Drunken Beans

In an effort to make room in my freezer, yesterday I actually got my, um, s-word (just in case the favorite 11 year old is still reading my blog) together to pull some stuff out of the freezer and then plan the week's meals around those containers.  One container was enchilada sauce.  YAY!! Chicken enchiladas for dinner!

(Confession. . . true to my usual form, I was afraid that the 1 cup container of sauce wouldn't be enough and I bought a can of sauce at the store.  Then, the freezered sauce was actually enough for two pans of enchiladas . . . YAY chicken enchiladas for office lunch this week! And, now I have sauce for future enchiladas.)

To go with the fairly mild enchiladas, I made drunken beans.  I know I got this recipe from a magazine years ago.  I don't know which magazine or if I still have it in my home.  But, here's what I did yesterday:

1/2 a large onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 med/med-large fresh tomato, diced.
1/2 tsp each cumin/coriander
Salt
chipotles in adobo
1/3-1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 large can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 bottle dark beer

I sauteed the onion/garlic for a couple of minutes with a tiny sprinkle of salt before adding in the tomatoes.  Then I let it bubble for a couple more minutes.  I added a sprinkle of cumin and coriander and a pinch more salt.  Then, I opened a can of chipotle peppers in adobo.  I fished out two peppers and poured probably a tablespoon of the adobo in to the pot.  I chopped the peppers fine.  You can go with just one pepper . . . and you can leave it whole so that you can try to fish it out later (if you're a whimp).  Then, I added about 1/3 (maybe pushing towards 1/2) a cup of dark brown sugar and a large can of rinsed and drained pinto beans and 1/2 bottle of dark beer (then you drink the rest of the beer).  I let it all come to a simmer and let it simmer on lowish heat for an hour or two.

When you first taste it, it's sweet . . . then the heat of the peppers punches you.  I'm addicted to the sauce . . . seriously, I could drink it.

I don't do much in the way of measuring it when I cook things like this . . . so alter to your tastes or available ingredients.