Tag: Peruvian Beans

Maria’s Refried Beans

We had the distinct honor of cooking with Maria, a co-worker of Mexican descent, who is a FANTASTIC cook. The menu included chicken, pork, and cheese and jalapeno tamales, refried bean tostadas, red salsa and green salsa. Oh and sweet tamales – which Maria and Chad are preparing in the photo!

UCooking with Mariapon arriving at her house, she already had a pot of refried beans ready to be enjoyed. And you know that we enjoyed them!

Expecting a difficult and lengthy recipe, it was great to find out that her refried beans recipe was simple and yields fantastically delicious beans. All without having to soak the beans overnight. It’s the soaking that always gets me… because I forget and then can’t cook the beans because they’re too hard. So, this recipe is fantastically easy and delicious. Yessss!

 

Maria’s Refried Bean Recipe (well, she doesn’t have a recipe written down, but this is what we were able to gather from our cooking with her and it works great. Not bad for a couple of gringos!):

Ingredients:

2 cups dry Peruvian beans (also known as Mayo Coba)

2 whole cloves of garlic

1.5 teaspoon salt

Water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

 

Directions:

  1. Using crock pot, place all ingredients and cover with water, about 5″ over the top of the beans so that there is enough water for the beans to absorb and cook long enough without having to add water while cooking.
  2. Cook on low for 8 hours. We usually start these right before going to sleep so that the beans are ready to finish the next morning.
  3. Preheat large skillet on medium heat, add vegetable oil.
  4. Using slotted spoon, strain and beans and add to the skillet. Don’t include the garlic.
  5. Using potato masher, mash up the beans to a consistency that you enjoy. Add small amounts of the left over bean water to the beans if needed for thinning out.

These beans are great for leftovers, so you can double the recipe if you want to have a bunch of beans on hand for tostadas, side dishes, burritos, etc. If the bean mixture is too thick, you can add a little water to thin it out before serving.

I’ll see you a la mesa (at the table)!