ABUELA IRMA'S BLACK BEANS

CARAOTAS NEGRAS - AKA. CLASSIC BEANS TO PAIR WITH RICE

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Caraotas negras (Black Beans) has always been a staple food in my home. Abuela would make this many times a week to pair with many dishes. My girls love black beans and rice as much as I do so this is a recipe that’s close to my heart. This recipe has lots of range to add other spices and flavorings to meet the needs of any particular day. You can really play around with the way you build flavor around the beans by completely changing the spices, adding different broths, frying up meats along with the vegetables, etc... I will keep the classic recipe simple and offer up some ideas that have proved tasty in the past.

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INGREDIENTS:

1	14 oz Can of Peeled Tomatoes (Read below for dried)
1/2 cup	Chicken or beef broth
1/2	Large Onion (1 small)
1/2	Bell Pepper
2-3	Garlic Cloves
1 tsp	Tomato paste
1/2 tsp	Ground Cumin
1/2 tsp	Paprika
1/4 tsp	Black Pepper
2-3	Bay Leaves
1/2 tsp	Sea Salt

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FLAVOR NOTES:

Classic beans are savory with strong notes of onion, garlic, and pepper. This is what makes them a great pairing with other foods since they round out any ‘simpler’ flavor profiles.

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INSTRUCTIONS:

• Dice or mince the onions, garlic, and pepper. Fry them up in a saucepan in medium heat with a little vegetable oil.
• Let them reduce until the edges start to brown and caramelize. Then add the tomato paste and spices (leave out the bay leaves for now)
• Once the spices are fragrant (it doesn’t take long) add the beans and broth and incorporate.
• Top off with bay leaves, salt, and taste. Adjust the flavor with more spices or salt.
• It’s often happened to me that I add too much salt (especially when changing salt brands) and I end up with very salty beans. To fix this turn beans to a low simmer and add whole vegetables to absorb the salt. Examples include halved carrots, large chunks of potato, celery stalks, bell pepper quarters, etc... These will absorb the salt through osmosis as they simmer with the beans and you can remove them easily after the dish is done without having to incorporate them into the beans.
• The beans can be microwaved in their broth, re-fried in oil on a pan, and even mashed into a smooth bean paste (without the broth) to create a dip.

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INGREDIENT NOTES:

Using canned black beans is the fastest way to make this recipe and does not degrade the quality of the dish in any way. Using dried beans mainly allows you to take advantage of the longevity and cheapness of dried beans but you need to hydrate them properly before use. Onion, garlic, and peppers are great flavor bases for this dish, but you can play around by adding any vegetables and fruit to change things up, celery is a great choice, sum dried tomatoes or capers will add more complexity to the base. I remember a version of this I made that was sweeter with dried plums and raisins instead of pepper. The spices can follow suit to the base vegetables. I like to make a version that is more like a morrocan spice blend, another that’s more like Jamaican Jerk, and you can go full ‘country style’ beans with bacon/ham, maple syrup, and brown sugar.

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REHYDRADING DRIED BEANS:

Soak dried beans in salt water overnight to soften their skins, this will help them cook more evenly and reducves the number of beans that rupture. A base ratio to use is 2 quarts of water (and 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt) will work perfectly well for a pound of beans. It’s a good idea to use a deep container to ensure that the beans remain submerged as they hydrate and swell.

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