Black Beans and Mexican rice

These pictures were taking during my first Mexican cooking lesson from our maid Berinice. I wanted her to show me the basics, and I regret not measuring exactly everything she used. First we prepared black beans in the pressure cooker. Here is a rough explanation of how we did it.

Sort 1/2 K (about 1 lb) of black beans. Make sure there are no rocks or dirt. Rinse with warm water. Put the beans in the pressure cooker with just a little bit of onion, some epazote leaves, and a clove of garlic. Add water - basically it is 1 part dry beans to 4 parts water and I don't really measure at all. Add a few Tablespoons oil. Cook on high for about 50 minutes. In Mexico City, we are about 8000 ft above sea level so you may be okay with a shorter cooking time. When they are finished season with Knorr Suiza - or what we call chicken bouillon, and salt. If you want some refried, you can use the liquid they cooked in and smush them in a frying pan, without having to add extra fat. Epazote is a very common spice used it Mexico. It has a very strong smell, somewhere between tires and licorice.

Note, I now (7 months later) cook my beans differently. I use the same quantities, 1/2 Kilo black beans and add water up to the 10 cup mark on my pressure cooker. I next add the end of an onion (or a scrap that won't be used for salsa or something else), the stems of cilantro, 1-2 cloves of garlic and and about 3 T olive oil. When it's finished, I take out the chunk of onion, the garlic and the cilantro stems. I scoop out the bean and some of the liquid and season them with some freshly chopped cilantro, salt, a little knorr suiza, and chipotle juice (the juices from a can of chipotles - just for a little flavor) or I use dried chipotle powder. Cilantro gives it more of a Carribean bean flavor, and the chipotle gives it a nice undertone. We always have these in the fridge and I make a batch each week.

I made rice with Berinice and noted 1) Mexicans are NOT afraid to use a lot of oil 2) FRESH ingredients are always used. I took horrible notes during this cooking session. What I remember is that she soaked, regular long-grain rice for 30 minutes in warm water, then rinsed it. Next she covered the bottom of my pot with oil and fried the rice until it looked golden brown like this - for about 10 minutes. You have to constantly stir. Meanwhile, she cut the stems off of the tomatos (roma, because they are much cheaper than large tomatos - see above), cut them and half and put them in the blender with about 1/4 of a small white onion, and 2 cloves of garlic. She covered the tomatos with water and blended this well. For this type of rice, the tomatos then become part of the liquid used to cook the rice. Just follow the regular rice porportions and add more water to the mixture if necessary (about 1:2, rice tomatos). In the US, I had made Spanish rice several times, but with canned tomatos. This is much taster, but I have to admit, this type of rice does give me heartburn :o(. Ok where was I, after the rice is nice and golden brown add the tomato-water mixture. Turn the flame down to low, cover the rice and wait for the water to evaporate and the rice to cook - about 15-20? minutes. Also, she added 2 large jalapenos, uncut to the rice before to give it extra flavor.