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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Crock-Pot "refried" beans

One of my all time favorite foods is a bean (or bean & cheese) burrito.  It was the very first type of burrito I ever ate & I fell in love with it & over the years I've found if I'm eating a burrito I'm always disappointed if it's not a bean burrito.  And no matter what's in the burrito there had better at least be some beans (preferably refried) or else it's just not a burrito to me & I most likely won't finish it, & certainly won't enjoy it.  Silly, I know, one of those weird things I can't seem to shake.  Over the years I mastered cooking a pot of beans, but still didn't know how to do refried beans & because of this I would still head to burrito joints for a bean & cheese burrito.  I knew that if I could only master making good refried beans I could stop visiting the burrito joints & just make my own & alas, I did just that.  :)

CROCK-POT "REFRIED" BEANS

chopped onion (or dried minced onion)
3 Cups dry pinto beans, rinsed
1/2 fresh hot chile pepper, seeded & chopped OR dash of chile powders, such as cayenne, ancho, chipotle
2 Tablespoons minced garlic (or dried minced garlic)
1 Tablespoon salt
1 3/4 teaspoons black pepper (fine grind)
aprox. 1" strip of kombu
9 cups water

*place everything in the crock pot, stir to combine
*cook on HIGH 8 hours
*strain beans, reserving cooking liquid, remove kombu
*mash beans, adding the reserved water as needed, until desired consistency is reached

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