¡ Frijoles, frijoles, frijoles !

This is my frijoles page. It all starts with frijoles de la olla because it's the foundation of the rest. I am mostly channeling YouTube sensation Jonathan Zaragoza and Bertha, the grandmother from Jalisco who likely lives in Texas somewhere.

Please read Bean science attentively. No, really. Don't even think about making beans without having assimilated Bertha's wisdom.


Frijoles de la olla...

...which is to say, "beans in a pot." Literally, fresh beans cooked in water with onion, garlic and salt. It's a basic and tradional dish of Mexican cuisine.

Any dried beans, pinto or otherwise, can be used here.

For soaking overnight (or not), salting first (or not), using (or not) a fat,

  1. Open a fresh (1lb) bag of pinto beans and pour out onto a large tray or plate. Pick through them to ensure there are no pebbles among them. You can also pick out broken or deformed beans, but why? These will soften and dissolve into the gravy.
  2. Put beans into a large container and add 2 liters (or quarts) of water plus 15 grams Kosher salt, about 1-2 tbsp.
  3. Agitate to spread salt. Wait overnight.
    4. In theory, if you drain off this water, you will reduce the gas effect.

  4. Put the soaked beans into a large cooking pot, ...
    • 3 liters of water (less if you decided to leave in the soaking water)
    • Replace the salt (if you tossed the soaking water).
    • ¼ onion, peeled and trimmed, but not diced or cut
    • 3 cloves of garlic, crushed and de-papered
    • 2 bay leaves
    • a cluster of epazote
    • 25 g manteca (pork lard)
    • ½ tsp MSG (optional)
  5. Place over heat and bring to boil, reduce to simmer (nothing more).
  6. Skim scum from top after a few minutes. Remove floating beans (these may be defective in a way we don't want).
  7. Cover and simmer for 2 hours. Stir occasionally to ensure nothing's burning on the bottom of the pot.
  8. At this point, bean hardness (covered in Bean Science) becomes an issue (or not). Taste the final product, reseason with Kosher or finishing salt.
  9. You may wish to eat it with cilantro, crema, crumbly cheese, tortillas, etc. Whatever you do, save the leftovers for the following two recipes here.

Frijoles refritos

I make this recipe do what I want. Since I and most people I know aren't fond of über spicy food, I tend to devein peppers and discard their seeds.

You can use pinto or black beans, others still. Traditionally it's pintos. Do not discard the excipient (water) of the beans. It's used later in this recipe.

Ingredients

1lb frijoles de la olla
6oz mantecs*
small white onion, fine-chopped
¼ jalapeño, seeded, deveined fine-chopped
6 cloves garlic

* Around where I live, manteca, pork lard, is sold under the label Morrell Snao Cap® Lard.

Preparation

  1. Put lard into skillet or pan on medium.
  2. Small-chop onion, add to skillet plus a good pinch of salt. Sweat onion down until caramelized (but not black).
  3. Mince or fine-chop garlic. Ditto for the jalapeño.
  4. Even as the onion hasn't reached caramelization, drop the pepper in.
  5. Once the onion has begun to acquire color, add the chopped garlic.
  6. Dump the beans minus their water into the skillet.
  7. Smash/mash the beans while cooking.
  8. Use an immersion or other blender to process a small amount of the beans.

Depending on the consistency (and destined use) of the beans you want, add bean water. If making tostadas, maybe you want the bean to be a paste. You'll want to use at least one-half of the water from the frijoles de la olla for serving normally.

To serve as-is, as a side dish, put a scoop in a bowl and sprinkle queso fresco or cotija over it.

Eat with chips, alongside eggs for breakfast, as a garnish for a larger plate with "rice and beans."


Frijoles charros

This dish is a bean fantasy and only one of countless ways to make frijoles charros.

Basically, charros means "cowboy" or "horseman." So, frijoles charros refers to "cowboy beans" or a hearty Mexican bean stew (from northern Mexico). This dish isn't refried beans, but whole beans swimming in a rich, savory broth.

This version is smoky bacon, spicy chorizo and beans.

Ingredients

¼lb bacon, small dice
50g chorizo, crumbled
¼ large, white onion
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 small jalapeños, fine-chopped1
1 roma tomatoes, chopped up
1lb frijoles de la olla, already cooked pinto beans and their broth
½ bunch cilantro, chopped,2 some stems (because flavorful)

1 Remove veins and seeds to reduce spiciness.
2 Don't fine-chop, then re-chop any herb because it degrades it.

Preparation

  1. Render bacon to make crispy (but not burned). Set aside leaving the fat in the pot.
  2. Cook chorizo and onion in the bacon fat. Break down chorizo and cook until onions clarified.
  3. Add garlic and chilis, cook down a bit.
  4. Add tomato, cook down until moisture gone. Scrape fond.
  5. Return bacon to pot.
  6. Purée some amount of the already cooked beans and broth. (This is optional.)
  7. Add in the beans and bean broth including the puréed beans.
  8. Five minutes before serving, add some cilantro to pot.

Season with salt to taste. Consume in a bowl garnished with more cilantro. Eat fresh baked corn tortillas.