This recipe, adapted from Rick Bayless is a great way to start the New Year.
1 cup dry black beans soaked at least 4-6 hours in cold water; throw out the soaking water and new water and cook in unsalted water for about 2 hours until tender.
Use a rib of fresh fennel chopped (fennel which has an anise taste adds a special undertone to the beans.
1 long chorizo (mild or hot) crumbled and lightly fried in 1 TBS cooking oil
1 medium onion diced
Salt, about 1/2 teaspoon
12 corn tortillas (plus a few extra, in case some break)
About 3/4 cup Serrano-Tomatillo Salsa (optional)
3/4 cup (about 3 ounces) crumbled Mexican queso fresco, dry goat cheese or salted farmer’s cheese
3 tablespoons roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 To make the sauce- put soaked beans in large pan cover with fresh water; bring to a slow boil and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Do not salt them until after they are thoroughly cooked.
Smash the beans with a bean masher or put into a food processor or blender. Return to the pan and add water to the consistency of a creamy soup. Season with salt.
2. Prepare tortillas by taking them from the package (presuming you are not making them from scratch) and placing them in the microwave to cook at about 30 seconds for three tortillas. Do this until all tortillas have been softened.
Lightly fry the chorizo in a skillet over medium low heat until it is done. Drain off all at.
3. Roll the tortillas with a generous 2 TBs of Chorizo and a slice of Oaxaca Cheese- if you do not have access to Oaxaca cheese you can use another melting cheese such as Monterey Jack or Mozarella.
Scrape any bean sauce remaining on the plate back into the pot. (If the sauce has thickened, add a little water to get it back to the original consistency.) Quickly bring it to a simmer, spoon it over the folded tortillas (there should be a considerable amount of sauce), strew with the warm chorizo
, splash with the optional salsa, then sprinkle on the crumbled cheese, chopped parsley and the remaining sliced onion. Serve your delicious
enfrijoladas without hesitation--they don’t take well to delays.
Advance Preparation. The black beans can be prepared through Step 1 several days ahead; the chorizo can be cooked, too. Store separately in the refrigerator, covered. Reheat the sauce slowly in a covered pan, thinning if necessary. Warm the chorizo
before heating the tortillas and finishing the dish.
Shortcuts. Though the flavor and color won’t be as nice, the beans could be replaced with 2 drained 15-ounce cans of black beans.
Variations and Improvisation. The avocado leaf (or fennel) could easily be omitted or replaced with 2 or 3 canned chipotles
en adobo or toasted-and-soaked red-black chipotles or
chiles pasillas oaxaquenos (in fact, with the chipotle or
pasilla oaxaqueno you won’t really miss the chorizo--either in the beans or on the top)
. Spooning soft goat cheese onto the tortillas before folding them makes the dish more substantial (you can omit the cheese garnish, if you wish). Bacon, ham or other sausage can replace chorizo;
enfrijoladas are also delicious splashed with Roasted Tomatillo-Chipotle Salsa. In short, with bean sauce and tortillas as a base, you can vary toppings (or fillings) as you like.
Plantain Enfrijoladas with Sour Cream: Prepare the bean sauce, tortillas and chorizo as described in Steps 1 and 2. Fry 1 diced ripe plantain in a little vegetable oil over medium heat until browned. Dip the warmed tortillas in the warm sauce as described in Step 3, filling them with a mixture of the fresh cheese and chorizo
as they are folded into quarters and layed in an ovenproof baking dish. Sauce them, then bake them covered in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes or so, until very hot, then drizzle with a little crema or sour cream thinned with a little milk. Garnish with the fried plantains, onion and parsley.
