My husband amazes me every day, & I'll tell you why! I'm a big fan of bean burritos. I grew up eating them for lunch or some meal. Then in college my roomie Jordan, re-introduced them to me! So now, tortillas and refried beans are not something that we buy much, we've chosen that to be one of the less important foods to buy. Anyway so one night about a month or so ago Sam started making something, which turned out to be refried beans. Then shortly after that he started making something else, tortillas! He said, even though he makes fun of me for it, that he knows I love bean burritos so much he wanted to make these things so that I could have my burritos. Isn't he so sweet? Today I started to try and make the tortillas & my goodness that is not an easy task, it's so hard to roll out the dough but I wanted to put these recipes up just in case you'd like to try, I know my sister Danette wanted the recipe for the refried beans.
Refried Beans:
1lbs or about 2c pinto beans sorted and rinsed
5c water
1-2 med. Sized onions, diced
½-1c hot bacon drippings, butter or lard
Salt, to taste
Chili powder, to taste (we use a LOT of this)
Combine beans and onions in a pan in preheated water. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Cover and remove from heat for 1 hour (or soak beans in cold water overnight). Return to heat, bring to a boil; simmer slowly until beans are very tender, about 3 hours.
Mash beans with a potato masher, and add bacon drippings, butter or lard. Mix well; continue cooking, stirring frequently until beans are thickened and fat is absorbed. Salt and add chili powder to taste (we use lots) Serve or reheat. Makes 6-8 side dish servings, or 5-6 cups.
These freeze well and taste really good, but they don’t taste like canned refried beans so don’t expect it to.
Flour Tortillas:
3c unbleached flour
2tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4-6 Tbsp. vegetable shortening or lard
About 1 ¼c warm water
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Add vegetable shortening or lard. Or use a combination of half lard, half shortening. Use a fork or a pastry cutter to cut in the shortening or just do it the old fashioned way and use your hands.
Next add warm water a little at a time until your dough is soft and not sticky. You do not need very hot water.
Knead the dough for a few minutes.
Now you will pull off pieces of dough to form about 12 small dough balls. Let them rest for at least 10 minutes.
This is a good time to heat up the comal. You will want to set it at medium to high heat. If it is too hot the tortillas will cook too fast.
Now you can roll out the dough with your tortilla rolling pin or palote. It is a good idea to dust each ball with a little flour just before you roll them out. Lay the palote in the center of the dough ball and roll up, center and roll down. It is good to lift the dough and turn it. Again, rolling pin in the center and roll. Roll them out fairly thin.
Lay your tortilla on the hot comal. It takes just a few seconds to cook. Flip to the other side. When they are done it should have lots of nice brown speckles. Place them in a towel. If you would like you can use a tortilla warmer to keep them warm longer. They are ready to be served.
