Please don't tell Buela I do this, but I make pinto beans in a crock pot.
I know! But look at the end result.....
When I was a child Buela used this to make her beans...
It took ALL DAY and the day before to soak the beans and then cook them. In the end we had tender, but firm beans that we used for everything. Did you know I never had refried beans until I ate at an American restaurant that served supposed Mexican food. Yes....that was a little dig at the industry. It was also the first time I heard the word "burrito." Buela just called it dinner.
Now onto the recipe...which is not really a recipe. It's more like a throw in the pot and walk away...NOT a recipe.
Say hell to my friend....Carlotta.
I think I should mention that I name my appliances. No comment necessary. I have already gotten the weird looks and commentary from this guy...
Remember him? This is the husband. He loves to fish and I told him I wouldn't put another picture of his face on the blog. So I chose a picture of his backside.
So now you will need homemade vegetable stock, about 8 cups, or you can use one box of stock. We use vegetable stock, but I have a friend who uses chicken stock. I say go for it! But DO NOT use beef stock!!! It WILL NOT give you the flavor you are looking for.
You also need these....
We love beans around here. We spent a brief time as vegetarians and really loved using these and other varieties in so many ways. For this recipe you need two cups.
I pour them into a strainer, look for any beans that need to be removed and then rinse them.
Then there is the garlic powder, about 1 tablespoon....
NOT GARLIC SALT!! DO NOT SUBSTITUTE!
Now add two cubes of this....
Just trust me on this one! You can get them at Trader Joe's or you can simply omit them. I have a friend whose husband would LOVE to keep these out of the pot because he does not like garlic. I know! Crazy! We will bring him over to the dark side one of these days.
An onion chopped...
2 teaspoons of sea salt....
Fresh cracked black pepper....
All of it goes into Carlotta....
That thin, frozen substance is our homemade vegetable stock. We freeze it once it is made in 4 ounce Ziploc bags. We have tried other bags and I so want to tell you to use whatever you want, but then I would be lying. Use Ziploc and avoid catastrophe when freezing foods.
Set it on high for 5 hours or low for 8 hours...
Walk away and come back to perfect beans!
You can make these into the refried beans, but Google a recipe for that. Buela never did it and we love them just like this!
My favorite? I love them in a flour tortilla....
A little bit of cheddar cheese....
Roll it up and eat away!!!
Or go simple and serve it with homemade cornbread and crumble some bacon over the top.
You can also serve it over white rice...we make ours but Trader Joe's sells one you can pop in the microwave. That would work too. We also love it over what people refer to as Mexican rice.
Give this a try and then let me know how it turns out!
