mexican pinto beans
These Mexican pinto beans are better than you will get in restaurants. Rich, savoury and oh so satisfying, they go with anything and everything.
Servings: 10
Ingredients
- 1 lb dry pinto beans
- 6 oz salt pork
- 1 onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 4 slices bacon diced
- 2 tsp cumin powder
- 1/4 tsp Mexican oregano
- 3 jalapeños seeded and diced - about 1/2 cup
- 1 cup cilantro chopped
- 15 oz can diced fire-roasted tomatoes - Muir Glen are good if you can get them
Instructions
The beans
- Slice the salt pork into 1/4 inch slices.
- Place pork in a small saucepan of cool water and bring to a simmer.
- Drain and repeat.
- Cut salt pork into 1/4 cubes.
- Combine onion, pork and garlic with 6 cups of water and simmer, covered, until beans are tender - about 90 minutes. Add water as needed. You want to wind up with a bit of water in the beans but not so much you need to drain them (you don't want to lose all the flavour in the liquid). Worst case, drain the beans into a bowl and reduce the cooking liquid.
The flavouring
- Heat 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil or pork lard if you have it in a frying pan over medium heat.
- Cook the bacon until lightly browned.
- Add the cumin powder and cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds.
- Now add the jalapeño and cook for another minute or two.
- Mix in the cilantro, tomatoes and Mexican oregano.
- Simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Add a bit of water if the mixture starts to get dry.
- Combine the tomato mixture with the cooked beans and simmer another 15 minutes.
- Adjust salt to taste.
Notes
To adapt this recipe for pressure cookers, simply cook the pinto beans, onion, salt pork and garlic in the pressure cooker for as long as you would normally cook dry beans.
There's salt in the pork and salt in the bacon so don't adjust seasoning until the end of the recipe.