Nothing elaborate here…no scratch cooking, bean pots, or soaking the dried article.
Just when you’re making a big ol’ Mexican dinner and a half hour before you serve it up you say “Oh, man, can’t forget the damn BEANS.”
This is what I do, and I’d love to try something different once in a while, so weigh in with your variations.
Chop up a small onion and saute it in a light vegetable oil (or bacon grease, if I have a little bacon in the house) until soft, about eight minutes over medium-low, in a small saucepan.
Toss in a chopped garlic clove, 1/2 tsp. of oregano, a few shakes of crushed red pepper and the same of some Adobo seasoning (substitute salt and pepper if you don’t keep Adobo around). Stir for a minute of two, then pour in a tblsp. of cider vinegar.
When that reduces a bit, pour in a 16-oz. can of drained, rinsed beans (pinto or black, depending on what’s on hand or what’ll go better with the main course).
Now pop open a Cheap American Beer[sub]TM[/sub] and pour in enough to cover the beans. Set that on a back burner and let it simmer while you get the rest of the meal ready.
Serve as is, or take a potato masher to the pot if you want to spread the beans on a tortilla as a base for the rest of the stuff. Make sure the beer cooks down…you don’t want your beans swimming, or the mashed beans too liquid.
(This is adapted from the old “Frijoles Borrachos” of North Mexico…“drunken beans.” The onion and garlic and oregano are a given, but the combo of vinegar and beer is unexpectedly yummy. Sometimes I add a shake or two of dried ground chilpotles if I want to add a smoky/chile flavor, but otherwise these really aren’t “chili beans.”)
and serve it as a dip for your tortilla chips.