Fried and stirred 15 to 20 MINUTES in all, scraping the base, until thick and glossy.
12. Cooked on until the mass PULLS AWAY FROM THE SIDES in one piece and the spoon leaves a clean trail.
13. Tasted and salted again. Loosened with more bean liquid if it has gone past stiff.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes