"Drunken" Beans

Frijoles Borrachos or Drunken Beans is another of those typical Mexican Sunday Family recipes. There are a lot of variations of this recipe within Mexico: some people add a few more ingredients and call them Frijol en Chipilin, some don't use beer at all, add more meat to them and call them  Frijoles Charros, these last ones being the most common ones. However the use of beer gives this dish a really good flavor and lets face it: makes it a bit more exotic! The original recipe asks for some chorizo or pork chops but I have left them out to make it a bit lighter. As for the beer, Negra Modelo (a rich dark Mexican beer) is hands down the best beer to use in this recipe, but any other beer will do, preferably a dark one. 

Ingredients:

• 250 gr dry pinto or black beans
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 tomatoes finely chopped
• 2 serrano peppers finely chopped (you can also use jalapeños)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• salt to taste
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 can of your favorite beer (negra modelo works best if you can get it)
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 150g bacon, chopped
• Enough water to cook the beans (this will depend on how watery you want your beans to get)

Directions:

1. Rinse and clean the beans, making sure to remove any stones they might have.
2. Soak the beans overnight in water.
3. Cook the beans in a low pressure pan for 25 minutes or 2 hours in a normal pan; drain the beans and save most of the water (again it's up to you how much water you use).
4. Heath a skillet or a pan on medium heath and bake the onion till transparent, add the tomatoes, peppers and cilantro.
5. Allow it to cook for a few minutes and add the beer; let it cook for a little while and add the water, season with salt and lower the heath. 
6. Cook for 20-25 minutes.
7. Serve with extra cilantro, onions, chopped peppers or avocado and a wedge of lime.