2 April 2012

Mexican Madness #1...Frijoles Refritos...




 So the theme for this weekends culinary delights was Mexican...









...and the five recipes I made were taken from Tomasina Miers' book 'Mexican Food Made Simple'...

I've had this book sat in a cupboard for about 2 years!! It was only by accident the other day that I stumbled upon it again...and decided enough was enough, we've eaten out at Wahaca a couple of times now, we like the food....why not have a go myself...As the wall menu says, we were going to have Guacamole and tortilla chips, Green Rice, Frijoles Refritos (or refried beans to you and I!), Mixed Mushroom Tacos and Courgette and Corn Tacos...(follow links to the other recipes!)...A Mexican pick n' mix Feast!!


As the beans needed soaking overnight, this is definitely a 'think ahead' menu...

So 250g of beans were set to soak over night...
Which turned the water a deep purple, because the beans themselves aren't actually black!!
...they're a wonderful, shiny, deep purple...
After a hard night's soaking they were rinsed a couple times in fresh water...
...and popped into a large pan with a few bay leaves, an onion (that had been quartered), a couple sprigs of fresh thyme and 4 cloves of garlic (bashed to let the 'garliciness' out!!!)...The water has to be about 10cm deeper than the beans!!
This was then brought to the boil, turned to simmer, and cooked for 2-3 hours...(the recipe does say that the beans can be cooked without soaking, but that they will most likely take the 3 hours...). You also need to keep checking, and adding boiling water if needed...you need to keep them covered...Once they are just turning soft, you add a tablespoon of sea salt into the water, and cook for a final 15 minutes...drain AND KEEP THE COOKING LIQUID!!! But get rid of all the bits in it (ie, garlic, onion, thyme stems and bay leaves)...
They will look like this...and it is a pain to get all the bits out, I just got as much as I could out!!
Then you blitz them with a stick blender, and they are ready for step 2....
The prepared beans can be put to one side now if you want to wait and cook step 2 as you eat them...or do as I did, and finish the dish then leave them ready for reheating later on...For this next step...heat a pan and add either some lard, butter or olive oil...After a quick tweet to Tomasina herself (her family prefer lard at home, but Wahaca use butter) I opted for the butter...
...You sweat off a diced onion and once softened you add some finely chopped coriander stalks (about 1Tbsp), 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic and half a chilli de arbol (but I used 1 green chilli finely chopped)...To this you add the beans...
and cook for 10 minutes or so...after a little while turn the heat right down, and keep stirring...this is where that reserved cooking liquid comes in...add some as needed to keep the beans as a nice smooth puree...It is now that they can be put to one side until later...but if you do this, make sure you cover them with a cartouche...it will stop a skin forming on them...
..when I reheated mine, I added a bit more butter and cooking liquid as they came to temperature...Serve with a dollop of soured cream and/or crumbled Lancashire or Cheshire cheese...we went for soured cream as you can see...
...and there wasn't much left...they were so delicious, and tasted just like the ones we had at the restaurant...a dish I will definitely be making again!!!

2 comments:

  1. oh I love Wahaca, so want to go back, must email them and ask them to open up in Brighton, very tempted by this book :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. We love it too...keep watching for the other recipes then...xx

    ReplyDelete

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