Cant fail retried and refried beans

I love beans. I've mentioned that I'm sure.  This week I made another batch of Ribollita to great success and got me thinking I needed more beans in my life. I had a couple of pounds of braised in beer and adobo sauce meat for tacos and thought what could be better with home made street tacos than luscious warm refried beans.

The problem was, I'd failed miserably at making these in the past and ended up with a heavy, greasy  gut bomb -- pretty tasty cause it's hard to mess up a bean, but I just didn't achieve that smooth brown bliss of creamy, hot and spicy beans.  

What ta do?

I found this method which has the added bonus points of being a one pot meal, so less to clean up. Less clean up is always a good thing.

This recipe is super easy to accomplish, but it does take nominal and at times direct attention over a 3 hour slice of the day so you need a commitment to at least being in the area of your kitchen all afternoon.  I find it's perfect thing to do in tandem on a weekend afternoon while watching baseball.

The how-to's

To get started on your refried beans, first thing to do is pour out a couple of cups of beans on to the cutting board and sort out the bad beans and any rocks. Make sure to use fresh  good beans. Buy in bulk from a good store or look closely at the expiration date of bags from Safeway. Never use canned except in an emergency, though if you must: rinse em off to get rid of much of the sodium.

The night before, rinse and place into a pot with about 3 inches of water above the beans, but I know you do this anyway. Make soaking a pot of one type of beans or another a nightly ritual.

In the morning in the same soak water (and add more if necessary) add three garlic cloves, sliced in half and bring to a fast boil.  At this point  take off the lid and reduce heat to a medium simmer and keep it this way for  2 hours. adding water and occasionally stirring as needed to keep the water line up as it evaporates. Go watch the ball game on the tube, but keep a  timer going to remind you to check in to bean land at regular intervals of 20 mins or so to check that water level.

At two hour mark stir in a quarter cup of canola or corn oil, a teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of garlic powder and a diced Jalapeño.  2 Jalapeños if you like it a bit more spicy.  Don't use Olive oil as that is not the taste you're going for here and something neutral like canola works just fine.

Keep it  going at a medium to low simmer for another hour, monitoring and stirring at even more regular intervals  (like 10 mins instead of 20) to keep the beans from sticking.They will break down and get very brown and gooey at his point and start smelling really inviting. Don't go out to the deck for a beer at this point or you'll burn your beans.

Taste and adjust salt if you swing that way, though it shouldn't need it. But taste anyway, cause man, at this point they will be calling out to you like Sirens to Odysseus and it's just unkind to your self to not sample the wares.

At the end of the final hour turn off the heat and mash with your trusty potato masher to desired texture. creamy smooth or a little chunky.  I myself like super creamy with just a couple of beans still having structural integrity.

Add some shredded cheese and fresh cilantro, crack open a beer and enjoy.