Frijoles Puercos Sinaloenses

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 6-quart pot for cooking the beans
• •12-inch clay cazuela or heavy cast iron skillet
• •Cast iron comal for toasting chiles
• •High-powered blender
• •Potato masher or sturdy wooden spoon
• •Fine-mesh strainer

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the pinto beans

   Place the pinto beans in a heavy pot and cover with cold water by three inches. Add the half onion left whole, the three whole garlic cloves, and the epazote. Bring to a boil, then drop to a low simmer. Cook uncovered for two hours, until the beans are completely tender and crush easily between your fingers. Add the salt only in the last 15 minutes. Salt early and the skins toughen and never soften right.

   Do not skip the epazote. It is not decoration. It carries a flavor that pinto beans need and it settles the pot in a way no other herb does. Find it dried if you cannot find it fresh, but find it.
2. 2

   Toast and soak the chiles

   While the beans cook, heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast the chipotle morita and chile ancho separately, about 20 seconds per side. The morita is small and burns fast, watch it. The ancho will puff and turn fragrant. Move them to a heatproof bowl and cover with hot tap water. Hot water, not boiling. Let them soften for 15 minutes, then drain.

3. 3

   Render the chorizo

   In a wide cazuela or heavy 12-inch skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the lard over medium. Add the chorizo and break it up with a wooden spoon. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until the chorizo has rendered its red-orange fat and the meat has darkened and crisped at the edges. Do not drain the fat. The fat is the recipe. La manteca es el sabor and chorizo grease is its own kind of manteca.

4. 4

   Build the bean base

   Add the diced onion and minced garlic to the chorizo and its rendered fat. Cook for 4 minutes, until the onion turns translucent and the kitchen smells unmistakably Sinaloan. Scoop the toasted, soaked chiles into a blender with one cup of bean cooking liquid. Blend until completely smooth. Pour the chile puree into the cazuela through a fine-mesh strainer, pressing on the solids. It will sputter when it hits the hot fat. That is correct.

5. 5

   Fry the chile and add the lard

   Cook the chile puree with the chorizo and aromatics for 5 minutes, stirring, until the puree darkens and the fat starts to separate at the edges. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of lard. Yes, that much. This is not bean dip. This is frijoles puercos and the puerco part means pork fat to the pound. Let the lard melt completely into the chile and chorizo before the next step.

6. 6

   Mash the beans into the pot

   Lift the cooked beans out of their pot with a slotted spoon, leaving the cooking liquid behind for now. Add them to the cazuela in batches, mashing with a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon as you go. The texture should be rough, not silky. You want some whole beans visible, some broken, some smashed into a paste. Add bean cooking liquid by the half cup as needed to keep it loose. The mixture should fall slowly off the spoon, not hold its shape.

   Do not put the beans in a blender. Frijoles puercos is not a puree. The texture is the dish, broken and uneven, with the chorizo flecks visible and the fat catching the light.
7. 7

   Fold in the pickled jalapenos and cheese

   Stir in the chopped pickled jalapenos and the 2 tablespoons of escabeche brine. The brine cuts through the richness and is the signature Sinaloa twist. Add half of the shredded Chihuahua cheese and stir until it melts into the beans. Taste for salt now. The chorizo and the brine are already salty, so adjust carefully.

8. 8

   Top with cheese and finish

   Smooth the top of the beans with a spoon. Scatter the remaining Chihuahua cheese over the surface and let it melt from the residual heat of the cazuela, or run the cazuela briefly under a hot broiler if you want the cheese browned in spots. Crumble the queso fresco over the melted cheese. Top with sliced pickled jalapenos and chopped cilantro. Serve hot, in the cazuela, with totopos and warm flour tortillas. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Cook the beans from dry. Canned pintos will not give you the body or the bean liquid you need to control the texture. If you must use canned, use four cans of pinto beans drained, and use unsalted chicken broth in place of the bean liquid. It is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Mexican chorizo means the soft, raw, red-orange one sold in casings, not Spanish chorizo. They are not interchangeable. Spanish chorizo is cured and firm and will not render the way you need it to. If your supermarket only carries the wrong kind, find a Mexican carniceria.
• •Chihuahua cheese is the right melter for this dish. If you cannot find it, Monterey Jack or asadero will work. Do not use cheddar. Yellow cheese on Mexican food is a Tex-Mex marker and frijoles puercos has nothing to do with Tex-Mex.
• •Make this in the cazuela you will serve it in. The dish is rustic and abundant and serving it from the cooking vessel is part of the presentation. Do not transfer it to a fancy bowl.

Advance Preparation

• •The beans can be cooked one day ahead and refrigerated in their cooking liquid. They will absorb seasoning overnight and be even better when you build the dish.
• •The full frijoles puercos can be made one day ahead, refrigerated, and reheated in the cazuela over low heat with a splash of bean liquid or water to loosen. Add fresh cheese on top before reheating.
• •Do not freeze. The texture of the lard and beans separates when thawed and the dish never quite returns to itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 190g)