Refried Pinto Beans

I've tried many different re-fried bean recipes. For me the simpler the better. I grew up with my dad making these and a Mexican meal just isn't complete without rice and beans.

Recipe:

3 C dry pinto beans
water
6 tablespoons lard or oil
1 tablespoon salt or to taste

Rinse, throwing any floaters away, and drain beans. Cover beans with cold water and soak overnight.  Drain water, add more cold water to cover beans by about 3 inches.  (alternately, if you forget to soak your beans the night before, you can cover beans with water, bring just to a boil, drain and continue with directions).  Bring beans to boil over high heat, lower heat to med-high and cook for about 2 hours, adding boiling water if necessary to keep them completely covered by about 3 inches of water, until they are very soft.   Do not add any more water at this point.  Stir in oil and salt, cover and lower heat to medium or a little lower to keep them boiling softly, stirring occasionally, for about 90 minutes or until the bean starch thickens and becomes soupy instead of watery.  With a stick blender, blend half or all of the beans until smooth right in the pot.  Serve them right away.  I like these very runny.  As they cool, they thicken a lot.

For variations in flavor you can substitute some of the oil or lard with bacon grease, add roasted, mashed garlic, add 3/4 tsp black pepper or roasted, mashed jalapeno pepper.  You can add any cheese to the top either before or after they are served.  My favorite is Cotija Mexican cheese.

Variation: 

2 pounds dry pinto beans

1 gallon water

1/4 cup lard or bacon grease

1 large onion, whole

1/2 green bell pepper

8 cloves garlic, mashed or minced

1-11/2 tablespoons salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Rinse and cover beans with water and at least 2 inches above and soak overnight.  Next day, drain, rinse, get rid of skins or bad beans.  Add water, lard, onion, pepper and garlic and heat over high heat until boiling.  Reduce heat, offset lid and let boil lightly until soft.  Remove lid, turn up heat to boil harder until water is the amount you like.  Add seasonings, remove onion and either mash or keep beans whole.

Super yummy beans: Use less water and decrease lard to 1/4 C.  With the lard and salt, add 2 Tbs bacon grease, 1 green pepper--coarsely chopped, 1 small onion--finely chopped, 4 cloves garlic--minced or pressed, and 1-2 C cubed ham.  Don't mash or blend.  Boil harder at the end until you have the amount of liquid you want.