Abuela Rosa's Frijoles Negros Recipe (Cuban Black Bean Soup)

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Pedro Baez, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

1 lb black beans (small size beans are best)

2 large GREEN peppers, seeded and white inner ribs removed (the seeds and ribs can produce bitterness). If you are in Miami or any other place where Cachucha Peppers are readily available (also called ‘Ajicitos’ in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic) use 6-8 instead (they are very small).

PLUS 1 large RED bell pepper that you will roast (not steam!) and peel and will reserve for the very end of the cooking process

NOTE: Authentic Cachucha Peppers are NOT spicy hot, but have a wonderfully mild sweet peppery flavor.

If using regular GREEN pepper, cut one (after seeded and ribbed) in half and save an entire half while cutting the rest of the peppers into medium to small dice

10 cups water

2/3 cup of good quality Spanish extra virgin olive oil PLUS 2 teaspoons you’ll reserve for just before serving. (sorry, folks: Spain has Europe’s finest and best tasting olive oil, though it’s a hardly known fact in the U.S. where Italian olive oil monopolizes the trade)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 large yellow or white onion (diced or finely chopped)

1/4 teaspoon good quality dry oregano (Greek is best if using the dry kind) or 2-3 fleshy leaves of fresh Cuban oregano (AKA known in some places as Spanish Thyme) chopped finely

4-6 garlic cloves (crushed). I’m a garlic lover, so I usually end up putting 7-8 cloves. No powder garlic, please. :-)

1 large bay leaf

2 teaspoons sugar (optional for many Cubans; I do like it since it brings out the richness of the spices and the complexity of the flavor in the dish. Use white sugar, which will not add any other flavor as supposed to brown sugar, which can contribute a subtle yet unwelcome taste of raw molasses).

3-4 teaspoons salt (adjust salt to taste; you can always add salt at the end, or as it is served individually)

2 teaspoons vinegar (I prefer white wine or rice vinegar as supposed to apple cider vinegar)

2 teaspoons dry cooking wine (If you have access to a grocery store that carries Cuban and Latin American products, look for Vino Seco — ‘Edmundo’ is a favorite brand of mine with ‘Goya’ being my least favorite—. Dry sherry will do in a pinch. :-)

1 bunch of fresh cilantro (AKA coriander or Chinese parsley in many places), washed and finely chopped, reserved to serve individually over each portion of the potage at the dinner table

Directions:

Pick beans for any possible small rock or piece of dirt that might have gotten into the package, wash them throughly and soak in water with 1/2 of one of the green peppers overnight at room temperature over the kitchen counter or on the stovetop (with no flame, obviously).

The following morning, DO NOT DISCARD the water where the beans soaked overnight. By now beans will be swollen and the water should have a darken tint to it.

Simmer on stovetop at medium heat until they become soft (about 1 hour). Many Cubans accelerate this step by cooking the beans for 20-25 in a pressure cooker. I’m scared to death of these contraptions, so I go about it the old, traditional way.

At the point when you know the beans are tender (we say about 1 hour after you start gently boiling them), heat the olive oil in a shallow pan (a medium frypan or short-walled saucepan will do) and sauté onion, garlic, and the rest of the green peppers until translucent, soft and very fragrant. DO NOT allow the garlic to burn or this will add bitterness to the dish. Add also the oregano, black fresh pepper and bay leave to this mixture. This step of the process is called ‘making the sofrito’.

Once the sofrito is ready (translucent onions and bell peppers —to a lesser degree—), add approximately 1 cup of the tender cooked beans (you don’t stop simmering the beans while you make the sofrito) to the sofrito pan and mash well with the back of a large cooking spoon, a meat tenderizer tool or the flat bottom of a thick, empty whine bottle (my grandmother kept an old empty wine bottle just for this purpose in her pantry in Havana) until you achieve the consistency of a dark puree (this acts as a thickener for the potage and also brings out the wonderful earthy flavor of the black beans.

Return the entire mixture to the simmering pot with the rest of the beans.

Add salt and sugar (optional).

Cover the pot and return to a gentle boil, simmering for 1 hour longer or so (most Cubans, including myself, like our black beans to be thick in consistency. If after this 1 to 1 1/2 hours the beans are still too runny, cook uncovered until they thicken. DO NOT use any kind of additional thickener.

When the beans achieve a thick consistency (the consistency of a cream soup, more or less) add the vinegar and dry wine, remove the bay leaf and add the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the finely chopped roasted red pepper prior to serving (You can also use good-quality store-bought roasted peppers to bypass the roasting of the pepper altogether).

Mix and serve.

Offer the finely chopped fresh cilantro as an individual choice at the table.

In a traditional Cuban meal, this very thick soup is eaten over white rice and accompanied by other dishes of meat, poultry, fish, boiled or fried Cuban vegetables (plantains, yuca, squash, taro root, ñame, Cuban sweet potato, okra, and a salad, followed by a homemade dessert at the end of the meal).