Simply Refried
 

I finally stumbled upon making restaurant style refried beans after making them for decades. You can use a number of different types of beans for your recipe. Pinto, Peruvian, or black beans.

First you wash the beans to get any dirt or foreign material out. Then you cover with water to soak over night. Drain off water and recover with water and essentially boil till soft. Do not salt as it takes longer to make soft.

The rest are variations for flavor. I use a smoked Hamhock for flavor along with a couple of bay leaves and cloves of garlic. You can quarter an onion and some chopped chili's. Instead of water you can use Chicken stock or even beer. It is up to you for the flavor profile that you like?

After the beans are soft you put some Lard, bacon fat or vegetable oil in a heavy skillet along with a portion of the beans, salt to taste and fry them.

At this point the way I have been doing them is to use a potatoe masher to mash them to a coarse consistency. You can add a bit of bean cooking liquid for the consistency that you like. You can melt some cheese over them while still in the pan frying.

What I have done differently this time out is to put the whole batch of beans (less the Hamhock and bay leaves etc) and some liquid in a blender and puree them till smooth. Then I fried a portion in some Lard, letting them boil off the liquid till I get the consistency I desired. I think I am going to do it this way from now on end.

I used Peruvian beans which gives a very soft and creamy bean. I also used a touch of cumin and chili powder for flavoring.

I have always mashed or blended some of the beans in the pot when cooking them. I agree that doing this before frying them works best but I wouldn't take them all the way to a puree. A hot pan with lots of fat in it helps, too. People probably underestimate how much fat is in refried beans...

I started making mine like this guy and they are true, identical to the restaurant, style beans. The secret is cooking the onions in the lard until they are black. Gives the beans a smoky flavor that no spice or herb can give the beans. And of course, adding enough of the bean cooking liquid to the beans while 'mashing' them to make them sort of thin.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YcdKJhZcWDY" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Do you ever add the onions to the beans or do you just cook the onions in the oil and the oil then imparts the onion flavor to the beans?

Most of us cook the beans with a fair quantity of onion and garlic in it already. What he was doing in the video was infusing the fat (probably lard) with the flavor of the caramelized onions. Most Mexicans remove the onion shown above, before mashing the beans.

Interesting. Carmelized onions are truly one of the God's gifts to us.

Just infuse the lard with the onion. You get all the flavor of them but without the chunks. You can leave them in but I like my beans smooth so I discard them after I'm done with em.

You can do this in 30-40 minutes in a pressure cooker. No soaking required. Just use a potato masher afterwards. I add garlic and chili powder.

I’ve never bought lard in my life. Maybe I should.

Lard, duck fat, chicken fat, butter, olive oil, avocado oil... all have their uses.

Fat freezes well...

Try to get some rendered by a butcher. It’s much better than the one pound super processed bricks you find at the grocery.
When I was a kid we always had lard cans around. They were 5 gallon tinned cans that my folks brought home the lard from a butchered hog in.

https://www.lehmans.com/product/tin-lard-cans/?utm_term=H605344&zmam=32933335&zmas=1&zmac=1&zmap =H605344&partner_id=bcbgoog&utm_source=google&utm_ medium=cpc&utm_campaign=NB_PLA_AllProducts_GOOG&ut m_term=shopping&utm_content=s1qLlR6Iw_dt%7Cpcrid%7 C54869971724%7Cpkw%7C%7Cpmt%7C%7C&&gclid=EAIaIQobC hMIgpXO1MCz2QIVR57ACh3bVAUqEAQYASABEgJMO_D_BwE

Also pie crust with lard instead of Crisco.

I have done that.