Pinto Beans: New Mexican Preparation

Ingredients

• 450 g dried pinto beans, sorted, any shrivelled beans or stones removed, rinsed
• 60 g salt pork or bacon, or an equivalent measure of lard or bacon fat
• 1–2 dried red chiles, whole, stems intact
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• to taste salt, added only when beans are fully soft

Method

1. 1
   Place the sorted, rinsed dried pinto beans in a heavy pot. Do not soak. Cover with cold water by at least 5 cm. Add the salt pork or bacon fat and the whole dried red chiles. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a slow, steady simmer. The surface should show only a gentle, intermittent bubble.
2. 2
   Add the cumin to the simmering pot. The fat in the pot carries the cumin's aromatic compounds through the liquid over the long cook. Continue to simmer, covered, replenishing water as needed to keep the beans submerged. The pot should smell of earthy chile and warm spice within the first hour.
3. 3
   Cook low and slow — this is where the dish lives or dies. The extended cook, and only the extended cook, produces the specific creamy, slightly mealy interior that defines a correctly prepared New Mexican pinto bean. Press a bean between thumb and forefinger at intervals: the bean must yield completely, with no resistant core. Some beans will begin to break down and thicken the pot liquid to a creamy broth; this is correct and desirable.
4. 4
   Only when the beans are completely soft throughout, season with salt to taste. Stir, allow the pot to simmer a further few minutes so the salt is absorbed evenly, then taste again. The broth should be thick, savoury, and faintly smoky from the fat; the whole dried chiles will have softened and surrendered their earthiness without making the pot spicy.