Tacos and Beans

Wednesday (Sep 19th 07) , I made refried beans, and got some crisp taco shells from the grocery store and assembled a dinner for us.

For the refried beans, I prefer to use homemade rather than store bought. All it needs is some planning and patience (of course!!), because of the soaking process. If you don't have time, you can go ahead and buy it premade, but look for the one which is vegetarian since most of the refried beans are made with lard or animal fat.

Here is the recipe for the refried beans

1 cup pinto beans ---- soaked for 8 hours (overnight)
Drain all water from beans before cooking.
3 cloves garlic-- chopped
1/2 of white onion--chopped
oil- 2 tsp
salt- as needed
vinegar-2 tsp
Equipment needed--- hand blender or any food processor

(Tomatoes/Shredded Lettuce/Refried Beans/Tacos/Cheese/Onions)
(When I soak the beans i soak it in the same vessel I am going to pressure cook it in.)

In a pressure cookable vessel, put the beans and fill water until beans are fully soaked. Add 1/2 tsp salt and pressure cook it until about 3 long whistles. After it cools down, keep it aside.

In a pan, add oil and once it gets hot, add the garlic and onions and then once it gets a bit sauteed, add the beans and salt and vinegar,
Turn stove off when it all starts boiling together, take the hand blender if you have it and puree the mixture.
If you don't have a hand blender, just transfer contents to a food processor ( you may want to wait a little bit so it cools down :) )and blend it.

Then assemble all your stuff and eat. My kids don't like sour cream and they wanted cheese instead, but you may add
sour cream/ salsa/ guacamole etc
try different variations.

If you just wait for the beans to cool down , it thickens and is easy to put on a dry crisp taco.

If you don't get crisp tacos, you may also use corn tortillas or whole wheat tortillas and make a soft taco.