Terrie's Mexican Family Recipes

[TifsBroodyBabes]

I love making tamales,its one of my favorite things to make.Once again this year I'll be bringing my Tamales to my Icelandic/Norwegian Grandparents Christmas Eve gathering.

 

[savingdogs]

I can see how these could be a new favorite. My husband makes really great refried beans, so the go really well with it and are easy to make, too.

 

[arabianequine]

Quote:
Ill pass on that pic but could of at least drooled a little over the real pic.

How does he make refried beans?

I just crock pot pinto beans all day puree with some salt.....is there something better he does?


I will give the tamales a try I suppose.

 

[savingdogs]

We've been making our own refried beans for years, we learned from a lady we knew from mexico. We don't really measure and don't really use the same ingredients each time, but this is what we do.

First, you wash the beans (small bag) and look through the bag for rocks and foreign objects. Soak them overnight and pour off that water. If you can't soak them overnight, soak them an hour at least, but overnight works better.

Then put them in a large pot and cover well with water, heat on low all day. If we have any cans of those diced green chiles, we put those in too. Crock pot would work great. When they are soft and fall apart, you add oil and spices to taste. Sometimes to hurry it up, we beat it with a beater. We kind of use whatever we have available for spices. But for oil we like bacon drippings best, vegetable oil or manteca would be second choice. Making it "healthy" by using olive oil makes it taste weird, but canola oil works okay. But in any event, for spices, we use chili powder, cumin, pepper and cilantro, and whatever else we have handy that looks mexican! We don't add salt because we are on low sodium diets and have not noticed people saying it wasn't salty enough (perhaps the bacon drippings provide enough sodium). Queso fresca cheese on top makes it taste real authentic. Any cheese works though.

Sometimes we freeze meal-sized portions with a mound of grated cheese on top and then just warm it up and serve with store bought tortillas at a later date. We often offer to bring a crock pot of beans to pot-luck occasions, because it is totally CHEAP and people like it. You just buy some queso fresca to crumble over it and people are quite impressed. Now that I can make these tamales I know what I will make next time I need to entertain....we make good guacamole too......and carne asada and albondigas soup so we have a menu down now!