Pinto Beans

Back in the day I can remember waking up on a Saturday morning to the smell of beans cooking. My Nana would wake up like at 6am on a Saturday to start making them so that they would be ready for breakfast/lunch. Usually all my Tios and Tias would make their way over to the house to eat some meal. By the time I was up and going my Nana had the beans done and the tortillas ready to be rolled, which she was waiting for someone to chat it up with to help her. When I finally learned how to make beans it was a little hard as there was no exact measuring system in place. See my Nana and Mom look at the size pot they are going to use and just add stuff. So I will do my best to help you out here with measurements but it really is a give and take type of thing. Once you know your family size and your pot size you will figure it out. You really can not mess beans up, you just need to remember to add water along the way.



Dry pinto beans
1 whole white onion
3 pealed whole garlic cloves

The ratio is 1 cup of beans to 3 cups of water.

• In the pot seen above I filled it with 1/3 of beans and the rest water.
• Takes ~3 hours to cook

1. Rinse beans in warm-Hot water. (no need to soak them)
   
2. Boil water with onion & garlic (cut onion in half, do not chop it into little piece)
3. When water comes to a boil add beans
4. Cover pot and let cook on Medium heat for about 3 hours or until beans are firmly soft.
5. Salt to taste
   

Check the water level about every 30 minutes or so. If the water has reduced 20% then add BOILING water to the pot.

When I make this amount of beans I usually get 4 servings for my entire family of 4. I freeze about 3 batches of beans in a freezable container to use through the week.

Re-Frying Your Beans

• To re-fry the beans my Nana use to use lard, yep, lard. My mom uses canola oil and I usually use nothing. If you do want to re-fry them this is how you do it. Heat up a little bit of cooking oil. In a separate pot mash up the whole beans until they are smooth. When oil it every hot pure it into the pot and mix.
• In the picture above these are the beans without oil.
• These are great as a side dish (is usually the way we eat them) or you can make the best bean burritos!
  

Here's to some good food!