Cuban Black Beans Recipe

We moved to a city that thinks all Spanish people are Mexicans and cook spicy.  I have endlessly told people that Cuban/Spanish cooking isn't spicy across the board.  In fact most common dishes don't have a lick of heat in them.  Hispanics cuisine is so widely varied it's amazing at the span of the dishes ranging from meats, heat index and ingredients.  Cuban cooking tends to be very island influenced cooking from Spain.  Island as in use of citrus and tropical herbs like Cilantro etc.

Below is a beloved staple that can be find in most Cuban households in Miami.  Because I live in a place that is limited in finding my "ethnic" ingredients, I have to use what's available to me locally. If I still lived in Miami, the recipes would be very different.  However I made do with that I have and it's still tasty.  * Will lead you to the notes/ingredients link at the end of the recipe.

Black Beans from canned, Feeds 6

2 cans of plain black beans, rinsed.
2 cans of water
1/2 cup of cooking wine *
Olive oil, 1 tbsp
1 onion, coarsely diced
1/2 red pepper, coarsely diced
2  cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp of EACH onion powder, garlic powder, oregano and salt.*
1/4 tsp of cumin
1 packet of Sazon Goya con Azafaron*

Dash of vinegar OR lime

In a sauce pan, add olive oil and put the heat on medium.  Start chopping onion and add to the oil.  Let it cook till translucent.  Add pepper, garlic and bay leaf.  Warming the bay leaf will help it release it's flavor.  Stir through for about 5 minutes or till soft.  Then add spices and let it cook till fragrant.  About 1 minute.  Then turn up the heat to medium high and add the bans and liquids but NOT the lime/vinegar.  Stir well and bring to a boil.  Then once it's bubbling up, simmer to a high low.  About 3 on my stove.  You want it to bubble lightly on the surface but not boiling.  You will want to cook this for about 20 minutes which is perfect as this is when you can start your rice cooking.  Both will be ready at the same time.  The liquids should reduce by half.  Just before ser
ving, mash up the beans against the side of the pan to thicken.  Add vinegar or lime in it to brighten the flavors, stir and taste for salt.  Serve over rice.

To make with dried beans:
1 bag of black beans, picked and rinsed.

You can soak beans overnight in room temperature water OR place beans in a pot of boiling water and cover tightly for 1 hour on medium high.  Drain beans and rinse.  Use in recipe above but with 6 cups of water along with the rest of the ingredients and cover for one hour.  Then remove lid and let it reduce on medium till softened.  All in all about an hour and half.  You can speed this up by putting everything in the pressure cooker and cooking over medium for 30-45 minutes.  This is still with the beans that have been softened in the first step.

Cubans tend to use both fresh and dried spices in cooking.  Both give flavors in different ways despite it being the "same" spice.

Links to ingredients for preview so you can see the brand/texture etc for your next shopping trip.  These can be found locally at ethnic grocery stores if you can't find them in your grocery store.  The spices, if you can't find Badia, don't buy granulated or fine powder.:

Sazon Goya con Azafaron

Edmundo Cooking Wine

Badia Onion Powder

Badia Garlic Powder

Badia Oregano