Cooking
with EL CHAVO!
How
to make Frijoles Refritos
(otherwise known as
refried beans)
In our
last foray into the
kitchen, we had finished up
making a fine pot of Frijoles de la
Olla,
and unless you're an incredibly gluttonous pig, you should still have
an
ample amount of beans left over. If you did eat them all, be kind to
your friends and make sure to stay away for a few days. For the rest of
you, here's another basic recipe that you can use, as you'll not be
wanting to eat them the same way. Fresh beans are delicious but if you
warm them up the next day after refrigeration,
you will be disappointed: the magic only lasts so long. Why do you
think Mexicans came up with refried beans?
Contrary to their name, they do
not have to be fried twice, and really, they don't even have to be
"fried" the first time, you just need a little oil for the cooking. So
here's how I make them:
First and foremost, put your frying pan (be it a non-stick, cast iron,
or some converted menudo tin-can) on high to heat up, whatever you use
to fry up your vittles, make sure you get it hot! This is a step that
lots of people overlook and it's important for all kinds of frying.
Heat your pan pretty damn hot BEFORE you add your oil, otherwise the
oil will not heat up properly and will behave differently. You can put
your hand over the pan to see if it feels hot enough. Don't put it ON
the pan, stupid! Over! Esta gente.. Anyways, now that it's hot add some
corn oil, just a little drizzle, maybe about 2 tablespoons. Canola oil
works also and even margarine makes some good tasting refritos, but for
fuck's sake, don't use olive oil! I've seen recipes that mention olive
oil and that's just dead wrong. Save it for salads or even salsas,
but not for beans, por fa?
It's a bad pic but it kinda shows how much oil I used, barely enough to
cover the bottom. If you want more or less, go for it, you're the one
that has to eat it! Roasted onions y tomatoes for salsa and a filling
for veggie
tacos make a cameo apperance in this pic, but that's for another
time.
Once the oil starts to slightly smoke, you are good to go! Spoon in the
beans from the pot. Careful, it's gonna splatter, so add them quick and
it'll stop; or use a splatter screen. Keep it on high til they reach a
boil, then you can turn it down to medium. See how I'm using a regular
spoon and not a slotted one? That's because you want some of the liquid
from the pot, people that say to strain the beans beforehand are nuts,
no wonder they use so much oil. No liquid = dry beans = not too great.
Just enough to barely cover them will do.
Let them cook this way for about 5 minutes, if they are hot the mashing
will be easier. It's a good idea to taste them to see if they have
enough salt, add if needed. Now place the pan on the floor and stomp on
the beans with a clean chancla, or if you prefer, get a masher from the
store and just use that; it's all the same to me, it's your floor! When
I have company over, I use the hand masher..
..and I slowly smush the little frijoles to their death! Just enough to
mostly break them down is good, but I like to leave some kinda whole,
mostly so they can recount their stories of the great frijolicide to
the next generation. I'm all about the compassion.
Soon enough, some of the liquid evaporates, and they are ready to eat.
These are slightly overcooked, as I was fooling around with a camera
and forgot to turn them off, but it's not too bad. You can add more
liquid if they get too dry, shoot for having them a bit more liquidy as
they will naturally clump when they cool down. Some people
like to add garlic, I don't. But hey, you can
even add chocolate syrup for all I care, it's your food! Another way to
prepare
them is to skip the mashing process and add the Tri-color of onion,
tomato, and cilantro. And even another method is to dip a tortilla into
the beans and let it heat up; do it for a few and put them on a plate,
that's known as an enfrijolada, kinda like a bean pancake.
Here's a pic of how I might eat them, with a quesadilla on the
side. A bit of queso cotija on top would have really made
this picture perfect! If you can't figure out how else to eat
them, well, that's just sad.
Pobre de ti! EL CHAVO!
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