Grim Cooking: Frijoles Charros


You may remember my preference for outdoor cooking in the summertime, to keep the heat out of the house.  This is never wiser than when cooking with dried beans, which need hours of soaking and then hours of heat to maximize their softeness.

Frijoles Charros is such a recipe.  There are a number of variations on it, but it follows the old frontier model of dried beans and salt pork as its base.  You saw plenty of versions of this north of the border as well.  "Pork and beans" is an easy staple, and the base ingredients don't require refrigeration.

Here's a fancy version of the recipe, involving chorizo sausage. The version you see being cooked here omits the sausage and bacon in favor of more sugar-cured salt pork, because that's just what I happen to have on hand today.  We're using home grown peppers and tomatoes.  The oregano came from our herb garden.

The key to cooking beans over the fire is to revisit it regularly to stir the pot and add fresh, cold water.  When the beans are tender, it should be ready to go.

7 comments:

Texan99 said...

Charros style is the way to go for my taste. My husband prefers his beans thick, but I go for the soupy -- especially in winter when we have lots of cilantro.

Daniel said...

I love my slow cooked beans. A couple of things I've discovered:

Don't add salt until the last two hours of cooking as it makes the beans lose that silkiness. I rarely add anything at the start except garlic, an onion, and bacon. I'll add the sausage and salt about 2 hrs before I want to eat them.

If you like your broth a little thicker... pull about a cup of beans out of the pot, mash them to a pulp, and stir them back into the pot about two hours before eating. It will thicken the broth up a bit. The same principle as masa in chili.

Anonymous said...

If you can't find salt pork, you can brown a couple tablespoons of flour in butter, then add your beans. I lean towards beef broth for the liquid, or part of the liquid, with chili powder, powdered chilies, and (if I'm not having un-tested company over) chipotle powder. I prefer my beans less soupy, because of using them in huevos rancheros or adding a large dose of salsa.

Yes, my curries are also two Scoville units away from being classes as WDDs (weapons of dietary destruction), why?

LittleRed1

Grim said...

Fantastic idea about the beans. I just finished mashing the beans and re-adding them. Should be ready by the time the wife gets home -- she's off at work today.

I also like to add the herbs toward the end. In fact, today I added the oregano after it came off the fire, so that the dried herbs would infuse the broth.

Gringo said...

You may remember my preference for outdoor cooking in the summertime, to keep the heat out of the house. This is never wiser than when cooking with dried beans, which need hours of soaking and then hours of heat to maximize their softeness.

Certainly one should keep cooking to a minimum in the summer.

I cook my beans in an electric pressure cooker. Soaked beans get up to pressure in about 20 minutes. Per Presto's instructions, I turn the heat off after 3 minutes at pressure, and open up the pot when the pressure has come down. I do not douse the pot in cold water to hasten the process.

While your charro beans cooked outside sound very tasty, it is not necessary to cook beans for hours.

Grim said...

Well, you can buy beans in a can, too. :) But then there's no need to light the fire, smell the hickory smoke, or taste your cooking from time to time to make sure it's all coming together.

E Hines said...

... taste your cooking from time to time to make sure it's all coming together.

I have a real problem with that when it comes to desserts. I have to sample the cake batter and the cookie dough after each ingredient has been added so as to ensure I got it right.

My cakes always came out small, and my 100-cookie recipe generally was good for about 30....

Still better than the store-bought or microwave-able stuff.

Eric Hines