September 14, 2010
English 100
Professor Tsuyuki
Pinto Beans and Corn bread.
There are many dishes African Americans love; by far we do love our pinto beans. Pinto Beans is a dish that you can make a good meal by itself without any meat. By far in the days of my grandparents this was one of their most economical meals. Today I have learned from my grandparents, to my parents, how to take such a simple recipe and make it into an award winning dish.
First you must let the beans soak for an hour, this is to clean the beans. The next step is to thoroughly wash the beans. I next proceed to cook the beans. My first step is to add about 6 cups of warm water to a pot, add beans and seasoned. I proceed to let the beans simmer on medium heat for about 3 hours. My next step is to cook one pound of ground chuck. After the ground chuck is done I add it to the beans along with a can of Hormel chili and I continued to let the beans simmer for an additional 30 minutes. While the beans are cooking in the first stage I normally add an oxtail to my beans for texture.
Growing up in the south you can’t have pinto beans without cornbread. The traditional method of making cornbread is homemade, using cornmeal, eggs, milk, butter, and oil.
As time have changed our daily schedules are more complex, I found a quicker way to make cornbread. There are numerous pre prepared cornbread on the market. Some might choose jiffy, other might choose Martha white, but I prefer Trader’s Joe. Trader’s Joe is a bit more expensive, but the quality and taste is well worth the price you pay for it. The cornbread is quite simple to make all you need is an 8X8 baking square dish, one egg, ¼ cup of milk.
This meal is a simple meal that does not take a lot of your time total prep time is less than an hour. I am sure that once you try this dish you will love it.
