A lot of email followed the split pea recipe article. Some of it was “Hey! Stop it! I want guns!…!!”, some of it was, “Hey! Cool!, but the real curiosity was that it was heavily read. So we thought we might do it again., only with beans instead of peas. No longer able to eat like a wart hog, enjoying the benefits of really good tasting toxic foods, my wife and I are trying to be a little more careful about what goes onto the table.
I like the concept of refried beans, but not the typical physical manifestation. Out of a can, it is loaded with blood pressure bumping sodium and actually tastes quite bland. With a few additions it can look OK, light brown wallpaper paste, and have enough… zip to be interesting in omelettes, in burritos and along side otherwise boring entrees.
Refried Beans
2 pounds of Pinto beans
1 medium white onion
4 green onions
2 Jalapeno peppers
1 tablespoon of chipotle in Adobo sauce
2 table spoons of minced garlic or 4 crushed cloves
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of chili powder
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper
1 cup of shredded fat free sharp cheddar cheese
3 table spoons of virgin olive oil
Cilantro leaves to taste… or not
Notes:
In preparation, Pinto beans are are soaked in water overnight. They are then drained and rinse, placed in a pot, covered with 2″ of water, brought to a boil, and then reduced to a simmer for 1.5 hours. Beans are then drained, saving the liquid in a container, but not rinsed. Then set aside to cool. The presoak and cook time is important as the steps will make the beans break down to the right consistency when stirring in the last step.
We grow quite a few vegetables in grow bags and a couple of raised gardens. They are easy to manage and it is possible to get a quite different taste than food from the supermarket… is supermarket still a word? Green onions are typically pulled when they are 5″ to 8″ tall. We wait until they are 8″ to 12″ tall and look like the above when pulled. The delay in pulling gives them a significantly stronger flavor. Both green and white onions are chopped fine in a food processor and set aside
The jalapeno peppers are a mild green variety and seeds are removed. The chipotle is canned, packed in Adobo sauce, one slice is enough for smoky flavor without adding lots of salt…. also chopped in the food processor and set aside.
The three table spoons of olive oil are preheated in a heavy cast skillet. I don’t know the temperature, but when a couple of drops of water in the oil evaporate with the stove set to the high side of medium. Then the white onion, green onions, jalapeno peppers, chipotle, minced garlic, cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper, and black pepper are plopped in and continually stirred until blended and browned.
The ingredients in the frying pan are dumped into a Dutch oven and the pinto beans are placed on top.The next 20 minutes are spent stirring on a low heat and adding the liquid collected when the cooked beans were drained. The liquid maintains the consistency of the bean mix as desired. Done. The more they heated and reheated, the better they are.
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