Frijoles de la Olla (Mexican Basic Pinto Beans)

Among Mexicans simply called "Frijoles" or "Frijoles Pintos" and they already think of this dish. I am gonna show you the most basic form of preparing them, the way you will find them at any Mexican household if you where to visit.

My mom likes these, we usually don't eat them as often (because we usaully prefer the Cuban black bean stew) but when eating Mexican food this is the best to choose, especially for refried beans.

Ingredients:

-3 1/2 cups Pinto Beans

-1/2 onion whole

-2 cloves garlic whole just peeled or unpeeled up to you

-About 13-14 cups water (THese arent meant to be thick)

-salt ot taste

Directions:

-Rinse and clean beans, get rid of any ugly ones.

-Now add water, with 1/2 onion and garlic.

-Bring to a boil, cover on low and simmer about 1 hour to 2 hour (depends on your beans mine are done in 1 hour)

-Now that they are done add salt to taste (about 2 teaspoons I added) stir and you done. EASY I KNOW!

NOW you didn't think I'd eat em just like that (though they are still good) but I want a more flavorful kick. So this is what I do in addition to the standard way of makin em.

Ingredients:

-2 tablespoons lard or bacon grease (DO NOT DARE USE ANYTHING ELSE!)

-1 large Jalapeño pepper minced or 2 small ones or even better 1 or 2 chile serrano minced

Directions:

(1)Now that your beans are done, heat lard or bacon grease in a pan on medium.

(2)When oil is hot enough add minced chilies, sautee about 5-7 minutes until seeds are goldish DO NOT BURN EM.(3)Now add this to cooked pinto beans and boil together 5-10 minutes.

OMG THEY TASTE WONDERFUL LIKE THIS, you can also sautee other types chilies particualrily the dried Mexican chilies like "Guajillo", "Negro", or "de Arbol" just remove seeds and hard stems from the large dry types and sautee in oil and add in beans to rehydrate. Or when starting to cook beans add a whole "Chile Guajillo" for a different taste,

ALSO PLEASE NOTE:

To refry beans just heat lard or bacon grease, sautee 1/2 minced onion until translucent, scoop in some Pinto beans without that much of it's liquid (just mostly beans) bring to a boil and start mashing and stiring until thickend.

Refried beans is like a savory bean mash or paste. You can also add minced chilies, or dry chili peppers when refrying if you didnt do it when you boiled them.

You may check my post for making them:

http://nathanscomida.blogspot.com/2008/12/frijoles-pintos-fritos-refried-pinto.html