Frijoles Charros

I was sorting through some papers the other day and found this recipe for a very good cold weather dish.  A woman I used to work with would make this for our staff potlucks.  She was kind enough to share the recipe and it quickly became a favorite with my boys - except those times when I added too much chipotle and it burned our tongues!

One day I suddenly turned vegetarian for a couple years and managed to lose this recipe, until now, and so I will share it with you. 

Frijoles Charros
Ingredients:
1 pound pinto beans
1 tube chorizo sausage (the Mexican kind, not Spanish)
some bacon - this depends on your own taste.  While I like to eat a piece of bacon, I don't like a strong bacon flavor in other foods.  I used about 4 or 5 slices maybe.
fresh jalapeños- diced.  Again, according to your own taste preference.  My garden jalapeños were not very hot this year, so I added 5 I think.  (geesh!  don't you love my accuracy?)
fresh cilantro
cheddar cheese

Start with a pound of dried pinto beans.  Somewhere I read the helpful hint - I think it was in one of your blogs - about always making more beans than you need and freezing the extras.  That has proven to be such a sanity saver to me, to be able to reach in the freezer and pull out beans that all I have to do is thaw and add to a recipe!  In this case I used the entire pound for this recipe.

People have their different theories on the correct way to prepare dried beans; some insist that you let them soak overnight, others do the quick soak.  I have found the method that works best is to pick through the beans, rinse them, put them in a pot and cover with water, which you then bring to a boil.  Let them boil 3 minutes, then turn the heat off and leave them to rest for an hour.  Many people think that using dried beans is too much work, but I find bean dishes to be some of the easiest; you can do it in stages throughout the day and come suppertime, you're prepared.  Also, dried beans taste a thousand times better than canned beans, and they are inexpensive.

Ok, back to the recipe.  While the beans are resting, you can start preparing the meat.  Fry the bacon in a big pot.  I like to chop it up into pieces - the bacon, not the pot.  After the bacon is cooked, remove it from the pan and set aside.  Add the chorizo to the pan and fry it.  Chorizo acts strange in the frying pan, so don't be alarmed if it just looks like a bunch of mush with no structure.  While that is frying, add the chopped jalapeños; let them cook and then add the bacon back in.   Rinse your beans that have been sitting for an hour now, and add them to the pot.  You could also do this in a crock pot.  Add water to cover by a couple inches.  You will want the final results to be like a thick stew, a little soupy, but not too much, so keep an eye on the pot to see if you need to add more water along the way.  Let it cook on a medium low temperature for at least 3 hours, until the beans are cooked through.  I just let mine continue to cook until they were the saucy consistency that I wanted.  Towards the end of the cooking is when I add salt and pepper to taste. 

When to add salt to beans is another topic where you'll find differing opinions.  I've always been told that if you add salt at the beginning, it causes the skin of the beans to become tough and they won't cook.  A recent article I read in a cooking magazine said that they ran tests and that adding salt at the beginning did not change the texture and in fact flavored the beans better because the salt cooked into the legumes rather than sitting on the outside.  That all makes sense, but I haven't wanted to risk ruining the dinner enough to try it.  I wait until the beans are tender, then add the salt and let it continue to cook.

Just before serving, add some cilantro, or else serve it on the side, along with some shredded cheddar cheese.  I forgot the cilantro.  That would have been really good.   You can also serve it with corn tortillas, heated up in a hot skillet.  I just ate leftovers for lunch while I typed this, and I'm licking my lips right now;)  Yum!