Chef Lupita
Arroz a la Oaxaqueña
Oaxaca's red rice, stained with tomato and fried in lard, steamed with carrots, ejotes, black beans, and epazote. The side that anchors a Oaxacan family meal and earns its place beside the main.
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Frijoles Refritos Oaxaqueños (Colados)
Created by
Oaxaca's strained black beans, blended with toasted avocado leaf and fried in asiento until they tighten into a glossy near-black sheet that pulls cleanly from the cazuela.
Side Dishes
Mexican
Weeknight
Make Ahead
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
2 hr 30 min cook•2 hr 45 min total
Yield6 to 8 servings
These beans are Oaxacan. Not the chunky frijoles refritos of central Mexico, not the soupy charros of the north, not the black beans of Yucatán cooked with chaya. These are colados, strained, blended smooth, and refried in asiento until they hold the line of a spoon. They are the foundation of a tlayuda. They are the beans that show up at every comida in Oaxaca, in every market fonda, in every house from the Valles Centrales to the Sierra Norte.
Two things make them Oaxacan. The first is the hoja de aguacate, the avocado leaf, toasted on a comal until it gives up its anise-and-hazelnut perfume and crumbled into the blender with the cooked beans. No other state uses it the way Oaxaca does. The second is the asiento, the dark, unrefined lard that settles at the bottom of the cazo when carnitas are made. Asiento has the cracklings in it. It has the depth that pure manteca cannot match. If you can get your hands on a jar of real asiento at a Oaxacan mercado or a good carnicería, do it. La manteca es el sabor, and this is the most flavorful manteca there is.
My mother did not cook Oaxacan. She was from Jalisco. But on one of my first trips to the Mercado de Abastos in Oaxaca City, a señora at a fonda showed me la prueba del jalón, the pull test, dragging her wooden spoon across the bottom of a clay cazuela and showing me the line that held for a full second before the beans closed over it. That is how you know. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and Oaxaca's beans are colados.
Frijoles colados, meaning strained beans, are documented across southern Mexico from the colonial period forward, but the Oaxacan version with hoja de aguacate is tied to the indigenous Zapotec and Mixtec culinary traditions of the Valles Centrales, where the criollo avocado tree (Persea americana var. drymifolia) grows wild and its anise-scented leaves have been used as a cooking herb for at least two millennia. The technique of refrying strained beans in asiento, the cracklings-laden residue from rendering pork lard, emerged after the Spanish introduction of pigs in the 16th century and became a defining marker of Oaxacan cocina de mercado. Asiento itself is regional vocabulary, the word means sediment or settling, and it refers specifically to what collects at the bottom of the cazo when carnitas or chicharrón are made; outside Oaxaca and parts of Puebla, the ingredient often has no name at all.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried black beans (frijol negro de Oaxaca)
Quantity
1 pound
white onion (for the pot)
Quantity
1 medium
halved
white onion (for frying)
Quantity
1/2
finely chopped
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
peeled and lightly smashed
dried avocado leaves (hoja de aguacate)
Quantity
4 to 6
preferably criollo
fresh epazote
Quantity
2 sprigs
kosher salt
Quantity
1 tablespoon, plus more to taste
asiento (unrefined pork lard with cracklings)
Quantity
1/2 cup
or pure manteca de cerdo
dried chile de árbol (optional)
Quantity
2
stemmed
crumbled queso fresco (optional)
Quantity
for serving
totopos or hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried black beans (frijol negro de Oaxaca) | 1 pound |
| white onion (for the pot)halved | 1 medium |
| white onion (for frying)finely chopped | 1/2 |
| garlic clovespeeled and lightly smashed | 4 |
| dried avocado leaves (hoja de aguacate)preferably criollo | 4 to 6 |
| fresh epazote | 2 sprigs |
| kosher salt | 1 tablespoon, plus more to taste |
| asiento (unrefined pork lard with cracklings)or pure manteca de cerdo | 1/2 cup |
| dried chile de árbol (optional)stemmed | 2 |
| crumbled queso fresco (optional) | for serving |
| totopos or hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 6-quart pot or clay olla
- •Cast iron comal for toasting the avocado leaves
- •High-powered blender
- •Fine-mesh sieve
- •Wide clay cazuela or heavy skillet for refrying
- •Wooden spoon
Instructions
- 1
Sort and rinse the beans
Spread the black beans on a sheet pan and pick out any small stones, broken kernels, or shriveled beans. Rinse under cold water in a colander. No soaking. Oaxacan cooks do not soak black beans. Soaking pulls flavor out of the bean and into the water, and these beans are the dish.
Frijol negro de Oaxaca is small, almost matte, and breaks down into a creamy broth in a way commercial black beans do not. If you can find them at a Oaxacan vendor, buy them. If not, any small black bean will work. - 2
Cook the beans low and slow
Place the beans in a heavy pot or clay olla. Cover with cold water by three inches. Add the halved onion, smashed garlic, and epazote. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Lower the heat until you see lazy bubbles. Cover partially and cook for two hours, until the beans are completely tender and the broth has turned dark and silky. Add the salt only in the last twenty minutes. Salt too early and the skins toughen.
- 3
Toast the avocado leaves
Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the avocado leaves for about 20 seconds per side, pressing them lightly with a spatula. They should release a deep anise-and-hazelnut scent and the edges should darken without blackening. The hoja de aguacate is what makes these beans Oaxacan. Skip it and you have made some other state's beans.
Use the criollo avocado leaf, the Mexican variety, not Hass. Hass leaves are not safe to cook with. Ask the chile vendor at the market and they will point you to the right bag. - 4
Blend the beans smooth (colado)
Fish out and discard the spent epazote. Working in batches, transfer the beans with all their broth to a blender. Add the toasted avocado leaves, crumbling them in by hand. Blend on high until completely smooth and silky, with no visible flecks of skin. This is the colado step. Frijoles colados are strained beans, smooth as a puree, and Oaxaca takes them to a level no other state does.
- 5
Pass through a fine sieve
Set a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl. Pour the blended beans through, pressing with the back of a ladle. The skins and any leaf fragments will stay behind. What comes through is a glossy, near-black puree the texture of heavy cream. This is what colado means. No me vengas con atajos. Skip the sieve and the texture is wrong.
- 6
Fry in asiento
In a wide cazuela or heavy skillet, melt the asiento over medium heat until it shimmers and the bits of crackling start to sizzle. Add the chopped onion and the chile de árbol if using. Cook for three to four minutes, until the onion is translucent and the chile is fragrant. La manteca es el sabor, and asiento is the most flavorful manteca there is. The cracklings at the bottom of the lard pot in Oaxaca are what fry these beans.
- 7
Refry until they pull from the pan
Pour the strained bean puree into the cazuela. It will sputter aggressively. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring almost constantly with a wooden spoon, for fifteen to twenty minutes. The beans will tighten, darken, and start to pull away from the sides of the pan in a single sheet. When you can drag the spoon across the bottom and see the cazuela for a full second before the beans close back over the trail, they are done. Asi se hace y punto.
Oaxacan cooks call this point la prueba del jalón, the pull test. If the beans hold the line of the spoon, they are colados refritos. If the line collapses immediately, keep cooking. - 8
Taste and serve
Taste for salt. The beans should taste deeply of themselves, of the toasted leaf, and of the asiento. Spoon onto a warm clay plate, scatter crumbled queso fresco across the top, and serve with totopos or warm tortillas. These are the beans that go on a tlayuda before the meat. They are also a side, a breakfast, a dinner with an egg on top. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Chef Tips
- •Asiento is the difference between Oaxacan refritos and refritos from anywhere else. If you cannot find it, render your own by frying small pieces of pork fatback until the cracklings are deep brown and using the resulting fat with the bits intact. Pure manteca de cerdo will work as a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •The hoja de aguacate must be the criollo Mexican variety. Hass avocado leaves contain a compound that is toxic in cooking quantities. The criollo leaves are sold dried at any decent Mexican mercado or specialty grocery. Smell them before you buy. They should smell like anise and toasted hazelnut.
- •Frijoles colados are better the next day. The flavor deepens and the texture sets up beautifully. Reheat in a cazuela with a splash of water and another spoonful of asiento.
Advance Preparation
- •The cooked beans (before blending) keep refrigerated for up to four days and freeze well for two months. The flavor improves by the second day.
- •Frijoles colados refritos can be made up to three days ahead. Reheat in a cazuela over low heat with a splash of water and a fresh spoonful of asiento to bring back the gloss.
- •Toasted avocado leaves keep in a sealed jar for months and are useful in pot beans, tamales oaxaqueños, and mole negro.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 145g)
Calories
305 calories
Total Fat
8 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
4 g
Cholesterol
8 mg
Sodium
685 mg
Total Carbohydrates
43 g
Dietary Fiber
10 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
15 g
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