As the world fights the health crisis caused by the Pandemic of Covid-19, most of us have been at home, self isolating for weeks. More than ever, we have been cooking and baking for our families and finding lots of ways to make meals that are substantial, nutritious and from the pantry.
Beans are a great staple food - they’re budget friendly, they are good for you and when you cook them from scratch, you know exactly what goes into them. I have been teaching Mexican cooking for over twenty years and when I talk about cooking beans, I joke about how in Mexico when you get married you will always get a blender and a pressure cooker. A blender to make salsas, and the pressure cooker to make beans!
The beauty of owning either a pressure cooker (or an InstaPot), is that there is no pre-soaking required, making beans a perfectly suitable food for weeknight dinners with only a bit of organization required. If you don’t have one, then a slow cooker works just as well, you just need a bit more planning ahead. Once you taste home cooked beans, you will never go back to buying canned. Best of all, there’s no preservatives and you can control the amount of sodium going into them. A couple of important bits about cooking beans: rule number one - salt them at the end of their cooking time, once the skins have softened. And rule number two, it is better to cook them in more water than less - remember beans expand a lot, so you need lots of water to accommodate for that.
After making the beans, you can make Frijoles a la Charra, one of my favourite ways to make pinto beans.
In Mexico, and more specifically in my hometown of Monterrey, these brothy beans are always part of a Carne Asada. They can be very simple with only vegetables and bacon, but often they include Cueritos, pork hock and even weiners, and can be made Borrachos by adding beer just before serving. These beans taste even better if made the day before, and with the leftovers they make a great dip if you cook them down until thick and then add a melting cheese.
Frijoles a la Charra
Ranch Style Beans
For the Beans:
4 cups pinto beans
12 cups water
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tsp dried epazote, or a few sprigs fresh (optional)
Salt to taste
For the Ranch Style Beans:
500g bacon, cut into ½” pieces
1 cup finely chopped cooking onion
¼ cup minced jalapeño chile (with seeds)
2 cloves minced garlic
2 ½ cups diced tomato
8 cups cooked pinto beans
6-8 cups pinto bean broth
1 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
½ cup chopped cilantro
To cook the beans:
In pressure cooker - place beans, water, onion, garlic and epazote in pressure cooker. Cover and bring up to full pressure. Cook at full pressure for 40-45 minutes. When the time is done, release the pressure and add salt to taste. Remove onions and garlic. Cool and store beans in their broth until ready to use.
*Please adjust quantities to accommodate for the size of your pressure cooker - they should never be filled more than 3/4 full!
In slow cooker - follow the same instructions for pressure cooker, but cook on slow setting for 8 hours. When beans are soft, salt to taste.
**Leftover broth can be used to make “black” rice.
To make the Ranch Style Beans:
In Dutch oven, cook bacon over medium heat, stirring often, until bacon starts to brown on the edges and renders its fat, about 8 minutes. You want the bacon to be cooked but not completely crispy.
Remove bacon and reserve. Drain all but 2 Tbsp of the bacon fat in Dutch oven and add onions and chiles. Over medium heat, sauté vegetables for 2 minutes, or until soft and translucent. Add garlic and cook another minute.
Add tomatoes and cook for about 4 minutes, or until tomatoes break down and start to become saucy.
Add beans and broth and mix well. Add bacon and salt. Bring mixture to a boil and then turn heat down to low. Simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes, or until beans are a bit thicker. If beans become too thick, you can add a bit more broth.
Adjust seasoning, adding more salt if needed. Add chopped cilantro just before serving.
Ladle into bowls and enjoy.
Serves 10-12