Drunken Beans
Slow-cooked beans and tomatoes with a shot of Tequila and Mexican beer
Servings: 6 people
Ingredients
- 10 10cm celery sticks
- 3 medium carrots
- 2 medium onions
- 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
- ½ chopped jalapeno chilli less or more according to taste
- 15 ml oil
- 5 ml salt
- 2 tbsp taco spice
- 5 ml smoked paprika
- 1 shot Tequila (30ml)
- 1 tin tomatoes whole or chopped
- 3 tins pinto beans I use sugar beans or barlotti beans if I can't find pinto beans in Pretoria
- 1 bottle Mexican beer Preferably a dark type
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro (coriander)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
- Chop the celery, carrots and onions very finely or blitz in a food processor until very fine.
- Fry the celery, carrots, onions, garlic and jalapeno in the oil in a Dutch Oven or a heavy-based pot with a tight-fitting lid for 3 - 5 minutes.
- Add the taco spice, smoked paprika and salt and stir-fry until fragrant.
- Add the shot of Tequila and stir, allowing the alcohol to evaporate.
- Add the tomatoes, breaking up the pieces into smaller bits if you are using whole tomatoes.
- Add the drained beans and bring the contents to a simmer.
- Add the beer and get the mixture to a slow boil again.
- Put the lid on the pot and cook in the oven for an hour.
- Remove from the oven and correct the seasoning adding more salt if necessary.
- Serve with chopped cilantro on Nachos, as a vegetarian tortilla filling or as a side dish.
Notes
- The alcohol in the tequila and beer evaporates with cooking and just leaves a flavourful taste and won't actually make the beans or the consumers drunk!
- The slow-cooking process gives the dish amazing, deep flavours, but if you do not have time it can be cooked on the stove-top for 20 - 30 minutes.
- This is also a great recipe for a slow-cooker. Follow the recipe on the stove-top up to the point that you add the tomatoes. Then transfer to a pre-heated slow-cooker and continue adding the remaining ingredients.Cook for 3 hours on high, or 6 hours on low.