Black Beans With Bacon Recipes

Steps:

• Boil the beans in 9 cups of the water and then let sit for one hour. Drain and set aside.
• Cook the bacon to your desired texture (it can be soft or crisp, whatever you prefer) and drain except for 1/4 cup grease. Coarsely chop the bacon.
• Add the onions and celery to the reserved grease and bacon and saute until soft, do not drain. Add the chicken base or cubes, 4 cups water, beans, bay leaf, salt, pepper, and cloves, and simmer for 2 hours.
• Stir in the tomatoes with their juice. Serve.

Steps:

• Heat a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and bacon. Render fat 2 minutes then add onion and garlic, cook 5 minutes. Add 1 can of beans to the pan and season them with salt, pepper and cumin then smash them with a potato masher, combining them with bacon and onions. When they are combined, add remaining can of beans and combine with smashed beans. Add hot sauce to your taste and serve. Chopped cilantro or scallions and sour cream are optional garnishes to this smash.

Steps:

• Saute bacon until crisp, then set aside.
• Drain all except 1 T bacon grease.
• Saute onion and jalapeno in remaining bacon grease.
• Add all remaining ingredients except bacon and simmer until beans are hot and tomatoes have reduced a bit.
• Top with bacon pieces.
• If you like more spice you can either leave some seeds in the jalapenos or add a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Steps:

• Cut 1 green pepper into 1-inch squares. Smash and peel 4 of the garlic cloves. Put the green pepper and garlic into a large pot with the beans, ham hock, bay leaves and 1 tablespoon salt. Add 2 quarts water and bring to a boil. Cover the pot and simmer until the beans are tender, an hour or more.
• Meanwhile, make a sofrito. Cut the remaining ½ green pepper into ¼-inch dice. Peel and finely chop the remaining garlic. Heat the olive oil in a very large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until it starts to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the green pepper and onion and cook, stirring, until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, jalapeño (leave out the seeds if you don't want it too spicy), oregano, cumin, black pepper and 2 teaspoons salt and stir for another minute. Pour in the vinegar and scrape any browned bits from bottom of pan with a wooden spoon. This is your sofrito.
• When the beans are cooked, discard the bay leaf. Remove and set aside the ham hock and let it cool. Transfer 1 cup of beans to small bowl, mash them into a paste with the back of a fork and return to the pot. Add the sofrito, then the sugar. Pull the meat from the ham hock, leaving behind any white sinew or gristle. Chop the ham into ½-inch pieces and return it to the bean pot.
• Stir the beans well and bring to a boil over medium heat, then lower to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes or so, skimming any foam from the top. Taste for salt and serve with white rice.