Frijoles Negros Oaxaqueños con Hojas de Aguacate

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 5-quart clay cazuela or Dutch oven
• •Cast iron comal for toasting hojas de aguacate and chile costeño
• •Wooden spoon
• •Small skillet for frying the onion and garlic in manteca

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the beans

   Put the black beans in a large bowl and cover with water by three inches. Soak 8 hours or overnight. Drain them before cooking. Yes, you can cook unsoaked beans if you have the whole afternoon, but soaking gives you a steadier pot and a better broth.

2. 2

   Start the pot

   Put the drained beans in a heavy pot or clay cazuela with 8 cups water, the half onion, and 2 whole garlic cloves. Bring to a gentle boil, then lower the heat until the beans simmer quietly. Do not add salt yet. Cook uncovered for 45 minutes, skimming any foam from the surface.

3. 3

   Toast the leaves

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the hojas de aguacate one at a time for a few seconds per side, just until they darken slightly and smell like anise. Toast the chile costeño until fragrant, about 10 seconds per side. Do not blacken either one. Burned leaf tastes medicinal, and nobody at the mercado will forgive you for that.

   Use only culinary Mexican avocado leaves sold for cooking. Leaves from some commercial avocado varieties can be bitter and are not the same ingredient.
4. 4

   Perfume the beans

   Add the toasted hojas de aguacate, epazote, and toasted chile costeño to the pot. Keep simmering until the beans are tender and creamy inside, 1 to 1 1/2 hours more. Add hot water if the liquid drops below the beans. The broth should stay generous, dark, and loose.

5. 5

   Fry the seasoning

   In a small skillet, melt the manteca de cerdo over medium heat. Add the finely chopped onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and cook 30 seconds, just until it smells sweet. Scrape this into the bean pot. La manteca es el sabor, and this is where the pot stops tasting flat.

6. 6

   Salt and settle

   Add the salt and simmer 15 minutes more. Taste the broth, not just the beans. It should taste rounded, earthy, and lightly perfumed by the avocado leaf. Remove the half onion, garlic cloves, epazote stem, chile, and leaves if they are still whole. Let the beans rest 20 minutes before serving so the fat and broth come together.

7. 7

   Serve from clay

   Serve the beans from a red barro or barro negro cazuela with a little broth in every spoonful. Add crumbled queso fresco if using, and set warm corn tortillas on the table. Fried plátano macho maduro belongs beside this pot on the Costa Chica. That black bean broth against the sweet plantain is not decoration, it is memory.

Chef Tips

• •Ask for hojas de aguacate at a Mexican mercado or from a Oaxacan vendor. The leaf should smell faintly of anise when toasted. If it smells like dust, it is old.
• •Chile costeño rojo is the right chile for this coastal register. If you cannot find it, use one dried chile de árbol for heat, but understand the flavor is sharper and less regional. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Do not drown these beans in cumin. That is not this pot. Oaxaca gives you avocado leaf and epazote. Trust them.
• •Beans are better the next day. The hoja de aguacate settles into the broth overnight and the texture becomes thicker without needing to mash anything.

Advance Preparation

• •The beans can be cooked up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated in their broth. Reheat gently with a splash of water if they have thickened too much.
• •Toast the hojas de aguacate the same day you cook. Once toasted, their fragrance fades if they sit too long.
• •Cook a full pot even if you need only half. Leftover beans can be refried in manteca de cerdo the next day, and that second life is half the reason to make them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 310g)