The warm taste of pinto beans spiced with cinnamon, paprika, and cumin, plus hot and sweet peppers has a bit of the Southwest in it. It's a good dish for a barbecue.
The beans are marinated with the spices, plus vinegar, (with perhaps some beer), lemon, and tomatoes, and then sweetened with honey. The peppers and garlic used are roasted; the tomato lightly grilled.
Roasting Garlic and Peppers
Roasting vegetables is not difficult. You can roast the garlic cloves in their skins or peel them first (roasting them in the skin is the best way; the main advantage of peeling the cloves first is that you will see any blemishes in the garlic, but you can simply cut off the ends of the cloves without removing the skins and check for blemishes/dark-colored flesh, which must be removed). The peppers should be washed, cut into strips, and pitted (the seeds can of course be crushed and added to the spice mix for extra heat).
The best way to roast both the garlic and peppers is to prepare the marinade of spices, vinegar, lemon, and oil, and then marinate both the garlic cloves and the pepper strips in this for ten minutes before roasting.
Chile Peppers
This recipe calls for a poblano pepper. When dried, these are called ancho chiles, and often used to flavor chile con carne. A fresh poblano pepper adds (in this cook's view) a bit sharper flavor than the dried ancho. Adding a roasted jalapeno (or "chipotle") pepper to this adds flavor whereas adding roasted serrano peppers or chiles de arbol instead adds more heat. The sweet red bell pepper is, of course, for flavor not heat.
If you are a "pro," you can mix and match serranos or jalapenos or other chiles yourself, but don't add too many and make sure to use a poblano pepper and a sweet bell pepper always.
Dried Beans: Advantages
The recipe calls for dried pinto beans as well, which are higher in fiber and folate and other minerals than the canned pintos, not to mention flavor, and lower in sodium. Dried beans have strong anti-oxidant properties, and, in this cook's opinion, are definitely worth the trouble and time they take.
If you really want to add a barbecued flavor, prepare the whole recipe on a grill. You can roast the garlic peppers this way too, but rather than using foil you might want to try roasting these in an iron skillet or lid, turning periodically till the garlic's skin is golden and the pepper's skin is crinkly and slightly charred.
Beans are normally a side dish, but if you serve these over rice, perhaps with a bit of cornbread, you have a (vegan unless you add bacon) meal!
The Recipe
This recipe takes two hours or slightly longer to prepare (not including time spent soaking the beans; dried pinto beans after all take a bit longer than some beans). It serves anywhere from three to six people, depending on whether this is to be a side dish or a vegan meal.
The steps below may look complex because of the details, but there is not much that can go wrong. Just make sure that the beans get tender before you add the spices and tomatoes, adding more water to the beans as they cook if needed.
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried pinto beans
- juice of lemon
- 2 tbsps plus either 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar or a few fluid ounces of beer
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground paprika
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp dried cilantro or 1 tbsp fresh cilantro
- 3 to 4 cloves garlic, ends cut off and blemishes removed
- 1 poblano pepper, washed, pitted, and cut into strips
- 1 jalapeno or 1-to-2 serrano (or arbol) chile peppers, washed, pitted, and cut into strips
- 1 sweet red bell pepper, washed, pitted, and cut into strips
- 1/2 small sweet onion, grated or minced
- 1 or 2 fresh (vine ripe if possible) tomatoes
- 1/2 cup kasha, toasted, whole granulation
- 2 or 3 tbsps honey (or a bit more, to taste)
- optionally 4 slices turkey bacon, microwaved till crispy (if you use regular bacon instead, reduce the olive oil you use, cook the bacon till crispy, and add some of the bacon drippings to the beans instead; you'll still need some olive oil for the marinade however)
Steps
- First, wash the beans in a colander. Then place them in a pot and cover them with water. Soak them six-to-eight hours.
- Rinse the beans again, and place them in a large covered saucepan or dutch oven.
- Cover the beans so that the water level is one-and-a-half to two inches above the beans. Add the salt plus the juice of a quarter of the lemon, a teaspoon of the apple cider vinegar, a half teaspoon of the olive oil. (Alternately replace the vinegar and an ounce or two of water with beer.)
- Bring the beans to a boil, turn the heat down, and cover tightly.
- Keep the beans simmering as you prepare the rest, checking periodically, to make sure they are covered with water (add another fourth cup of water if needed).
- Unless you are using a grill to roast the peppers and garlic, preheat the oven to 425 degrees f.
- Now prepare the marinade. Combine the cumin, cinnamon, paprika, oregano, and half the cilantro with the remaining lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil in a large covered skillet (preferably cast iron).
- Marinate the garlic cloves and pepper strips ten minutes in the skillet as the beans cook.
- Remove the garlic cloves and pepper strips from the marinade. Wrap the garlic in foil. Place these on a roasting pan and place in the oven or on the grill. Roast the peppers ten-to-twelve minutes on each side, till the skins start to wrinkle and blister. Roast the garlic cloves till fragrant-smelling (about 20-25 minutes). (If you are using a grill try roasting these in a small cast iron pan or on a cast iron lid instead of a roasting pan.)
- While the vegetables roast, heat the marinade, adding the minced sweet onion, and simmering till the onion is transparent.
- Cut the core(s) out of the tomato(es), but leave the skin on, and add to the marinade. Heat till the skin starts to wrinkle.
- Remove the tomato(es).
- Now add the kasha to the skillet and heat till hot.
- Mince half of the tomato(es) and return this to the marinade and kasha mix. Simmer till the the minced tomato starts to cook down and the kasha has softened.
- When the beans start to soften, add the tomato, kasha, and spice mixture to the simmering beans.
- When most of the water has cooked down, stir in the honey and remaining tomato.
- Mince the roasted peppers and add these to the pot of beans.
- Squeeze the garlic from the skins into the beans as well, and simmer the whole about ten more minutes.
- Stir in the rest of the cilantro.
- If you are using bacon/turkey bacon, crumble it and add the crisp turkey bacon or bacon to the pot. Heat all thoroughly. Serve.
Notes on Cinnamon and Pintos
Cinnamon is a popular spice for pinto beans, whether in chili con carne with beans, or pinto bean pie (the first is a fiery concoction; the second a sweet one). Some cooks add a stick of cinnamon to the pot as the beans simmer. (Cinnamon might also be used to flavor a mix of kidney and pinto beans.)
Sources
- " Cinnamon: The Lesser Known of Mexican Spices." Mexican Food Recipes. (Accessed 2011.)
- "Dried Beans Vs. Canned Beans for Nutritional Values." Lance Armstrong Foundation. (Accessed 2011.)
Catherine E Whitehead - C. E. Whitehead holds degrees in education and linguistics. She likes languages, computers, and cooking.
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