Mexican Feast Part Dos - Refried Beans

Here is part two of my belated Cinco de Mayo meal - homemade refried beans.

Here's a link to part one - chicken mole poblano - and part three - fried ice cream - in case you're too lazy to just look at the previous/next post. :)

Ok, so here's how it's done:

Open a package of dried pinto beans and put them in a large pot and fill it with water. The top of the water should be about 2-3 inches above the beans, that's how you know there's enough. Heat over medium heat until the water comes to a boil. Then reduce the heat, put the lid on, and let it simmer for about two hours. If you are able to plan ahead, you could also soak your beans overnight the night before. Then they won't take so long to cook.

This is what they will look like after two hours of simmering.

Mmm.... beans.

At this point, you'll want to add a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper, and whatever else you want to use to season the beans. I just used salt and pepper. What can I say, I'm a minimalist. Ok, not really. But when it comes to beans I am.

Then, scoop the beans into a bowl. Make sure you get some of the bean juice in there. And by bean juice, I mean the liquid in the pot. Bean juice sounds kinda gross. Sorry.

Then mash it with a potato masher. Or, if you're like me and you know you have a potato masher but you just don't know where you have a potato masher, use a pastry blender. Meh, you learn to improvise.

 

Then add two tablespoons of butter. This contributes both flavor and smoothness to the beans.

Then I used my totally awesome, wonderful, if-you-don't-have-one-you-should-go-get-one-right-now KitchenAid stand mixer. It does magical things. Really.

Voila!

(Oops, that's French. My bad.)

Now, you may be wondering where the "refried" part of refried beans comes in. Well, it doesn't. At least not today. I didn't have time to do it, but usually you cook the beans in a cast iron skillet for a little bit after you mash them up. I think that's unnecessary.

And here's another picture of my less than desireable plating skills. But it tasted oh so good.

And they're great reheated with a little (or a lot of) cheese and some tortilla chips. And I'm going to make a bean and cheese burrito for lunch today with the leftovers. Yummy!