Frijoles Pintos Fritos (Refried Pinto Beans)

This is a very simple simple Mexican dish. It is not refried despite the name, I don't know why in English they call it "refried beans" but whatever it's only fried once and it's not even fried it's just boiled beans that have been mashed to a paste with not a lot of oil.

The recipe I am showing to you is the most BASIC, AUTHENTIC, MEXICAN way of preparing them, there is more elaborated delicious way's to make it but this is the typical way it is seasoned for accompanying almost any Mexican dish in place of "Frijoles de la Olla" (lightly seasoned boiled pintos)

Ingredients:
-1 basic "Frijoles de la Olla Recipe" (leftover or cooked the same day don't do anything fancy to it don't need to click on recipe I'm a show it here again along with the rest)
-1/2 onion minced
-4 tablespoons lard or bacon grease or "brown lard" (the leftover lard from frying meats and pork rinds)
-salt to taste

Directions:
(1)After making "Frijoles de la Olla" (honestly it is so simple I thought twice about posting it, just put like 3 - 3 1/2 cups pinto beans rinsed in a pot, plenty of water, 1/2 onion, 2-3 cloves garlic and bring to boil and cover on medium low when cooked salt it) cook til tender.

(2)Heat lard in frying pan, add minced onion and fry until well browned (about 10 minutes more or less) I left for awhile so they burned a little but not really still good.

(3)Scoop out beans with a spoon that drains them and add to the pan let stir a bit and start mashing with a potato masher carefully, it may seem to dry so add a little bit of the bean broth to make into desired constistency, keep mashing and bring to boil until it get's a thick but not to thick consistency.
(4) Serve with any Mexican dish as a side with corn tortillas and a hot sauce, it can even be eaten alone with just corn tortillas and hot sauce it is very filling because of all the fiber from the pinto beans.

PLEASE NOTE:
(1)This dish is eaten in 3 different consistencies usually, like firstly we will fry them until really smooth and super thick calling them "Frijoles Chinitos" when it is this thick and cooked it is used to spread on bread along with other ingredients to make Tortas (type of sandwich made with Bolillos a type of french roll) the second way is like a loose gravy consistency this is used to lightly spread and moisten a tostada topped with other stuff like in my recipe for "Tostadas de Pollo". The third way is the way I prepared it which is for eating with anything as a side.

(2)Again this recipe is very basic you can make more elaborate versions for example fry it with bacon grease from rendered bacon along with with the bacon crumbled, you can fry it with Mexican chorizo and make "Frijoles Con Chorizo o Longaniza", you can scramble eggs fry in the pan and add the beans to mash in for "Frijoles Revueltos Con Huevo" (very popular to give to baby's), you can sautee the onions and add a dried "Chile Negro" or "Guajillo" add beans and reconstitute and infuse the chili flavor by adding some of the broth letting it boil and mashing beans in. There is a lot of way's but again the one I showed is very basic and true. I almost forgot but some also re-fry it then let cheese melt over the top to make a cheesy topping, or also when serving add a dallop of cream or crumbled fresh Mexican cheese over the top also using a dry stinky cheese that smells like feet is popular to called "Queso Cotija" a type of "Queso Añejo"

(3)WIth the leftover broth you can also make "Enfrijoladas" or drink it (I know sounds gross but it's tasty and high in iron might make you fart though haha)

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

Frijoles Fritos Con Chile Negro o Chile Guajillo (Refried Beans with Black Chile or Guajillo Chili)

There are many way's to do refried beans. You can simply heat oil and directly add cooked beans, you can sautee onion before adding the beans, or you can sautee whatever type of dry chilies you like.
Depending on the choice of fat you use the flavor can be slightly altered. Lard will give it a slight velvety porky hint. Brown lard will make it taste like fried pork rinds. Corn oil will give it a greasy pasty feel. Olive Oil will make it complex and deep.
Here I fry them with "Chile Negro" you can use your favorite dry chilies but "Chile Negro" has a really good smoked flavor.
Also in defense of LARD guess what LARD has less saturated fat than butter. Butter has 7 grams Lard has 5 grams. Also lard has more monounsaturated fat than butter.
Also there are many old people in Mexico that grew of lard and they are healthy.
May I add LARD is WAY BETTER and healthier than CRISCO and all those HYDROGENATED and PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED Margarines becasue those harbor trans-fat. Hmm what else DO NOT BUY a HYDROGENATED LARD that is really bad for you. Look for a lard that doesnt have the word "hydrogenated" on it. Hmm what else in defense of lard, lard has the same amount of calories as any other cooking oil and is very stable at high heat. Look at me Im FREAKEN THIN AND NOT FAT and I occasionally eat animal fats, and Im healthy. END OF STORY Natural good quality fats aren't bad for you go do some research.

Ingredients:
-4 cups cooked pinto beans (pinto beans that have been boiled 2 hours with garlic cloves and half an onion and when just about done boiling)
-2 large dried "Chile Negro" peppers or Guajillo
-2 tablespoons lard or bacon grease or brown lard aka "Manteca Morena" (the brown lard is so flavorful it is brown because lots of pork rinds and meats have been fried over and over in it and then it is sold when they are done using it and it taste AWESOME)
(you may use regular cooking oil if your paranoid but it won't taste the same the lard gives it a velvety texture and a slight porky flavor)

Directions:
-Heat your choice of fat in a pan on medium low then add dried chilies and sautee until oil is infused and fragrant.
-Add beans and bring to a boil on medium low still
-Mash beans with the bottom of a cup or a masher until desired consistency.
-Stir to reduce to your liking and until chili's are soft and moist.
-Turn of heat you done.

Huevos Con Longaniza (Eggs with "Longaniza"?)

This is a very simple Mexican egg scramble with "longaniza", onion, garlic, and chili pepper seasoned with salt and pepper to taste.

Mexican pork longaniza is simply called "Longaniza de Puerco" is a type of sausage that is fresh, and can be removed from casing and crumbled I am not sure what it is seasoned with but I believe it has dried "Chile California" maybe cumin, allspice, pepper, etc. not so sure. My aunt who is from Mexico knows how to make this type of sausage from scratch. I'll have to ask to her and make some., she makes the filling and just uses it as needed in certain dishes.

The Mexican "Longaniza" is not the same as the "Mexican Chorizo", the Longaniza is more heavely seasoned, the chorizo is a more pale color and is very very fresh (if you get it at the right places and are observant of what you get) it is also more greasy.

Mexican Chorizo get's a bad reputation for being "overly" greasy, I must say it really depends what brand you buy, and where you buy it, the one I buy is from "Vallarta" (a chain of of stores that sells mostly Latin, Central, and South American products, it cater's mostly to Mexicans) at that store I can find the chorizo fresh, it's not branded I don't know if they make it on site but they have these huge ropes they cut off of when you ask for Chorizo at the deli & creamerie within the store.

A lot of the pre-packaged brands are kinda gross to me, they are toooo greasy, runny, fall apart easily etc. and overly salted, if you are using a pre-packaged one that is like that, be sure that when you fry it in the oil to drain some of the fat.

Ingredients:
-6 eggs
-1 Mexican Pork Longaniza
-1/2 onion minced
-2 cloves garlic minced (optional)
-1 green chili pepper, serrano or jalapeño pepper is what we use (optional)
-salt to taste
-black pepper to taste
-oil for cooking

Directions:
(1)Beat eggs with some salt and pepper (if you wish you can add a small splash of whole milk),

(2)Heat a little bit of oil on medium high heat, remove casing from chorizo and sautee until lightly browned and it renders a bit of fat. (the one I used was pretty lean), now add onion, chili pepper, until onions are a bit translucent (maybe 5 minutes?), when they are add garlic, stir until fragrant (1 minute or so) then add beaten eggs and slide with a spatula, kind of like making a tortilla when it curdles and get's firmer flip in sections until cooked and your done.

(3)Serve with whatever sides you want (like I said typically refried beans, cream or fresh cheese, some type of salsa, and corn tortillas) or you can use it as a filling for corn tortillas to make "Tacos" also you can make a "breakfast burrito" by using it as a filling for a Burrito (made with a big flour tortilla)

PLEASE NOTE:
-This can be made using Mexican chorizo in place of "longaniza" you can prepare refried beans with Mexican chorizo or longaniza, just use lard in place of oil, skip the garlic, chili pepper, and black pepper and fry the chorizo or longaniza and add onion then mash in the beans.

-Here is the basic refried bean recipe:

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