Cuban Black Beans

Total Time: 37 mins Preparation Time: 7 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 10
• 2 1/2 cups dried black beans
• 9 cups water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
• 1 1/2 cups chopped green bell peppers
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled, and mashed with 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
• olive oil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 tablespoons vinegar
• 3/4 cup dry spanish wine
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• olive oil

Recipe

• 1 cover dry beans with water and let stand covered overnight. drain and discard water.
• 2 place the cleaned black beans in a large 6-quart saucepan. add water and olive oil—this will prevent the beans from foaming. bring the beans to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until the beans are tender, about 1 hour.
• 3 do not add salt to the beans when they are cooking. salt at this stage of the game will make your beans very tough.
• 4 you may also cook the beans in a pressure cooker. follow the manufacturer’s directions for exact times, but our pressure cooker takes about 20 to 25 minutes to cook the beans completely.
• 5 whichever method you use, do not drain the water from the cooked beans.
• 6 meanwhile, chop onion and green pepper. mash the garlic with salt and peppercorns in a mortar and pestle.
• 7 sauté the onions and green pepper in olive oil until the onions are translucent. add mashed garlic and sauté another minute or so.
• 8 add the cooked beans, oregano, cumin, bay leaf, vinegar, and wine. cover and simmer over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. remove bay leaf.
• 9 some cooks—including us—like to thicken the beans by taking about 1 cup of beans and mashing them to make a thick paste. mix the mashed beans back into the pot.
• 10 add additional salt and pepper to taste.
• 11 stir in the sugar; then drizzle a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over the beans. immediately cover the pot, remove from heat, and let stand for 10 minutes.
• 12 serve the by now fantastically prepared black beans over rice.
• 13 you may garnish the beans with cilantro and chopped onions. not only do they look good presented this way, they taste even better than they look.