Traditional Cuban Black Beans

Ingredients

• Black Beans

  Dried black beans - Great Value

  2 ½ cup or 350g

• Water

  Plain, clean water

  9 cup or 2.13kg

• Onions

  Raw

  1 ½ cup, chopped or 240g

• Salt

  Table

  3 tsp or 18g

• Green bell pepper

  Sweet, green, raw

  1 ½ cup, chopped or 224g

• Garlic

  Raw

  3 clove or 9g

• Peppercorn

  Whole peppercorns, black

  ½ tsp or 1g

• Olive oil

  Salad or cooking

  5 tbsp or 68g

• Oregano

  Spices, dried

  1 tsp, leaves or 1g

• Cumin

  Spices, cumin seed

  1 tsp, ground or 3g

• Spices Whole Bay Leaves

  Compliments

  1 leaves or 0.5g

• Red wine vinegar

  3 tbsp or 45g

• Red wine

  Alcoholic beverage, table

  6 fl oz or 176g

Directions

1. Cover dry beans with water and let stand covered overnight. Drain and discard water.
2. Place the black beans in a large 6-quart saucepan. Add 9 cups water and 1 tablespoon olive oil -- this will prevent the beans from foaming. Bring the beans to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until the beans are tender, about 1 hour. NOTE: Do not add salt to the beans when they are cooking. Salt at this stage of the game will make your beans very tough. You may also cook the beans in a pressure cooker. (If you do, you can skip the overnight soaking.) Follow the manufacturer's directions for exact times, but our pressure cooker takes about 20 to 25 minutes to cook the beans completely. Whichever method you use, saucepan or pressure cooker, do not drain the cooking water from the cooked beans.
3. Meanwhile, chop onion and green pepper. Mash the garlic with salt and peppercorns in a mortar and pestle.
4. Sauté the onions and green pepper in olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add mashed garlic and sauté another minute or so.
5. Add the cooked beans, oregano, cumin, bay leaf, vinegar, and wine. Cover and simmer over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove bay leaf.
6. Some cooks -- including us -- like to thicken the beans by taking about 1 cup of beans and mashing them to make a thick paste. Mix the mashed beans back into the pot.
7. Add additional salt and pepper to taste.
8. Stir in the sugar; then drizzle a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over the beans. Immediately cover the pot, remove from heat, and let stand for 10 minutes.
9. Serve the by now fantastically prepared black beans over white rice. You may garnish the beans with cilantro and chopped white onions. Not only do they look good presented this way, they taste even better than they look.