CUBAN BLACK BEANS AND RICE

CUBAN BLACK BEANS AND RICE

These Cuban black beans are made right, that is, from scratch. If you think cooking dried beans is troublesome, you are partly right. You must plan ahead and do not want to eat for the next 30 minutes.

The key to these delicious Cuban black beans and rice is sofrito - a combination of stewed bell peppers, onions and garlic with caraway seeds, oregano and smoked paprika. Sofrito is mixed in a pan with beans in the cooking process so that they can soak up all this aromatic seasoning.

While the beans are boiling, you can make a pot of rice according to the directions on the package. If you really want to use the Caribbean style, you can also make from pataca or toast: fried green bananas.

Ingredients

½ pounds (225 grams) of dried black beans soaked overnight or all day

1 liter (4 cups) of water

½ green pepper, finely diced, divided

½ medium onion, finely diced, divided

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons of olive oil

½ teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

¾ teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon of salt, plus more to taste

1 tablespoon of sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar)

½ tablespoon sugar

Long grain rice, serve

Instructions

1. Drain and rinse the soaked beans and put them in a pot of water, half diced green pepper, ¼ diced onion, 2 cloves of chopped garlic and bay leaf.
2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to minimum and cover the pan with a lid. Simmer for 45 minutes.
3. After about 35 minutes, start making sofrito. In a saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat and add the remaining onions. Fry until tender, add the remaining green pepper. When the green pepper is soft, add the remaining garlic and fry for another minute or until the garlic is cooked. Add caraway, oregano and paprika and fry, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds or until the spices are fragrant.
4. Add this sofrito to the beans along with salt, cover and cook for another 30 minutes.
5. You can start boiling water to cook rice at that moment.
6. Finally, add the vinegar and sugar to the beans and cook for another 15 minutes. If it seems that there is a lot of water in the grains, you can cook them open this time, otherwise cover them again. You can optionally transfer part of the beans to a blender and stir the mixed beans back into the pan (I did not).
7. Try and add salt as needed (I added another ½ teaspoon). Serve the rice in bowls with black beans on top.

This article is adapted form this site.