Refried beans recipe

Captain's Log, Stardate 01.20.2009

I’m afraid I forgot to take pictures, but this recipe is just too good not to share.

I love Mexican food, and I love bean burritos. So I thought I’d try to make homemade refried beans, because people I’ve talked to said that the homemade stuff is tons better than the canned stuff.

I found this recipe, which cooks the beans in a pressure cooker, plus you don’t have to presoak them overnight. Makes the entire process very easy.

The frying/mashing part took less than 15 minutes. I used less oil than they called for—only a tablespoon versus two—and added more cooking water from the beans.

I varied the recipe a bit by frying the onion with chopped garlic (lots and lots of chopped garlic!). I also stirred in cumin (lots and lots of cumin!) with the salt. It made for very tasty beans!

The homemade beans were a lot creamier than the canned stuff, plus the flavor was more intense, probably because of the extra garlic and cumin. And they were so easy to make, too—the pressure cooking took less than an hour, and most of that was doing other stuff while it cooked, I didn’t even have to baby the pot. The frying and mashing part took less than 15 minutes. Because I used so little oil, the beans were very low fat.

I made quesadillas with my homemade tortillas, and MAN WERE THEY GREAT!