Just Right Beans

I cook four medium potatoes .. clean and do not peal. As I take them out of the water after 15 minutes (3,800 Feet Idaho) .. I use the hot potato water to start my beans. Sometimes I throw an extra potato in and leave it in with the beans .. smashed up. I do 1/4 inch slices of these refrigerated potatoes fried in my “slant Griswold #7 cast iron skillet” .. always heat your skillet for seven minutes on low before adding food. Turn the heat up when you add the food .. the skillet will be Non Stick.

I use only Maya Coba or Yellow or Peruviano. They soak faster and cook faster and have much better taste than any bean I have ever eaten.

I have a Mexican Food Place .. I get dried Guajillo and Arbol Chili. I take two Guajillo and one Arbol and destem, and break up whole into the water, add one and one half tsp of Cumin, tsp salt and three hands full of beans and stir gently to mix flavors .. put a lid on and turn off the heat and let them coast down for four hours.

I’m usually up about 4 AM and turn the heat on and in two hours when I get up at 6 AM .. the house smells like little Mexico. Stir the beans gently. They are ready to eat .. I make fresh flour tortillas and butter and salt them to sop up the beans.

My next project is to cook a Cornish game hen in there with hominy added, no beans or very few. I think it will be a winner.

The Guajillo “Wa hee O” are not hot but very flavorful. If you don’t like heat .. don’t use the Arbols. They are heat. If you think you don’t like heat use an Arbol later and take the seeds and dividers out and work your way into chili. You will be making this stronger and stronger if you cook it every couple of weeks during the first year.

If you do not use Cumin .. throw all your chili peppers away .. they are absolutely no good without the magic of Cumin. If your beans don’t smell like old Mexico .. you are doing something wrong.