More Love Than Sense

I typed this up for a friend, so I figured I'd share it with tumblr. My wife says it tastes a lot like the feijão her mom makes, which to me is the highest honor that could ever be bestowed on my cooking.

This recipe is not low fat or low sodium or vegetarian/vegan as is, but you can cut back on the fats and use low sodium seasoning options and use vegetable bouillon and no meat, respectively. 1 cup dried beans will yield ~3 cups cooked beans. Serving size is ~1/2 cup cooked beans.

Take dried beans, rinse them, soak in water overnight. I do it on the counter, then before bed I replace the water and put it in the fridge. In the morning I take it out and put it back on the counter until I'm ready to cook. Some people add like a teaspoon of baking soda to this water but idk, doesn't really make a difference unless your water's really hard plus you also risk your beans tasting like baking soda. Drain the beans — this water gets discarded because it contains all the bean farts, don't retain it. Give it to your plants.

Chop up an onion or half an onion, depending on how many shits you give that day, and saute it in a pot just until it's translucent. The beans are the star here, so no need to caramelize them. Add some chopped up garlic (follow your heart, no wrong answers here) just before the onions are done (don't add them at the same time as the onions bc they'll overcook). If you have your shit together you can brown a ham hock or fry some chopped bacon or sausage and add it too, but I'm a mess and only add meat at the end when everyone starts saying "Hannnnnn we need meat in our dinnnnnnnnerrrrrrr." Tastes amazing without it, anyways, what do they know.

Add the beans to the pot and add enough water to cover the beans and then some. You'll add water as it evaporates so there's no measurements, just put a lot of water in. You can use chicken broth instead of water but I just add chicken bouillon powder with my seasonings.

I add, to taste: Bay leaves (like 2, take them out at the end) Pepper Onion powder Garlic powder Red chili flakes Some sort of dried herbs: Italian seasoning, oregano, whatever I've been adding a dash of Nature's Seasoning since we have some but I'm p sure it's just a mix of the other things I already put in with salt. You could use Adobo or some other spice blend. IDK whatever your heart tells you, really. Some people add jalapeno. I always add a lil Emeril BAM! of cumin bc my mom always cooked with cumin and that's like my homage to her. And cumin goes really well with beans. Chicken/beef/whatever bouillon powder (hmmmm like a tablespoon or so, start with a little less and go from there bc it's potent) Butter — a good knob of it. I guess you can use a splash of like, olive oil, but butter really rounds it out. If you cooked bacon for this, the bacon fat will be enough (but I still add a pat of butter for ~flavor~)

Bring this to a SIMMER. Do not let it boil. DON'T LET IT BOIL. DON'T DO IT! Stir occasionally or shit will get stuck to the bottom of the pan. Simmer for a few hours, like 2 to 5 hours, I guess up to 8 hours? Add water back as it gets low. Taste it as it cooks to see how done the beans are. Once everything's cooked let the liquid simmer off to a little wetter than your desired thickness. IT WILL THICKEN AS IT COOLS, TRUST THE PROCESS.

Adding the salt is what will make this kind of mushy, which is what we want for this recipe, but if you don't want the beans to split so much don't add saltful things until the end. Once the beans are almost done, add a good splash of red wine vinegar if you have it (lemon works too), this brightens it up. You don't really want to taste the red wine vinegar but if you add too much and it's noticeable just cook it down some more and the vinegar will mellow out. You don't want to add the vinegar with the other flavorings because acids will stop the beans from softening! So if you wanted to add like tomatoes or Rotel to the beans to round it out, do it once the beans are fully cooked.