in the kitchen: Romanian-ized refried beans

Oh Mexican food.  Mi-e dor de tine. (I miss you)

Tonight I must say that I made some kick-ass Mexican food.  We’ve been hoarding these flour tortillas that Kaufland (a German chain grocery store in the big city) is now selling.  We don’t get to Kaufland that often, so we save the tortillas until we’re really missing some Mexican food.

We also just received some Taco Bell Mild Restaurant Sauce from our site mate, Alex, who had a quick jaunt home to the US at the end of January.

So all the stars were aligned for a Mexican meal.

But I decided to up the ante a bit and try out refried beans using canned kidney beans.  Back in the states and here in Romania, I haven’t had luck with making refried beans out of dried beans.  But I found a recipe and Romanian-ized it and *poftim*voila*ta-da* tasty refried beans.

Veronica’s Romanian-ized Refried Beans
adapted from Larry’s Culver City Refried Beans

2 cans of red kidney beans (regular-size; I used Maxim’s brand)
1 small onion, chopped (white or yellow)
1/3 cup of roasted peppers (ardei copt)
garlic, chopped (to taste) OR if you haven’t been to the piata — 1 tsp of usturoi granulat (garlic powder)
1 cup of water
Splash of hot sauce (if you have it; I have Maxim’s brand)
2 TBSP oil (olive or sunflower would work)
salt to taste

In a stock pot, dump both cans of beans (juice and all), chopped onion, roasted peppers, garlic, and water.  Give it a splash of hot sauce for good measure.  Let it simmer with a lid ajar for a good while (2 hours) on low heat until you can tell everything is easily mashable.  Some of the water will have cooked off and the mixture will be thicker.  If it gets thicker and the mixture doesn’t seem mashable enough, add some more water and let it simmer some more.  No worries.

Then take it off the heat and mash the beans up. Due to a lovely Thanksgiving gift to myself I have a cheap hand mixer with a blending attachment.  It made puree-ing/mashing quick and simple.  You could also get your upper body workout in and use a potato masher to mash your bean mixture. Once you get tired of mashing, cover it and let it sit.  You can throw it in the fridge for a day.  You can let it sit and cool on the counter for a few hours until you’re ready for dinner.

Whenever you’re ready, coat a skillet with 2 TBSP of oil.  While the skillet is heating up, mash your beans a bit more, if needed.  Add it to the heated skilled and continue to mash (with the masher or a wooden spoon or a fork) until it’s the level of mashiness you like.  Then stir the beans regularly as they reduce to your desired consistency.  Add salt to taste. (Really, it shouldn’t need a lot, since the bean juice from the can has plenty.)

David wasn’t quite sure at first by the look of them.  They are definitely redder than refried pinto beans.  But once he had them on tortillas with some cascaval (sofia), he was in heaven.  As was I.

Oh beans.  Va iubesc. (I love y’all.)