Today I shall blithely mention that I made just about the best black beans I've ever made last night, and I've made literally thousands of black beans (not so impressive really if we're talking about individual beans). No but seriously folks, I loves them frijoles negros and like to consider myself someone who knows how to cook 'em. Well, last night, after members of a visiting band were massively delayed due to Lyonnaise traffic, I (their host for a couple days) realized that by the time they finally got here (12:20am), they'd be screwed for good food, Amsterdam being no Berlin in that department. So, having just returned from a month in America and having no obviously useful grub in sight, I turned to the murky black depths of the pantry. Black because we have no pantry light, so I'm always surprised by what's still thrashing around in there.
So I found some black beans and, you know, since I've done this a lot, didn't really pay much attention to the specifics of what I was doing, but zam, they rocked. Thus I present an especially inarticulate recipe for these little guys. I should mention that these are not The Purist's Black Beans. These are somewhere between traditional non-ham hock-y Cuban or Mexican black beans and, well...baked beans, I guess. But smokier. It matters not, trust me. Dey good. The approximate components:
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barbecued black beans.
2 cups dried black beans
enough water to cover them by 2 inches
12 cloves good fresh garlic, chopped roughly
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, minced
1 heaping tbsp epazote
1 heaping tbsp dried oregano, toasted
1 tbsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp walnut oil
1/8 cup unrefined sugar, or more, to taste (remember, I wasn't making these for me, so...)
1-2 tbsp catsup (again, wouldn't do it if they were for me. well maybe.)
1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (balance this against your catsup usage)
salt, to taste (in this case, it was quite a bit, I hesitate to estimate how much)
1 tbsp adobo sauce drained out of a can of chipotle chiles, or more, to taste
optional breath-destroying additions at the end:
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup red onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp mango pickle (this will take things in a seriously Indian direction, but it's very very good this way)
I soaked them for about 2 hours. Rinsed them, put them and the prescribed amount of water in the pot, along with the garlic, cilantro, epazote, cumin, oregano, and thyme. After about an hour of cooking with the lid on they were done (not hard to the tooth, but not mushy) and ready for the rest. I added the adobo, sugar and salt first, then the catsup and vinegar, and finally the walnut oil. And then I cooked them with the lid off for about 30 minutes? 45 minutes? Maybe even an hour. Who knows. I was just waiting for these guys to show up. Anyway, when they cooked down, they were inky black, quite thick and just glisteny enough, and frankly just about perfect in every way. They still are. I'm going to have a bite right now.
About the optional additions...the beans as they are come out nicely spicy and sweet, but if you're in the mood for breathing fire, I recommend at least the garlic, and some of the onion. And the mango pickle addition turns it into something else entirely...I may try to put the mango-ed version together with a salmon/mustard oil thing I've been contemplating...
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