Beans: Perparation, Cooking, & Eating

Beans.

A main staple of our diet. 

We eat them at least once a day.  A lot of people eat them three times a day.

The preparation process for beans here is different than in the states.

Heck, there I would just open a can.  But even if you cook your beans there are a few extra steps here than there are there...

You buy the beans by the pound from people on the street.  They put them in a plastic bag for you.

You get them home and have to sort thru them.

Beans that look like they're starting to grow a little,

beans that have holes in them,

beans that have split apart,

little rocks,

little sticks,

and bugs...

Now..... I, in all my ethnocentric food storage ways thought that we would get some buckets and buy a bunch of beans, put them in the buckets and then use them. 

We bought the buckets, but didn't get around to buying a bunch of beans... just a couple of pounds... and put them in the buckets.  About a week later I go to get some beans out and quickly have to put the lid back on.  There were a bunch of bugs.  I gave the bucket to Marco to deal with... 

So, once you get the beans sorted you wash them.

and you wash them again

and yet again.

Three times is what I've been taught.

Put the clean beans into a pot with clean water and a few cloves of garlic.

Then cook them for a few hours.... but make sure to check them every so often, you really don't want to run out of water, which is really easy to do. 

Once they are cooked through add salt to taste.

Now, here a LOT of people don't have refrigeration.  Instead of cooking new beans everyday, which would be a total hassle, what people do is they cook a few days worth and then bring them to a boil once a day to keep them from going bad. 

Like I mentioned before beans are eaten very frequently.  A few different ways we've had beans:

whole, in their soup with cheese (similar to cojita) & cream (crema/sour cream)

whole, fried* with tomato & onion

whole, in their soup, cold, with cheese & cream

blended

blended with tomato & onion

blended and then fried*

blended and then fried* with tomato & onion

*when I say fried there are different levels of friedness.  Sometimes just a little oil is used to keept he beans from sticking, other times a LOT of oil is used and the beans come away crumbly.

We generally have the prior, just a little oil.... and then depending on how long you let them cook will give you the consistency you want.