Beans, the magical fruit

Beans are a staple of Haitian cooking. We make them pretty regularly at our house--always in the pressure cooker because they take FOREVER to cook otherwise. Normally we just eat beans with our rice, either mixed in or as bean sauce.

Recently I found a refried bean recipe for the pressure cooker. I had never made refried beans before, but the recipe looked pretty easy. I tried it, using fresh red beans. It was delicious. My husband said it was like eating really thick bean sauce (his favorite food). So, I put the recipe in my box to use again later. I think I've made it two or three times since I found it, and it's been awesome every time! Not only does it taste good, we always have a good amount left over for later in the week.

This weekend I decided to use the dried black beans we had to make the same recipe. Do you know what the difference between dried and fresh beans is? Dried beans are cheaper. Fresh beans cook faster. But those are not really all that important in this story. The difference to remember is that dried beans have shrunk from their normal size and will grow in the cooking process. This is important to remember when you are measuring them because once you put them in water to soak, they will suck it all up and get nice and plump. So when you think you have one ti mamit of beans, you really have about two ti mamit after they have been soaked...

which is double the amount of beans the recipe calls for...

which means you are going to have more bean sauce and refried beans than you have Tupperware space.

So if you're hungry, stop on by. We have some delicious bean sauce we'd love to share with you.