Mexican Drunk Beans (Frijoles Borrachos)
Ingredients
- 3 c cooked pinto beans (600g; preferably only mostly cooked)
- 6 fl oz beer (I used Guinness)
- 1 c pork stock (as needed)
- 2 cloves mashed garlic
- 2 fresh tomatoes (diced)
- 2 fresh jalapeno pepper (finely minced)
- 3/4 t Salt (Table) (as desired)
- 90 g bacon
- oil (as needed)
- 1 c diced onion
- 1 T minced garlic
- 140 g chopped ham
- 130 g chopped smoked sausage (1 cup)
- 1/4 c fresh cilantro (finely chopped, to taste (this is about 20g))
- cooked rice (for serving)
Method
Put the beans in a pot, add the beer, and enough pork stock to cover (use water in a pinch, but if using canned beans, DO NOT use the liquid from the cans). Add a couple of peeled and smashed cloves of garlic, the tomatoes, minced jalapeno pepper, salt, and 1/2t pepper. Let simmer until the beans become fully cooked.
Cut the bacon into 2 inch or so pieces, cook fully, slowly so as to render the fat. While it cooks, prepare the rest of your ingredients.
When the bacon is cooked, remove from pan with a slotted spoon, and allow to drain. Make sure there is enough fat in the pan (about a tablespoon); add oil if necessary. Turn up heat. Once pan is hot, add onion and minced garlic, and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the ham and smoked sausage, and cook til done, about 7-10 minutes; and add to the bean pot.
Add the cilantro, mix thoroughly, check the seasonings, and serve over cooked rice.
Notes
Notes from source: This recipe will not need salt because there is already enough of that coming from your beer, bacon and ham and sausage. The secret is in the cilantro and the beer. The more cilantro and beer the more flavorful! *For those of you that don't eat pork, you can use turkey ham, turkey bacon and turkey sausage. The taste is just as flavorful.
SJ Note: The original recipe calls for cooking dried pinto beans with a couple of cloves of garlic until nearly done, and then starting where my recipe picks up. Since I only have cooked pinto beans on hand, I've rewritten this for cooked beans: you could use ones you've cooked previously and frozen for later use, like I am, or canned ones.
SJ Note 29 March 2010: This is good! And filling! But it needs more flavor. I've modified the recipe to include garlic, to cook the onion with the meat, to add salt (because we felt it needed some, though that may be different for you, so make it first without any - you can always add some at the table). I used pork stock instead of water making it, so it already had that flavor boost, and I'll continue to do that; you could use more beer instead, I suppose. And we didn't find it spicy at all, so there was plenty of room to add hot sauce at the table; I've left the heat the same. Definitely a keeper.
SJ Note 18 Feb 2012: I cooked the beans this time with onion and garlic, as well as the other changes already made to the recipe, and the finished dish had a lot more flavor. Still needs more salt and pepper; I've upped the amounts above.