Frijoles Colados are pureed beans that are seasoned by being cooked and thickened a bit over sauteed onion. If you keep on cooking the Frijoles Colados about 15 minutes more, you get to to have a smooth version of the Refried Beans.

BASIC PUREED BEANS
Makes about 5 cups

INGREDIENTS
1 portion of Frijoles de Olla or Beans from the Pot or 5 cups precooked beans and 2 cups of cooking liquid (including their liquid and enough water to make 2 cups)

TO PREPARE
In batches, place beans and their cooking liquid in the blender or food processor and puree until smooth.

They are like a dish made in between the Bean Puree and the Refried Beans. If you continue to cook the Frijoles Colados, you get to a consistency of a smooth version of Refried Beans.

FRIJOLES COLADOS
Makes about 4 cups

INGREDIENTS
1 portion basic bean puree
1/2 white onion, chopped
3 tablespoons safflower or corn oil
Kosher or sea salt to taste

TO PREPARE
In a large saute pan over medium heat, pour the oil and heat until hot but not smoking, about 1 to 2 minutes.  Add the onions and let them saute for 3 to 4 minutes, until they have softened, become translucent, and have started to slightly brown along the edges.

Add a cupful of the basic bean puree at a time, over the sauteed onion, and let them season for 3 to 4 minutes.

I will give you two tips, included in the recipe below, if you make them at home:

1. Don’t add the salt in the beginning or it will toughen the beans. Add it at least after an hour of cooking when the beans are already a bit soft.

2. You don’t need to soak them the night before cooking. Yes, that helps to reduce the cooking time, but it is not necessary. If you do soak them, don’t soak them more than 12 to 14 hours, because they may begin to ferment and you will finish with a Chinese rather than Mexican tasting dish.

I like making them with either Black beans, traditional in the South of Mexico, Peruvian beans, which are more used in the Central part of Mexico, or with Pinto beans which are more customary in the North. The latter ones have a creamier feel and more subtle flavor.

Traditionally Frijoles de la Olla are cooked in an earthenware pot. It does impart a special Pueblo style flavor.

Many cooks in Mexican kitchens make them in pressure cookers, as it cuts the time almost in half, but I am a bit weary of them, as I have seen one too many explode!! Plus, cooking beans only requires you to be home for a certain amount of time, you don’t need to do anything but peek in every once in a while to make sure that there is still enough liquid.

I cook mine sometimes in an old earthenware pot and sometimes in a normal large cooking pot. They both work very well.

FRIJOLES DE OLLA
Makes about 5 cups beans and 2 cups cooking broth

INGREDIENTS
1 pound or about 2 1/4 cups, Pinto, Peruvian or Black beans
1/2 white onion, about 1/2 pound, peeled of outer skin
10 cups of water, may add more if necessary
1 tablespoon kosher or sea salt, or to taste

TO PREPARE
Rinse the beans in cold water and drain. Place them in a big heavy pot and cover with enough water to come up to at least 3″ above the top of beans, about 10 cups of water. Incorporate the onion and bring to a boil. Let the beans simmer, partially covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, until the beans are soft and then add the salt. Don’t add the salt in the beginning or it will toughen the beans.

Let them continue simmering, for about another 15 minutes, or until the beans are so soft they come apart if you hold one between your fingers, and the broth has thickened to a soupy consistency. If the beans are not yet soft and the broth is drying out, add more water. Before eating, remove the cooked onion with a slotted spoon.

You can make the Refried beans in a traditional way, which is by mashing the Frijoles de Olla in the pan with onion that has been sauteed in lard, or you can substitute for oil. You can also make quicker and smoother Refried beans, by skipping the mashing part, and placing the Frijoles de Olla in the blender, to make a smooth Bean puree that you can then thicken and season.

Aside from a side, Refried beans are used to make many things like Tortas, Molletes, Tacos, Quesadillas and Dips.

Refried beans are absolutely delicious on their own, with corn tortillas and pickled jalapenos.  They also can be turned into many dishes such as charros beans.

REFRIED BEANS
Makes about 4 cups

You can choose if you want your beans the traditional way, which takes a little bit more effort as you have to mash them as they season and thicken. Or you can opt for an easier and faster way, which doesn’t have that rough textured feel, but it is much smoother.

For traditional refried beans:

INGREDIENTS
5 cups Beans from the Pot or Frijoles de Olla, along with 2 cups of their cooking liquid (or 5 cups precooked beans with 2 cups their liquid and water to make 2 cups)
1/2 cup white onion, chopped
3 tablespoons safflower oil
Kosher or sea salt to taste

TO PREPARE
In a large saute pan over medium heat, pour the oil and heat until hot but not smoking, about 1 to 2 minutes.  Add the onions and let them saute for about 3 to 4 minutes, until they have softened, become translucent and have started to slightly brown along the edges.

Add a cupful of beans at a time, over the sauteed onion, and mash with a masher, like a potato masher, until you have added all of the beans.

Let them season and thicken for about 8 to 10 minutes, and continue mashing and stirring, until they have achieved a thick puree consistency and are somewhat pasty looking.

For smooth and easy refried beans:

INGREDIENTS
6 cups basic bean puree
3 tablespoons safflower or corn oil
1/2 cup white onion, chopped

TO PREPARE
In a large saute pan over medium high heat, pour the oil and heat until hot but not smoking, about 1 to 2 minutes.  Add the onions and let them saute for about 3 to 4 minutes, until they have softened, become translucent and have started to slightly brown along the edges.

Add the bean puree over the sauteed onion, and let them season and thicken for about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  If the beans are bubbling way too much, lower the heat a little to medium-low heat.  Let them continue thickening, until they have achieved a thick puree consistency and are somewhat pasty looking.  It depends on your liking, some people like them thicker and some people like them with a softer consistency.  While it depends on how you like them, they are mostly cooked until they can hold a shape when scooped with a spoon.

Charring tomatoes
Charring tomatoes, aside from concentrating and deepening their flavor, brings out their sweetness and juices.

To char or roast tomatoes, you can either place them directly on a grill,  or on an already hot comal or griddle over medium heat, for about 10 minutes, turning them around a couple times. However, for me the easiest method is to place them in a single layer in a baking sheet or shallow pan under the broiler for 7 to 10 minutes. Turn them once in the process.

You know tomatoes are ready once they are completely cooked through and mushy, their skin is charred, blistered and wrinkled, and juices have started to come out.

Charring Garlic
Place unpeeled and pricked cloves (so they don’t make popping sounds) on the already hot comal over medium heat. Turn form time to time until it is charred on the outside and soft but not burnt on the inside, about 6 minutes. You can also place under the broiler for 3 to 4 minutes.

First, to choose them, you want paddles that are bright green and although soft, not limp. The smaller the paddle the more tender it will be, but large ones are delicious too (continue for more information and photos).

To clean them, if it’s your first time, you may want to use plastic gloves. Rinse tunder cold water being careful with the thorns. Nopales are persnickety, their thorns are almost invisible, but a good clue is that wherever there is a bump there may be a thorn. Then, using a vegetable peeler or small sharp knife, pretty much as if they were asparagus, peel away the bumps and thorns, you may want to lean the nopales against a chopping board, and then rinse again. No need to peel off all of the outer dark green skin, in fact, try to keep as much as you can.

Lay the paddle flat on a chopping board and trim about ¼ inch off the edges and about ½ inch of the thick base. Then slice in any shape or size, or keep it whole if it will be grilled or asada or used as a mounting base. I usually cut them into little squares and rectangles as I mostly use them for salads and soups.

As for how to cook them, there are many ways. A main concern for newcomers is how to get rid of that gelatinous liquid they exude as they cook. Variations go from cooking them in salted water to adding elements that supposedly help, like tomatillo husks, scallion tops, baking soda and even a copper coin. Whichever way you boil them, once cooked you have to drain and rinse them many times.

My favorite way to cook them, aside from grilling them, is to sear them in a skillet with a bit of oil for a few minutes and then let them cook covered until all of that liquid comes out, then uncover until all that liquid cooks off. Pretty much like cooking mushrooms. Not only does it work, but it also adds a nice seared flavor with merely any oil and you don’t have to drain and rinse many times. See below for precise directions, and give it a go!

BASIC COOKING FOR CACTUS PADDLES

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons safflower or corn oil
3 1bs fresh nopales, rinsed, cleaned and diced
Salt to taste

TO PREPARE
Rinse the fresh cactus paddles under cold water, being careful not to prick your fingers with the small thorns on its surface. Using a vegetable peeler or small sharp knife, peel away the darker bumps where thorns grow, as well as the thorns, trying not to peel off all the outer dark green skin.

Lay the paddles flat on a chopping board, then trim around approximately 1/4 inch of the edges and 1/2 inch of the thick base. Once cleaned, rinse and dice into 1/2 to 1 inch-sized squares, to your liking.

Heat the oil in a thick, large-sized skillet (one that has a lid, since we will need it later on) over medium-high heat. Add the diced cactus, stir in the salt and stir for a minute or two. Place the lid on the skillet.

Reduce the heat to medium and let the cactus cook and sweat for about 20 minutes, until it has exuded a gelatinous liquid that will begin to dry out. Take the lid off the skillet, stir and make sure most of that gelatinous substance has dried up. If it hasn’t, let the cactus cook for a few more minutes until it does. Let the cactus cool and they are ready to go in a thousand directions including inside of a tortilla.

Comales were traditionally made, for centuries, with clay. In the countryside there are plenty of homes and fondas that still use clay comales and tend to have one for making tortillas and corn masa foods and another for charring or toasting vegetables and spices (continue for more information and photos).

Here you can see the three different types of comales. In the back is a rectangular teflon, followed by an aluminum comal which is happily showing seasoning and aging signs, and up front is an old cast iron comal. Whichever comal you have, clean it lightly, with warm water, soap and a gentle sponge, so that if it is cast iron or aluminum it will slowly season and if it is teflon it will not scratch.

Here is a more close up view…

Comales tend to be passed down through generations and are deeply esteemed. The comal that I treasure the most, up front in the above photos, comes from my mothers’ kitchen. It has about of 40 years of cooking life, has a beautiful black color with dark brown areas and it is not completely flat. It has dents, chips and texture developed through time and travels, which speak its history every time I cook in it.

When I went to Yucatán in December of 2008, I got a very large silver colored aluminum comal which is already starting to develop blackened areas throughout, but it will take a while for it to be seasoned and to flavor foods as intensely as my older comal.

Comales are used for many things such as cooking tortillas, sopes, quesadillas and other related masa foods; charring tomatoes, tomatillos, fresh chiles, onion and garlic; toasting seeds, nuts, dried chiles and other spices; cooking vegetables like nopales or catcus paddles, corn, big texas style onions and scallions, among other things.

You can substitute a comal with any other kind of cast iron plate or griddle or a heavy dry skillet, preferably non-stick if making tortillas.

However, there are benefits from having your own comal.  For one thing, as other Mexican kitchen tools such as molcajetes, aluminum and cast iron comales age with you, season with time and retain a memory of the flavors from their cooking life that permeates future foods cooked in them. Another benefit is that the comal infuses food with a rustic griddle flavor, lighter than a grill or smoker, but peculiar, rich and deep in its own way.

Comales are such an integral part of Mexican cuisine and culture that a town of one of Mexico’s most famous novels is named after it. If you like reading, I recommend it! It is called Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo. It tells the story of a man who travels to the hometown of his dying mother, and along the way he runs into a ghost town called Comala, which translates to a place that makes comales. The fictional town of Comala (though there is a real town called Comala too, if not more…) has probably become larger than the novel and even the author in Mexican folklore and culture. It is said that the author gave it this name because the fictional town was eternally burning hot, just like a comal, which is typically used for long periods of time, many times a day and takes a long while to cool off.

COOKED SALSA VERDE

INGREDIENTS 
2 pounds green tomatillos, husks removed and rinsed
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 chiles serranos, or more to taste
1 cup cilantro leaves
1/4 cup white onion, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons safflower or corn oil

TO PREPARE
Place the tomatillos along with the garlic cloves and the chiles serrranos in a pot and cover with water. Place over high heat until it comes to a boil. Simmer at medium for about 10 minutes, or until tomatillos change their color from a bright to a pale green, are cooked through and are soft but are not coming apart.

Place tomatillos, garlic and chile (you may add one chile first) and 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid in the blender and puree until smooth. Incorporate the cilantro leaves, onion and salt and process again. Taste for salt and add more if need be. Also taste for heat, you may add the other chile in pieces until you reach your desired heat level.

Heat the oil in a pot over medium heat. Once it is hot but not smoking, pour in the sauce and bring it to a boil. Simmer over medium heat for 6 to 7 minutes, until it thickens a bit and deepens its flavor and color. Turn off the heat.

Once it cools down, you may store it in a closed container in the refrigerator for weeks. However, the heat level of the sauce will diminish as the days go by.

Called cazo or olla de cobre in Spanish, Mexican cooks swear by these hand-hammered copper pots to make special things, such as carnitas for savory food, but mostly for all sorts of sweets.

This may be partly because copper is one of the most effective materials to transfer heat with even distribution as well as steady intensity, throughout its entire cooking surface. Yet since copper is a reactive metal, and most cazos de cobre are handmade and not lined with tin, copper pots are not good to rely on for everyday cooking. A copper pot is best suited as a specialty pot, for special things and special occasions. And of course, it looks beyond divine in any kitchen. You can, of course, look for copper pots that are lined with tin or stainless steel, and they in turn, need special care…

According to food science expert Harold McGee in his book On Food and Cooking, copper has a “high affinity for oxygen and sulfur, and forms a greenish coating when exposed to air.” To ensure that your copper pot is as clean as can be, that doesn’t corrode, and it maintains its pretty luster, you need to give it a good maintenance and cleaning regimen. As much as it sounds serious, it is quite easy! The woman who sold it to me taught me her method.

Before and after using it, each time, clean it with a sponge and lightly soapy water, rinse it. Then cut a lime in half and sprinkle a generous amount of grainy salt on it, kosher or sea salt will do.

Use the salted lime to polish the pot, squeezing the lime to release the juice as you scrub along. Then just rinse and dry.

You see? It’s simple!

Other methods used to maintain and clean copper pots use another acid instead of lime, such as vinegar. The Culinary Institute of America’s book The Professional Chef suggests adding flour to the acid and salt mix to make a copper cleaning paste. The flour is just added for a more helpful texture of what’s used to clean the pot.

Any method will work as long as you have an acid and a salt. The acid causes a reaction with the copper that erases the stains or discoloration and cleans it and the salt gives you the grittiness to scrub.

The key to making good puff pastry dough, or any flaky dough for that matter, is keeping everything very cold (well the flour and salt are fine at room temp!). You’ll want to cut your butter into chunks while being very cold (continue for more information and photos).

Begin by simply placing your flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Add your chunks of butter and pulse several times (about 10 times) until the butter chunks are reduced to pieces about the size of peas. Feel free to use your hands to feel the mixture to estimate the size of the butter pieces.

Next, slowly pour in the water, make sure it’s very cold (I even put it in the freezer for a few mintues), while pulsing the mixture until a very crumbly dough forms. Here’s a photo of what your dough will look like when it’s ready to turn out…

Turn the crumbly dough out onto a lightly floured surface and carefully gather it together with your hands. Do not knead the dough, as we are actually trying not to form gluten strands.

Puff pastry “puffs” due to a series of rolling, turning, and folding the dough. After you’ve gathered your dough into a single piece, lightly flour a rolling pin and roll it into a somewhat triangular shape.

Now fold the two bottom ends inward to meet, and fold the top end down to make the dough resemble an envelope…

Once you have your envelope, turn the dough a quarter turn clockwise. Roll it out, again; this time into a rectanagular shape. And fold the top and bottom edges in lengthwise to meet in the middle…

Then, fold the whole thing in half…

Now you’ll just turn the dough another quarter turn clockwise and repeat the whole rolling and folding process one more time. Triangle, fold, rectangle, fold, fold again: and you have homemade puff pastry! Wrap and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes and it’s ready to use.

PUFF PASTRY
Yields about 1 1/2lb. puff pastry

INGREDIENTS
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour, plus more for rolling out dough
3/4 lb. very cold butter (3 sticks), cut into chunks
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup very cold water

TO PREPARE
Place flour and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Add the chunks of butter and pulse a few times, until the butter is incorporated in large pieces (about the size of a pea).

Slowly pour in the cold water while pulsing until a very crumbly dough is formed. Turn dough out onto a clean, lightly floured workspace and gently push it together with your hands – do not knead.

Rolling and folding the dough:
1. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out dough into a roughly triangular shape. Use your hands to fold the two bottom tips of the triangle inward and the top down, like an envelope.

2. Turn the dough a quarter-turn clockwise and roll out, again, into a rectangle this time. Fold the two ends lengthwise into the middle to meet. Then fold the dough in half across.

Turn the dough another quarter-turn clockwise, and repeat steps 1 and 2 above one more time, turning the dough a quarter-turn clockwise each time.

Wrap the puff pastry in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. Refrigerate for at least 45 minutes before using.