Rancho Gordo Pinquitos Revisited

[GolfGeezer]

ecowper Posted a very simple approach to Pinquitos. While many liked it, I found the flavor to be somewhat bland, although the beans had excellent texture. I decided to use my other 1/2 pound and add some stuff to develop more flavor. And they turned out great!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb pinquitos
4 cups chicken broth (store bought - all my homemade is in the freezer as chicken noodle soup)
2 bacon strips/rashers (these were store bought - would have better with homemade, but needs must)
1/2 yellow onion diced/chopped
1/2 green bell pepper diced/chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp dry mustard
1-2 tsp chili powder
1 TBS tomato paste
2-3 TBS dark molasses
Salt as desired

I rinsed the beans, put them in a pot and then soaked them in the chicken stock for 3 hours. Without dumping the liquid, brought the pot to a boil for 10 minutes. Then reduced to a simmer, covered, for 1 hour.

After the hour of just beans, I dumped all the other ingredients in except for the molasses. I needed to add 2 cups of water to keep everything covered. I then simmered for 2.5 more hours. At about the 3 hour mark I started adding the molasses 1 Tbs at a time to get some sweetness. I also added salt, maybe a teaspoon, maybe a tablespoon - just went to flavor.

The end result was a great pot of beans. the other ingredients did not hide the bean flavor, but we really enjoyed how the the flavors turned out. Had them along side some corned beef sandwiches. Corned beef came in a recent Katz's deli order, so I'll be having leftover corded beef and beans for lunch today!

Thanks for reading! Sorry, no pics. But really, it was just a pot of beans - do you need a picture?

[Greygoose]

Got a tri tip and a bag of pinquitos,,,,,
gonna give it a go

[CaptainMike]

Nice!!! After all of the recent discussion about Santa Maria cooking I went ahead and ordered some Rancho Gordo pinquitos. On the truck as we speak!

[ecowper]

I’d give that approach a whirl.

[GolfGeezer]

Thanks all. The one thing I would do different with the bacon is I would pan fry it instead of putting it in raw. Main reason is texture and flavor of the bacon. Cooking it in a way that is basically boiling or stewing it leaves the bacon sort of chewy and not "bacony" (I got that word from Panhead John 's thesaurus).

[SmokingPat]

In your different recipe, the bacon grease from the frying pan went ... ?

[GolfGeezer]

SmokingPat I haven’t tried it yet, but I would tend to add the grease in. This is more about texture and crispy flavor than eliminating the grease. In fact, I think the bacon grease would add a nice flavor element.

[Caffeine88]

OMG. I like beans, but this was amazing.

I've been lurking for a while, and tri-ed out the tri-tip for a high-end street taco fest for my son's rehearsal dinner a couple months back. We eyed doing the recommended pinquito beans, but his missus put hard NO for that plan. Something about fumigating the wedding...I don't know what she was going on about. Anyway, the grilled tri-tip, pulled pork, and grilled shrimp street tacos were a huge hit and I give great credit to the crowd here at AR for helping me learn how to do them all.

So, the wife and I (who both really love to cook) decided to put some Rancho Gordo pinquitos to the test this weekend.
We did pan fry the bacon first and used about half the bacon grease, as suggested above. It's still pretty floppy at the end, but more 'bacony' than it would have been. Lisa made the fresh chili powder from AR's recipe, and I highly recommend.

I just discovered we forgot the molasses. The savory succulence of this recipe, even without the slight sweetness of the molasses, is amazing. We're putting this alongside tri-tip and chili relleno, so I think we'll leave it out. But - it's till an hour and half till dinner, so recommendations from the crowd are still open!

It might be my favorite beans we've ever done. Simply amazing.

[ofelles]

And Rancho Gordo for the win again with no small help from GolfGeezer and Caffeine88

[ecowper]

It’s really all the fault of fzxdoc …. Pretty sure she was the one that got the rest of us going on Rancho Gordo! Also, pinquitos alongside tri-tip is always amazing!

[klflowers]

While I really hate to agree with ecowper, I have to agree with him on this. It is totally fzxdoc fault that I have a cabinet full.of beans. In fact I finished eating some midnight beans from the freezer today, now I need to make some more.

[fzxdoc]

Guilty as charged, ecowper and klflowers . Joining the Rancho Gordo Bean Club back in 2018 started an addiction that I just had to share back then here on The Pit.

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/the-pit-mastery-program/beans/481958-rancho-gordo-beans-and-bean-club#post481958

I feel so "normal" now that you guys have a ton of RG beans on your kitchen shelves as well.

Kathryn

[fzxdoc]

Caffeine88 's rendition of GolfGeezer 's recipe is where I would have gone with the pinquitos as well. I really dislike sweet beans. Give us savory every time. And bacon has to be fried to be eaten around our house. What a great combo you two guys are--Congrats to you both!

I'm a big fan of eating each variety of RG beans at least once with very simple seasonings (onion and garlic powder while cooking, pepper and salt added at the end) to actually taste the bean. But those same beans really shine in recipes such as Golf Geezer's here as well.

I'll definitely be giving your recipe (with a couple of mods) a try, GolfGeezer . Thanks for posting it.

FWIW, I've done pinquitos with the following recipe, which yields a savory bean dish. It's very good.
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/...pinquito-beans
Of course I had to change a few ingredients.
My recipe substitutions:
1. a smoked ham hock for the diced ham (cooked along with the beans)
2. poblano peppers for the Anaheim
3. one cup of tomato sauce and 2 TBL tomato paste (barely browned) for the tomato puree
4. bean broth for the water

Kathryn

[Mr. Bones]

Ain't thing one wrong with this here version, an I find my dang ol self kinda likin these folks...

Mayhaps, YMMV... no worries...th worsta beans reckon I ever et beat a lot of other tucker plumb to death...

[Mr. Bones]

Chilled Legumes, Male Sibling.

[GolfGeezer]

Yup, I need me one of those thingies as well! And then a refresher on the consequences of this cook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPIP9KXdmO0

[klflowers]

Nothing wrong with those beans. I will be making some of those with some of those beans in the pantry. And I need one of those star thingys too. Thanks for posting brother Bones

[jjdbike]

ecowper Posted a very simple approach to Pinquitos. While many liked it, I found the flavor to be somewhat bland, although the beans had excellent texture. I decided to use my other 1/2 pound and add some stuff to develop more flavor. And they turned out great!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb pinquitos
4 cups chicken broth (store bought - all my homemade is in the freezer as chicken noodle soup)
2 bacon strips/rashers (these were store bought - would have better with homemade, but needs must)
1/2 yellow onion diced/chopped
1/2 green bell pepper diced/chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp dry mustard
1-2 tsp chili powder
1 TBS tomato paste
2-3 TBS dark molasses
Salt as desired

I rinsed the beans, put them in a pot and then soaked them in the chicken stock for 3 hours. Without dumping the liquid, brought the pot to a boil for 10 minutes. Then reduced to a simmer, covered, for 1 hour.

After the hour of just beans, I dumped all the other ingredients in except for the molasses. I needed to add 2 cups of water to keep everything covered. I then simmered for 2.5 more hours. At about the 3 hour mark I started adding the molasses 1 Tbs at a time to get some sweetness. I also added salt, maybe a teaspoon, maybe a tablespoon - just went to flavor.

The end result was a great pot of beans. the other ingredients did not hide the bean flavor, but we really enjoyed how the the flavors turned out. Had them along side some corned beef sandwiches. Corned beef came in a recent Katz's deli order, so I'll be having leftover corded beef and beans for lunch today!

Thanks for reading! Sorry, no pics. But really, it was just a pot of beans - do you need a picture?

Hey GolfGeezer and freinds,
I'm going to make your recipe.
How many peeps does this recipe w/ 1/2 lb of dry beans serves?
I've seen it written that 1 lb of beans serves 8 people, which I think is a bit conservative. If beans are one of several side, I think it's closer to serving 10 people with one pound. I could be way off though.
You thoughts?
JD

[jjdbike]

Thanks all. The one thing I would do different with the bacon is I would pan fry it instead of putting it in raw. Main reason is texture and flavor of the bacon. Cooking it in a way that is basically boiling or stewing it leaves the bacon sort of chewy and not "bacony" (I got that word from Panhead John 's thesaurus).

I now know I need to sign up for Rancho Gurdo's bean club.
I can not find Piquintos anywhere other than online w/ extended shipping time.

Can I sub dry pintos for GolfGeezer's recipe? That's my plan at the moment. If so, do I need to make any adjustments?
JD

[GolfGeezer]

jjdbike - For that many people, I would double at least the quantity of beans and veggies and the tomato paste. As for the spices, you can start with what I used and then add 1/2 tsp of each, taste after 15 mins, and then add if you want. I'm sure the larger bean amount will take more spices, I just haven't done that.

[GolfGeezer]

jjdbike As for using dried pintos, I think that would be fine. I'm no expert on such things as pre-soaking, rinsing and such. Hopefully someone with more dried bean experience will advise you on that. My take is to follow the directions for whatever beans you use, then add the veggies.

[jjdbike]

ecowper Posted a very simple approach to Pinquitos. While many liked it, I found the flavor to be somewhat bland, although the beans had excellent texture. I decided to use my other 1/2 pound and add some stuff to develop more flavor. And they turned out great!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb pinquitos
4 cups chicken broth (store bought - all my homemade is in the freezer as chicken noodle soup)
2 bacon strips/rashers (these were store bought - would have better with homemade, but needs must)
1/2 yellow onion diced/chopped
1/2 green bell pepper diced/chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp dry mustard
1-2 tsp chili powder
1 TBS tomato paste
2-3 TBS dark molasses
Salt as desired

I rinsed the beans, put them in a pot and then soaked them in the chicken stock for 3 hours. Without dumping the liquid, brought the pot to a boil for 10 minutes. Then reduced to a simmer, covered, for 1 hour.

After the hour of just beans, I dumped all the other ingredients in except for the molasses. I needed to add 2 cups of water to keep everything covered. I then simmered for 2.5 more hours. At about the 3 hour mark I started adding the molasses 1 Tbs at a time to get some sweetness. I also added salt, maybe a teaspoon, maybe a tablespoon - just went to flavor.

The end result was a great pot of beans. the other ingredients did not hide the bean flavor, but we really enjoyed how the the flavors turned out. Had them along side some corned beef sandwiches. Corned beef came in a recent Katz's deli order, so I'll be having leftover corded beef and beans for lunch today!

Thanks for reading! Sorry, no pics. But really, it was just a pot of beans - do you need a picture?

Hello once again GolfGeezer.
For your recipe w/ 1/2 lb of dry beans… how many would you estimate it would serve as a side dish?
Thanks again,
JD

[GolfGeezer]

jjdbike. Well, if it the only side dish, I would say 2. If there are appetizers, or salads or other sides, I’d say 4. It is a bit hard for me to judge as we are usually only 2 and rarely have other side dishes.

[jjdbike]

Thanks!
JD