An Involuntary Cricket Lull and The Promised Frijoles de Olla and Refried Beans

Good mornin' all, I guess.  There was a very disappointing lull in cricket yesterday because none of the warm-up matches were telecast!

My house was a no-cricket zone last night, through no fault of my own.  Ugh!

 And I was really looking forward to seeing the lesser-known cricketing nations.  Boooooooooooooooooooo! No fair!  It almost feels like the broadcasters were personally out to get my goat!  Phooey!

Anyways, here are the results, thanks to cricinfo:

1.  South Africa gave a smack-down to Australia, winning by 7 wickets and 34 balls remaining (ouch on Australia).

2.  Sri Lanka showed some sugar by beating the Windies by 4 wickets...sweeeeeet!

3.  My lovely lads of Pakistan beat the pants off Bangladesh by 89 runs, with my fave Misbah ul-Haq scoring a whopping century and Ahmed Shehzad scoring even more!

4.  Ireland beat Zimbabwe by 4 wickets and 3 balls remaining.

5.  The Dutch beat Kenya by 2 wickets and 5 balls remaining.  ( The Dutch play cricket?  awesome!)

Dutch World Cup Kit. 

So, all of these great warm-up matches and I didn't get to watch.  Phooey!  Oh, so guess what we watched instead of great cricket:  we saw the next best thing.  Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations.  What a shame he's not a cricket player.

Right.  About a week ago, I promised some Frijoles de Olla and Frijoles Refritos (stewed beans and refried beans) to accompany Manly Mohammed Hafeez' Chilaquiles.  I keep my promises, and I apologize for the delay.    Here's the link for chilaquiles:

http://kikiscookinforcricket.blogspot.com/2011/01/manly-mohammed-hafeez-chilaquiles.html

Ok.  Now I'm going to lecture you.  Stewed beans or refried beans are served as a side to many Mexican dishes.  The proteins from the frijoles, combined with the proteins from corn tortillas provide all of the necessary proteins for a healthy diet; they also give you a heckuva lot of energy.  Traditionally, the beans are made with lard; however, you will still get great-tasting beans without it.  The trick is to use milk at the end and add a teaspoonful of ghee or butter.  Delicious!  Right, it's time to make some Frijoles.

Ingredients:

2 cups of dried beans, either black, kidney or pinto beans
5 cloves of garlic
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 or 2 morita chilies if you want it a bit spicy
2.5 - 3 litres of water
salt to taste
milk
a bit of butter or ghee

Bring all  except salt, milk and butter to a boil on high heat.
Lower heat to medium.
Cook 2.5 to 3 hours.
Add more water if necessary
Add salt after beans have cooked
Add a bit of milk and a bit of butter to add some creaminess.

Serve with any Mexican dish and rice.

To make Frijoles Refritos (refried beans), use the left-over frijoles de olla. 

In a frying pan, on medium heat, mash the cooked beans with a potato masher or pastry cutter.
Add a bit of butter
Add milk to desired consistency, and bring to a boil.  Serve immediately. 

The refried beans also make a very good snack with home-made totopos (deep fried corn tortillas cut into triangles) or roti chips.

And there you go!  Have a good one, and try to keep your cool until the World Cup!

Happy Cricket, Happy Cooking!