Friday, January 18, 2008

Venezuelan Black Beans





2 lbs Black beans
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 green pepper
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 1 tsp. cumin
  • 1 bunch of cilantro
  • 1/2 cup of olive oil
  • 3 srtips of bacon
  • 2 0r 3 pork chops

The night before cooking, place beans in a bowl and cover with water and the baking soda. Cover at least an inch as the beans will swell. Cover and let set all night.

The next morning, wash well and rinse thoroughly! Cover again with water. Continue to add water so that they remain covered as they cook. DO NOT SALT! Place the pork chops, cut into cubes in with the beans.

Once the beans are soft, add salt.

In a frying pan, add the olive oil and brown the bacon, chopped onion, green pepper, and chopped garlic. Cook until well browned, almost burnt. Add to the beans along with the cumin.

Place on a low fire and let cook until thickened. About 10 minutes before serving, add the cilantro.

If too soupy, place a few cups of the beans in your blender and then return the blended beans to the bean pot. Cook a few more minutes.

Porfa! Nada de azucar!!!




19 comments:

Liz said...

Rita, hehehe.. I never put sugar in mine.. until I got married :P

It turns out that in his family they do put LOTS of sugar in their beans, so... I have to. But it's brown sugar though.

I don't cook'em with any kind of meat. Sort of vegetarian (because we eat it along with carne mechada!), boil them till soft, then add the salt and sofrito. I put green and red peppers in mine, a clove of garlic, the onion, a dash of 'Carmencita' (spanish yellow coloring), thyme, black pepper, cumin and no cilantro! (again.. the hubby doesn't like it). My batch of sofrito is double.. because I share it with the carne mechada.

YUMMY post!

Rita Loca said...

liz,
I would use pig's feet in place of the pork chops , but that would gross out the gringas!

Theresa's Notes said...

That looks very good, Thanks for posting this for me.

I will be using this recipe a lot. And I'll let you know how it turned out.

Again, Thank you.

TO BECOME said...

I am excited to try the Venezuelan Black Bean recipe but oh, yes, the pigs feet would gross out this gringas!lol. My mother used to love to eat them but......not me. It really kind of makes me sick just thinking about them.

I will continue on, I saw you tell Theresa on your blog that you would give this recipe to her and I have been looking for it. Thanks a lot. We will think of you when we eat them. Have a good day, connie from Texas

Charles said...

We love black bean ANYTHING.

Thanks for a new idea ... We'll try it this weekend.


Yummy

Unknown said...

YUMMO! I surfed over here already thinking about how hungry I am! I've never tried these, but think hubby would approve!

Donnetta said...

Do you serve this as the main part of the meal? Do you add any side dishes with it??

I just may have to try these!!

Rita Loca said...

momrn2;
We always eat it with rice, usually fried plantains, and shredded beef.
Then throughout the week, we eat it as a side dish to just about anything!

Rina said...

black beans go good with rice!! very good. and similar to the Brazilian beans...

Dawn said...

Sounds yummy!

Per yesterday's post - Billary scares me spitless!! Lord, help us!

Mizz E said...

This post is so timely. I've finally felt like cooking again and I do love Black Beans...Thanks.

MK said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
blank said...

I am grossed out by the pigs feet! I have never added sugar to beans -- I wonder if I have eaten beans that had sugar added to them and didn't know?

Now that I'm hungry, and now that I've ignored the house for too long, and the laundry -- I need to make this my last blog for the day -- promise I won't look at the editor where I have large writing project under way -- and get off my butt and get the house things done! Oh and have some breakfast too -- but not beans!

Brenda said...

I will try this! Reminds me a lot of the Cuban black beans, only I don't think they use pork chops.

Abraham said...

Con Azucar es mejor!

Rita Loca said...

Abraham,
No, vale!

FeathersMcGraw said...

I miss this post.

I like your recipe JM, but you know, I sense you don't like sugar on them haha, but the Caracas way, they do exactly the same recipe w/o any meat (pork, bacon) and they put sugar, papelón (molasses?) if possible.

You can put ham on it too.

Every household can have a slightly different variation of the recipe,

Very important, the baking soda is the secret people, don't you ever forget! :)

Paris Wells said...

Can you use the raw produce? http://venezuelan-black.co.uk/

Rita Loca said...

Paris, I always have.