Rice And Beans

Boreegard (aka Mike O'Neil) sent me this a few days ago. I can't believe his wonderful timing. I was just looking for a good bean recipe. I am going to try this soon. Thanks Bo!

Bo’s Beans and Rice
(and lots of other stuff too)

This recipe is guided by elements of Wendy Yukem’s “South of the Border Black Beans” which she gave me some years ago. But it departs from it radically—which is just the way these things should happen. You can rip it apart too, darlings. Reinvent and Enjoy.

Tomorrow I will present the Texas contingent of the family with pork, and I must admit that I’m paying much more attention to the frijoles than to the puerco. The tenderloin of porky will almost take care of itself—brined and soaking dark rum deep into its fabric. Tomorrow I will roast piggy slow—and will not over-cook him. 145/150 degrees on the meat thermometer and let pig rest for a bit. (There’s my advice for most all pork, by the way).

Anyway, here’s the way I’ve done the beans (if you can, always do such stewy things the day before—it allows for some chemical magic to take place, and it tastes better as a result). As of tonight, they cause a boy to salivate and beg for just one more helping.

4 pieces of bacon
2 tablespoons olive oil
medium onion chopped
2 jalapenos deseeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
3 roma tomatoes and sauce—cut up
1 tsp. cumin
bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
2 cans Goya black beans
½ red apple, chopped
cheap sherry

In a pot or a frying pan, fry bacon, remove and add oil.
Sautee alium and peppers.
Add tomatoes, bay leaf and cumin.
Cover and braise slowly for 20 minutes.
Uncover; add beans, sherry, fried bacon crushed.

Reduce until it looks and tastes right.
Add apple and the rice/barley stuff you cooked last night
(or a cup of some common cooked rice).

Mix, stir, mix. Put in refrigerator and heat up on the morrow. A dollop of sour cream? Hit don’t need it, but whotthell, whottehell.

- Boreegard