Recipe: Mor-Good Frijoles (aka traditional beans refried and otherwise

[rathbone]

FramingFowl - That is any kind of chiles you choose to put in there. They are all good and they all have their properties. Typically it is fresh sliced chiles. If you are using canned chiles - they usually have a vinegary taste. Canned adobo chiles have that smoky flavor - I love those. Dried chiles you would probably want to reconstitute -but a lot of people just sprinkle dried chile pepper flakes on top of their food.
i_am2bz - There are two schools of thought on the water. Half say throw the water out and use new water. Others don't want to throw away the bit of nutrition that has soaked into the water they were soaking the beans in and so they use the same water to cook them in. (There are even a few who don't like to rinse the beans at all because they feel they are washing away nutrients) So I say - do what works for you. Personally I wouldn't touch a can of beans ... unless I was really hungry. The taste is not as good but certainly there is nothing wrong with canned beans. If you have canned beans and you want refried - you just dump them in where you would have put in the beans you cooked yourself - and use the bean broth that the can had in it.
Britesea - Those black beans sound delish! Love garlic and jalapenos and black beans are one of my favorites. We cook them brazilian style (I used to teach ESL and I collect recipes from all of my students' families).

 

[framing fowl]

What's Brazililian style?

ps (see, I told you we were fanatical about food!)

 

[rathbone]

lol...you weren't joking. I didn't think a single person would read a recipe for beans and here we are chatting it up.

Brazilian style beans (feijoada) are made with black turtle beans and prepared the same way the beans I wrote about above. The differences are:
1 tsp. of oregano
1/2 t of cumin
a bay leaf
meat...let your mind go wild here. Usually it has slices of bacon, links of chorizo, hamhocks etc. The really traditional dish has pig ears, feet and tails in it. But the general idea is to have different kinds of sausages and pork in there. Typically the sausages are sliced in big bite sized pieces. Every Feijoada I have had has been different - and oh so delicious.
Cook it long and slow and then serve it over rice.

Rice - just in case you are wondering:
2 T butter
1/3 of an onion - minced finely and sauteed in the butter
Now add 2 cloves of finely minced garlic - give it a quick stir - don't let the garlic burn.
1 cup of white rice (jasmine rice is my personal fave)
Stir the rice into the buttery mixture. Don't let the onion or garlic burn.
Add in 1t salt and 2c of water. Mix, cover, bring to a boil.
Immediately lower heat to lowest setting and cook 20 minutes - DON'T LIFT THE LID.
Turn off and let sit for 10 minutes.

Serve the black beans (with a gorgeous purple broth) and sausages over steaming rice. You will be glad you tried this dish.