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https://ift.tt/2W2D0F4So here’s a recipe. i’m not claiming to any particular “”authenticity”” or wev, this is just a really good recipe for refried beans. I grew up eating these and whenever I’m like “oh i love refried beans” people are like “ew” and then I find out that we’re not talking about the same thing. I am talking about these, not whatever weird shit you found somewhere and are grossed-out by. (Part of it is that I love black beans in all their forms, and sometimes refried beans aren’t black beans? Use black beans. Just– use black beans.)
I am sure my mother got this recipe out of a book or something, she is a white Dutch Reformed lady from Niskayuna, and is in the D.A.R. and the Mayflower Society and like, pays dues. However, she taught Spanish in a small 99.4% white (as per 2017 census) town in the Upstate NY countryside for many years, so she took her role as, like, Ambassador To The Entire Concept Of Culture very seriously, so who knows where she got this. Probably a book. But it was probably a good book. Oh this is where I’m supposed to tell you a cool story. Well that’s as cool a story as I have, insert sensory details and unnecessary shit as necessary along with affiliate links to the name-brand tools and ingredients I’m using here. Sorry, this is a bring-your-own-shit kinda recipe blog.
Anyway. This is an actual recipe for refried beans. They are possibly my favorite food.
Step 1: Either open a can of plain Goya black beans, or do some black beans ahead in your pressure cooker according to directions. (I think black beans are high pressure at 25 min, something like that; if you wanna be fancy use chicken broth and a bay leaf, and some salt, but like, you also can just use lightly salted water that’s fine. You can probably do this without a pressure cooker but you’re on your own. I bet the Goya package tells you, they know everything.) Drain your beans but not thoroughly, however you got them (maybe you climbed a beanstalk and a giant gave them to you, in which case do whatever he told you), and dump them into a nice high-sided bowl with half a stick of butter. Mash it all with a fork until it’s kind of a paste, should be pretty wet– add some of the broth or whatever back in if it’s too dry, you want it sloppy. There’s a Zen to this; do not try to get a better tool than the fork, you won’t. Just get the heaviest fork you got and sit there and zone out until the walls of the bowl are entirely covered with mushed beans and hunks of butter. Be as thorough or half-assed as you want. AFAICT it doesn’t actually matter.
Step 2: Dice a white onion finely. (Red is probably OK too.) Melt half a stick of butter in a good heavy skillet, and put the onion in on low and let it go a while until it’s really nice and cooked. You want that onion translucent because it disappears. If you feel kinky, you could dice some garlic too, everyone likes that. Sometimes I just kinda crush some garlic. Anyway put it in a little after the onion or it’s gonna stick.
Step 3: dump the beans in there. Now stir them around, leave them alone, stir them again– probably they need to cook for like 10-15 min, until they’re starting to get thick and pasty. It’s ok if you wanna add a little more of the liquid back in so it can boil off again just to make sure everything’s super uniform.
Step 4: Once it’s all bubbled through and starting to coalesce, add one of those little cans of tomato paste. How much exactly is gonna depend; I go until it’s all sort of reddish but not too much. My base level is usually 1 smallish onion, 1 stick total of butter (half with onion half with beans), 2 15-oz cans of beans or liiiike 3 finished cups of cooked beans, and like 3 oz of tomato paste.
Taste it; canned beans never need salt but homecooked ones sometimes do. It should taste approximately like heaven. You can probably put adobo in this, I think it’s expected, but I grew up with severely underseasoned food (not only is my mom real white, she also has this disorder where she can’t taste salt properly? I am Genetically Disadvantaged) and so for me if it’s got an onion in it and some garlic it’s probably adequately seasoned. (Also, this is usually a base layer, and you’re gonna put your spices in the meat layer of your dish, so I leave it as-is.)
Serve as the bottom layer of every burrito, kind of the glue that holds all the other ingredients in. Also, eat with a spoon, or serve over rice.
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flurgburgler (who is spectacularly talented and also the absolute best): The Witcher Bride, based on this and this.
