frijoles refritos

I am in no way CLOSE to being of Mexican decent but I do love a great Mexican meal! Our family goes through a LOT of refried beans for various reasons so I thought I would try my hand at making my own at home to freeze for future use and to avoid the whole processed food approach too.


colander
heavy stock pot
large frying pan
seasonings to taste (I plan on using garlic, salt and pepper and cumin)
1 potato masher

Rinse off beans in colander and make sure there are no stones or loose bits in bean pile.
Let sit in a large stock pot overnight, Since I had about 4 cups of beans I used about 10 cups of water to soak them in as they do expand a lot!

When done soaking, rinse again and then put back in clean stock pot and cover with water. Low boil for about an hour, after that hour is up and adding more water to keep beans covered see if they are soft yet. If they are still hard keep boiling until they are all soft enough to mash by hand.
Pour out excess water leaving just enough to cover the bottom of the beans and to make sure they don't dry out.
Mash with potato masher or large fork, whichever is available.
Place mashed beans into frying pan that has 2 Tbs of (pre heated)olive or canola oil in it. Fry up with seasonings. Don't overdo it as you might burn or over dry them out.
Serve and enjoy!

Optional: cover with cheese or add chilis to beans.

I plan on saving some to serve and freezing some for later use.